How to back up WordPress

In the online world, bad things can happen. Your website can get hacked. You can accidentally delete something important. Sometimes, all you need to do is a quick fix, but there are times when you don’t know where to start from. And in those cases, the best thing to do is simply to restore a backup so as to revert your website to its normal state.

There are several ways to back up WordPress websites – you can do all the work manually, you can get a backup plugin, or you can rely on your web host.

Back up WordPress database via phpMyAdmin

WordPress keeps all the information about posts and comments in a database. All plugins, themes, images and other media are stored as files in your web hosting account. When you do a manual backup, you can choose if you want to back up just the database, just the files, or both.

In order to back up your database, you will need access to the phpMyAdmin tool. This tool is a visual interface for managing MySQL databases and can be accessed via your hosting Control Panel. Additionally, you can install the Portable phpMyAdmin plugin, which will allow you to back up the WordPress database directly from inside the WordPress admin area.

If you don’t have an idea on how to work with phpMyAdmin, simply follow the steps below:

1 – Log in the phpMyAdmin tool. If you’re using the cPanel Control Panel, you have to log in first and then choose the exact database you want to back up. If you’re using the Hepsia Control Panel, you can directly log into phpMyAdmin.

phpMyAdmin WordPress database index
phpMyAdmin WordPress database index

2 – Once inside, go to the Export tab in the top navigation bar. If you see an option to choose between a Quick and an Advanced method, choose the Quick method. If no such option is present, leave everything as it is. Simply make sure that you select SQL from the Format drop-down menu.

phpMyAdmin WordPress database export
phpMyAdmin WordPress database export

Important: make sure you select all tables in the database. Make sure you confirm that you want a table to be created if one does not exist.

These are usually checked by default, but it doesn’t hurt to double-check.

3 – One last thing – how to compress your database. You can choose to export the backup either uncompressed, zipped, gzipped or bzipped. The choice is yours.

phpMyAdmin WordPress database export options
phpMyAdmin WordPress database export options

Back up WordPress using a plugin

There are several plugins, which can back up your whole WordPress website without any hassle. In most cases, all you have to do is specify when you want the backup to run, what you want to back up and where you want to store it. While there are paid WordPress backup plugins (VaultPress, BackupBuddy, CodeGuard), there are also free WordPress backup plugins, which offer the same functionality minus the monthly subscription. Here are some free backup plugins for WordPress:

BackUpWordPress

The BackUpWordPress plugin is a good and simple-to-use WordPress backup solution. It will back up both files and databases, allowing you to exclude unwanted files. It offers several backup schedules, it can email files to you and is available in several languages.

WordPress Backup to Dropbox

The WordPress Backup to Dropbox offers exactly what it promises – it will back up the content of your WordPress site and export it to your Dropbox account. Aside from Dropbox, it can also back up your website on your current hosting server – as a safety measure. It supports simple scheduling, it’s available in several languages and has several paid add-ons, which add extra functionality.

WordPress hosting backup services

Your hosting provider most likely offers backups of the whole website, including your databases and files, which can be restored upon request. These backups are made automatically and you don’t have to do anything to enable them. Keep in mind that it’s up to the web hosting provider to choose when your site will be backed up – each day, each week, or once a month.

The downside of the WordPress hosting backup services is that in most cases, web hosting providers override the old backup with the new one and you can only restore the latest backup. If you need to restore an older version of your website, in most cases you will not be able to rely on your web hosting provider.

WordPress backups via the Hepsia Control Panel

With the Hepsia Control Panel offered by ResellersPanel, you get automatic website backups, which can be restored at any moment. On top of that, you can get 1-click database backups and even archive your whole website with a click. You can also use our automatic app installer and install WordPress on any website or subdomain in less than 3 minutes, with no extra setup or configuration required. Learn more about theĀ Hepsia Control Panel.

With ResellersPanel, you can get a cloud hosting account at a wholesale price. Or you can start your own fully customizable, SEO-optimized web hosting store for free, using our WordPress themes.



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