How to Back-Up Your WordPress Site Consistently and Automatically
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It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. There’s a SNAFU with your web host, and they tell you that your website is no more. It’s gone. Kaput. Like Elvis, it has left the building. And worse, they don’t have a recent back-up of the data. Or worse still … they don’t have ANY back-up copies of the data.
Think it can’t happen? It can. And it does. But it doesn’t have to be that big of a problem if you’re prepared for the worst.
You Need to Keep Your Own Back-Up Copies of Your Website
Most web hosts do offers some sort of back-up plan, however, they also state that you should keep YOUR OWN back-ups of your site.
Bluehost: “Bluehost does not offer redundant or mirrored backups. Bluehost will run courtesy backups at our discretion. Any backups that Bluehost runs are in addition to our Terms of Service and are not guaranteed. Customers are encouraged to run periodic backups through the provided cPanel. Bluehost recommends that you store such backups off site on your local system.”
Hostgator: “You are responsible for your backups and web content. We create our own weekly backups on the shared servers, and we can restore from those. However, this is NOT a procedure you should rely on to keep your content safe.”
DreamHost: “At DreamHost, we know everybody’s data is important, no matter what plan they’re on. That’s why all our packages include full backup ’snapshots’ of your data at various regular intervals (two hourly, two daily, and two weekly) … Of course, you should ALWAYS keep your OWN backup copies of everything of any importance to you no matter what. But we’ll do our best to make sure you never need them!”
Whether your host offers an automatic back-up service or not, the bottom line is you need to create consitent back-ups of your own data. It’s just good business practice; just like you make consistent back-ups of everything on your home and business computers. My computer is backed up every night (a lesson I learned the hard way).
Back-Up Your WordPress Database
Most of the important data in a WordPress site is stored in a database on your web host’s server. This includes data such as your Wordpress site settings, posts, pages and comments. It also includes any settings for Wordpress themes and plugins that you have installed.
What’s not stored in the database includes your WordPress core files, theme files, plugin files and image uploads. You’ll need to back-up these files separately.
There are several plugins that handle the task of create a database back-up. I’ve examined most of them and tested the ones that look most promising. Basically, we want a plugin that does the following:
1. It Should Create an Automatic Database Back-Up According to a Set Schedule – This is not a task that should be reliant on our memery to accomplish. It needs to be automatic.
2. It Should Send the Back-Up File to an Email Address of Your Choosing – Most back-up plugins will store the back-up file on your web host’s server, but that’s not quite good enough. We also want a copy stored somewhere off the server in case the entire server goes down or loses data.
Which plugin handles both of these tasks?
WP-DBManager created by Lester Chan
Here’s how to set up the plugin to create automatic database backups of your WordPress site.
Step 1: Install and Activate the Plugin – you can do this through your WordPress control panel. Simply click Plugins >> Add New in your WP control panel, and do a search for WP-DBManger. Once you find it, click the install link, and activate the plugin. If your server is not set up to install plugins this way, you’ll need to download the file at the link provided above, unzip it, then upload to your wp-content/plugins/ folders within your WordPress installation.
Step 2: Ensure Proper Settings for the Plugin – Once the plugin is installed, you should see a new module at the bottom left of your WP control panel named “Database.” Click on the link that says “DB Options,” and scroll down to the section on “Automatic Scheduling” (click thumbnail to the right).
How often you have your database backed up is a matter of personal preference. If you are adding new content to your site every day, then you should do a daily back-up. Otherwise, set the back-up schedule according to your own publishing schedule. Be sure to add your email address to the email field so the plugin will email the backup to you. If you like, you can also have the plugin optimize the database according to a set schedule as well. Is it necesary? Likely not, but since you’re here, you’d might as well set it up. It certainly won’t hurt anything.
Here’s another Tip: Create a free Gmail account, and have the back-up files sent to that email address. That way, the back-ups won’t take up space on your home computer. Also, if something happens to your home computer, you will still have the back-up stored in the Gmail account. Gmail is a great storage facility for your data.
