It is an absolute nightmare for a website owner, webmaster, or web admin to lose their website data. Don’t kid yourself; it can happen, at any time, to anyone. Be prepared and learn how to back up a WordPress site?
If you do not have a backup, then all the content that has been created since the last time it was backed up will be lost. If you have never backed up your site, you may end up losing everything on your WordPress website.
Following are the three easy methods to back up a WordPress site:
- Using a plugin to back up a WordPress site.
- Using FTP to back up the WordPress site.
- Using cPanel File Manager and phpMyAdmin to Backup WordPress.
Before we dig deeper into the topic one important note: It’s only a backup if you store the data on a different server! If you have your files on your hosting account and the copy on your computer then that’s a backup, if you keep both your files and the copy on your hosting account it’s not.
Okay, now let’s dig in and learn how to back up the WordPress site?
1. Using a plugin to back up a WordPress site (Updraft Plus)
Updraft Plus is a free WordPress backup and restores plugin. This plugin offers a paid version. However, if you do not mind taking the time to manually backup your site, you do not need the paid version. With the free version, you can back up everything, including Databases, Plugins, Themes, Media files, etc. All the backups will be stored on the same server, which we strongly recommend downloading to your computer.
To use this plugin: “Login to WordPress Admin, Go to Plugins > Add New and search for and install Updraft Plus WordPress backup plugin.”
You can send the backup to remote storage with the paid version, including Dropbox, Google Drive, and any remote servers. The paid version supports automated backups.
2. Using FTP to backup WordPress site
If you are using WordPress hosting, then your host will provide FTP access. We recommend FTP because it is fast and easy to backup WordPress websites via FTP. With this method, you can easily download a WordPress database, WordPress media files (Images), WordPress plugins, a WordPress theme(s), or even an entire WordPress installation. If you have installed WordPress in a sub-domain, you should be able to get everything, including WordPress files, Databases, and media files; however, this may not be the case with shared hosting plans where the root of the domain is accessible by multiple users (users). Ensure that you check what your server supports before trying to back up the WordPress website via FTP.
3. Using cPanel File Manager and phpMyAdmin to Backup WordPress
You should never attempt this method unless you are very comfortable with phpMyAdmin and SQL database language. This method requires login credentials for the phpMyAdmin panel and knowledge of SQL database language syntax. This method will backup WordPress, including WordPress core files, WordPress plugins, WordPress theme files, and WordPress content.
To backup, your WordPress website using this method, open the phpMyAdmin panel of the WordPress website. Find WordPress database and Refresh the page to determine WordPress table names with WordPress content data (posts, pages, comments…, etc.) Select WordPress table(s) you want to backup (all tables are selected by default when opening phpMyAdmin). Click the “Export” button on the phpMyAdmin toolbar. Select the “Quick” tab in the Export Settings window Change Encoding drop-down menu value to “SQL Prepare statement (no quotes)” (this is very important). Click the Go button. phpMyAdmin will generate SQL statements for WordPress tables selected. WordPress backup files (.sql) can be saved on your computer, uploaded to WordPress hosting account, or e-mailed to yourself. WordPress backup files (.sql) can be imported into WordPress as a new WordPress database via phpMyAdmin and the WordPress Import feature in the WordPress Admin panel. If you have a large WordPress website, this method is not recommended for backups because it will take a long time to generate SQL statements.
Conclusion:
Here we covered 3 WordPress backup methods: Using a plugin to back up the WordPress site, Using FTP to backup the WordPress site, Using cPanel File Manager, and phpMyAdmin to Backup WordPress. You can choose any method that suits your needs best. We strongly recommend the first two WordPress backup methods because they are easy ways of backing up a WordPress website.
As always, we recommend backing up your WordPress website regularly to avoid loss of important data if there is something wrong with your WordPress site or web hosting account or even if your WordPress installation requires an upgrade (or a plugin misbehaves).
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