Backup WordPress: How to backup your WordPress website

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Knowing how to backup my website is a cornerstone of maintaining a secure and resilient online presence. Although backups might not be at the forefront of your mind when your WordPress website is running flawlessly, they are a vital contingency plan for unexpected situations. Given that WordPress is the backbone of an extensive part of the web, being ready for any hitches is not just advisable—it’s necessary.

Backing up a WordPress site, particularly for those with heavy traffic or e-commerce functionality, may initially appear daunting. However, the procedure is straightforward. This guide will walk you through the steps for a quick and effective backup, ensuring your website remains unassailable in the long term.

WP Engine Backup Features

Using WP Engine for your WordPress backup needs makes the process incredibly smooth. After installing the WP Engine plugin on your site and entering some FTP details for synchronization, you’ll be set. WP Engine is an ideal solution for any WordPress site, boasting compatibility with most up-to-date versions of WordPress and its myriad plugins. With WP Engine, you can take advantage of automated, scheduled backups to preserve critical site data, so the concern of website downtime becomes a thing of the past.

How to Access WP Engine Restore from Backup Options

To find and manage your backup settings, navigate to the “Backup Points” page within the User Portal by following these steps:

1. Log into the User Portal.
2. Select the name of the environment you wish to manage.
3. Click on “Backup Points.”

This way, you’ll have all the tools you need for WP Engine restore from backup right at your fingertips.

The page displays the latest 40 checkpoint records.

Make a Backup Checkpoint

1. Access the Backup Points page in the User Portal
2. Click on “Backup Now”
3.  A new window will appear with the following fields:
   Backup description: Provide a name, such as “Before updating plugins.
   “Send notification to Enter email addresses separated by commas to receive a notification upon completion of the backup.
4. Click Create environment-typeBackup

Please note that the email notification may be sent to your Junk or Spam folder. Don’t forget to check these folders in your inbox to ensure you receive the notification.

Restore a Backup

To revert your website to a previous version:

1. Open Backup Points in the User Portal
2. Select a backup from the list by clicking the corresponding radio button.

• Note: Backups are in UTC server time.

3. Click “Restore”
   
4. A new window will appear with the following fields:

• Restore to: Choose an environment name to restore the backup to
• Restore with database: Check the box to restore database information or uncheck it to restore files only. Note that partial database selection of specific tables is not available.
• Send notification to: Enter email addresses separated by commas to receive a notification upon completion of the restore.

5. Click “Restore Backup”

The automated restore process may take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, depending on the size of your site and the number of files. Once the restore is completed, an email will be sent to the listed email addresses.

Note:

• The email notification may be sent to your Junk or Spam folder, so don’t forget to check these folders in your inbox.
• If you restore the backup to another environment, the source environment that the backup belongs to will not be affected.
• The restore process is destructive, meaning all content will be overwritten on the destination environment to match the content of the selected backup point. This means that files present on the destination and not in the backup chosen point will be deleted upon restoration.

The automated restore process can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. This largely depends on the size of your site and the number of files. An email will be sent to the email addresses listed when the restore has completed.

It’s possible for the email notification to be filtered into Junk or Spam. Be sure to check these email folders.

If you choose to restore the backup to another environment, the source environment that the backup belongs to will not be impacted.

The restore process is destructive, meaning all content will be overwritten on the destination environment to match the content of the backup point selected. This means files present on the destination, if not present in that backup point, will be removed from the destination upon restore.

What Does “How to Backup My Website WordPress” Mean?

When looking to understand how to backup my website WordPress, it’s essential to recognize that a WordPress backup is essentially a full copy of your website that you can restore if things go awry. There are multiple avenues for creating a backup of your WordPress website, such as utilizing hosting services like WP Engine, employing a dedicated WordPress backup plugin, or even manually handling the backup process.