Back-Up Your WordPress Files
Now that you have your automatic WordPress database back-up scheduled, we turn our attention to backing up your WordPress files. In this case, we want to create consitent and automatic back-ups of all the files in the following folders (click thumbnail for example):
- main WordPress folder
- wp-admin folder
- wp-content folder
- wp-includes folder
The simplest way to do this is with and FTP program, ideally one that you can set up to handle the task automatically. The FTP program I use is named SmartFTP. Unfortunately, SmartFTP is not free. It goes for $36.95, but I was more than happy to pay for it considering the features it offers, mainly the automatic transfer feature. The other issue with SmartFTP is it’s not MAC compatible, but I’m sure you MAC users out there have a comparable (if not better) alternative.
How often you backup your WordPress files is, again, a matter of personal preference. I do it once a week. And keep this in mind. The most important files to back-up are the files in the wp-content folder. This folder includes your theme files, plugin files and image uploads. If you lose those, it’s not so easy to restore them. On the other hand, the core WordPress files, wp-admin folder and wp-includes folder can easily be restored by simply downloading the latest version of WordPress.
Some Questions for Your
- Do you back-up your WordPress site(s)? If so, how often?
- Have you ever lost your WordPress site?
- Does your web host provide consistent, automatic and easily accessible back-ups? If so, what web host are you using?
About the Author
Michael Pollock is the marketing and product development guy for Solostream. He's also a blogger, a web marketing trainer and an entrepreneur. When he's not evangelizing Solostream, he trains other solopreneurs on how to use the web to reach more people, earn more money and live a bigger life. Michael's Website.
Hi I’ve found that ‘WP-DB Manager’ plugin by Lester Chan has never emailed me my backups. In fact it states that next scheduled backup will take place in October 2009 (5 months ago) which is odd and obviously a bug there somewhere.
I’m now using ‘Wordpress Database Backup’ plugin by Austin Matzko which seems to be v.popular and much used
That’s surprising to hear Clive. Sometimes, I get 2 or 3 copies of the database emailed to me. Very odd.
Thanks for the suggestion about WordPress Database Backup too.
I use Cobian Backup to automatically backup the files from my site. It is free and will run a scheduled backup of an FTP site. It emails me the log when it is done so I know it worked.
I use the WP-DBManager as you suggest for the database.
I hope everyone heeds your advice and backs up their files and database regularly. It would be a pity for someone to lose all they’ve worked so hard to build.
Thanks Jeff. I’d not heard of Cobian before. Another great resource.
Hi –
Aha, an automated FTP program. What a great idea.
Thanks.
Peter
OurBroker.com
Thanks for the helpful post Michael.
I have been using the WordPress Database Backup plug in for some time with twice daily back ups sent to my email (Google Apps). With a filter set to file emails in trash which is only emptied (automatically) every 30 days.
I had not been downloading the other stuff, but thanks to your article I now am. Being with GoDaddy, I think they have a good back up system, however I like to organize it myself too.
My choice of FTP is FireFTP – an extension for Firefox. Personally I find it easier and faster to use than some of the others I have tried.
My pleasure Alex. Thanks for the additional resource too. Will have to check out FireFTP.
I second the use of FireFTP. It has been a great tool since I installed it over a year ago.
Thanks so much.Two birds with one stone. I’ve been agonizing about not backing up and not knowing how to back up for months and here you are – plain and simple. Second bird: Were the heck are my blog content files? It’s in the database, stupid!
My pleasure Andre. As far as the blog content files, lotsa people miss that one, so don’t feel stupid :-)
I had no idea Smart FTP had scheduling and automatic downloads – SMART.
Hi Michael,
Thanks for this – very useful. What I’d like to know is where the content pages are stored? They are not in wp-content. I’ve found the uploaded images but can’t locate the actual pages and posts. I’ve looked around all the directories in the main folder where Wordpress is installed.
As a result, if I do a manual back-up and save the contents of wp-content, I still don’t get all my content…
Hi Lisa. My pleasure. The content for your posts and pages is stored in the database,so they are backed up when the database is backed up.
Remember that with a databases driven website, you don’t have web pages the same way that you do with a static website. Read Blog Design 101 (Part 1) for more info.
With 30+ client sites, I perform a weekly manual backup, and it takes about 7 minutes/week.
First I create a new folder (YEAR-MM-DD) in my Website Backups folder on an external drive.
Each site is installed in their own folder under a main “sites” folder. My host has a tool that lets me make a ZIP of the whole folder that will be saved to the root of my account. My second step is to initiate a backup of the SITES folder TO A ZIP.
Third, while the ZIP is being built, I load phpMySQL selecting all MySQL databases and download it as a single ZIP file to the Website Backups folder.
Finally, I FTP the large ZIP file (~2GB) to the Website Backups folder. I’ll keep the last 2-3 months’ worth and delete anything older.
It’s not pretty, but it’s not so ugly I slack off and don’t do it. It also helps me make sure it is really working as well. before entering the Web Design field I was a network Administrator for 13 years and on more than one occasion our “automated” backups either didn’t do their job or were not backing up everything they were supposed to.
thanks for the input anthony. maybe we also need an automated back-up of the back-ups?
I learned my lesson that God’s in control when 2 disks of a 5-disk raid array failed one New Year’s weekend AFTER Year-end close of 13 companies had been done – Backup was Friday, Year end was Sat/Sun, Failure was Monday – if anything CAN go wrong, it will, and DOES. You can’t have too many backups!
Well-said :-)
The best backup that I have found is Bei Fen. It can backup your database only, site only or both.
It can backup only when you say or on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule.
It is infinitely easier to setup and use than WP-DBManager.
And it is free.
Serioulsy, Bei Fen rocks Wordpress backups. Try it once and I think you’ll be just as hooked as I am.
I did try Bei Fen. The problem I had with it is it does not send a copy of the back to you via email. It only send an email confirmation that the backup has been done.
That is true – and the “help” over there can seem like smartasses at times. Like when a user requested that very feature on their site(in the “Request Featurs” section no less), David (who I assume is in some way a part of the project there) said “With sending the files as attachments you probably mean the compressed version of a backup, or do you want to add around thousands of files as an attachment to an email?”
He won’t get nearly as many helpful requests on his sight being a smartass as he would simply being nice.
And, if “David” is not part of the Bei Fen team, his posting privileges should be revoked before he runs off users.
On a completely separate subject….
What I actually do to maintain emergency backups is to keep my web directories in my dropbox directory and point my web server to them.
Then I have copies of my web directories on at least 3 machines (and in the cloud) should tragedy strike the server.
I use Bei Fen to create my backups automatically – again to a directory in my dropbox directory – in case I want to roll back a change to a site.
Thanks for another view on doing this though!
“What I actually do to maintain emergency backups is to keep my web directories in my dropbox directory and point my web server to them.”
Now that sounds interesting. I’d love to hear more about that. What is a dropbox directory. I’ve never heard that term.
on my vps, I have a script that runs on cron. it generates a zip file of the db, wp-content folder and wp-config.php and send it to my gmail account.
but thanks for your post, i’ll make use of this method for my sites that sits on webhosts that do not allow ssh access.
yes. cron jobs are a way to go, and a little advanced i think for the average user.
if you know enough to be able to run your own server, it’s likely a snap, but for the rest of us shared server folk … not so much :-)
Thank you for this article, I found it incredibly helpful!
I am not the most technically minded, but have started blogging for my business, along with the website in an effort to increase traffic. Id be devastated if I lost it all!
My pleasure. Glad you found it helpful.
Go to https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTc4NzE1Nzk and you can get a free 2GB account.
The software works on Mac, Linux, Windows and iPhone. It creates a directory called My Dropbox on each device that you install the software on and syncs those directories among all of your devices. (It even keeps recent changes in the cloud so that you can use a browser interface to roll back unintended changes.)
No limit on the number of devices an you can (like I did) buy a 50 GB account.
Also all data is backed up to “the cloud”.
I love it! I use it for my root web directories and anything I just can’t stand losing or need on most of my devices (like KeePass to keep track of all my passwords).
Neat thing is that I can edit my website files locally and they are automatically synced with the root directories on my server. No more FTPing things up after I edit them.
Another neat thing is that my server root directories are backed up across many devices and backed up again when I backup my laptop or desktop PC. (Never can have too many backups ya know.)
Next to Logmein, it is my favorite software/service.
Excellent. Thanks Jim!