It’s crucial to understand that all backups are not created equal in terms of their reliability and effectiveness. Consistently backing up your WordPress website is imperative to prevent the loss of important data. This becomes doubly important for sites handling sensitive content, including customer information, transaction records, or legal documents. Backups serve as a safety net against a range of risks like server crashes, malware infiltration, or human errors that can cause the loss of months of labor and essential data. For instance, if you’re using WP Engine, you might want to know how to delete an environment, but ensuring you have a proper backup before doing so is vital.

What’s the Latest Version of WordPress as of Now?

As of February 13, 2023, WordPress is currently on version 6.0. This substantial update was rolled out on May 24, 2022, introducing several new features to the platform. The enhancements focus primarily on complete site editing capabilities, with additions like new block types, a more robust block editor interface, style-switching options, and improved text and writing controls.

About WordPress 6.2 Beta 1

On February 7, 2023, WordPress announced the availability of WordPress 6.2 Beta 1 for download and evaluation. It should be noted that this version is still undergoing development and is not advisable for use on critical sites requiring high reliability. If you’re interested in testing this beta version, it’s recommended to install it on a test environment or server for evaluation purposes.

Alternative methods to Backup WordPress 

Not hosted with WP Engine? Here are some alternative tips to help backup your WordPress website using a variety of plugins, tools and WordPress hosting accounts.

To safeguard your database and files, it’s crucial to manually back up your WordPress site prior to executing any updates. For an in-depth manual on both backup and update protocols, please consult the Updating WordPress Codex Page.

Here’s how to perform a manual backup of your website using WPvivid Backup:

1. Go to the “WPvivid Backup” tab. Within this tab, you’ll find three choices: “backup and restore,” “export and import,” and “settings.”
2. Click on the “backup and restore” option, which will launch in a new tab. This interface showcases all your manual and automatic backups, along with restore possibilities, all in one convenient location.

WPvivid Backup Page

The WPvivid Backup page provides a plethora of both manual and automatic backup options, along with restore functionalities for your databases and WordPress files. You have the liberty to select from a mix of restore methods and specify where you’d like to save your backup files—either on local storage or remote options like FTP, SFTP, Google Drive, Dropbox, and others.

To initiate the manual backup, choose your desired settings and click the “Backup Now” button. Be aware that completing the backup process could take some time.

WPvivid Backup Updates Page

This page serves users with alerts, notifications, and options for updates. Initially, you’ll encounter a notice indicating that a WordPress update is ready, accompanied by a message that provides a link to the newer WordPress version.

To employ automatic backups before going through with the update, click on the “how to backup your WordPress website” link. This action will automatically kickstart the backup procedure. Allow a few moments for the WordPress update to finalize. You’ll also find options here to refresh any outdated plugins or theme extensions.

Checking on the Backups Update Status 

To proceed with the process of backing up your WordPress website, it is essential to conduct a test check. Start by selecting the backup, update, and other relevant options that suit your website’s needs. Next, access the WordPress Dashboard and look for updates. You can do this by following these steps:

1. Locate the dashboard icon on your WordPress site.
2. Go to the home page and access the subcategories.
3. Select the “Updates” option from the drop-down menu.

Once you have taken these steps, the website will provide notifications and alerts to keep you informed about the status of your WordPress website updates. Finally, navigate to the updates page to complete the process.

How to Navigate the WordPress Updates Page 

The WordPress Updates page provides a clear and concise overview of your website’s update status. A bold heading will indicate whether you have the latest WordPress version installed. Additionally, if necessary, you may be prompted to reinstall the newest version from this page.

The updated status of your plugins and themes will also be displayed on this page. To ensure that your website remains up-to-date, the “Check Again” feature is available for you to perform future test checks at any time.

Methods for Creating a Backup

Fortunately, there are various methods of backing up your WordPress website. In technical terms, automated processes via plugins and manual techniques, such as via FTP clients and cPanel, enable WordPress users to have many options to back up their website content. For a tutorial on how to manually backup your WordPress website update and your WordPress files and database, watch the video below.

Use a Plugin

As recommended, plugins are a convenient method of regularly backing up your WordPress site, often automatically. There are many free WordPress plugins available individually to do a full backup of your website, including your database. Backups can typically be downloaded as a .zip archive file. Conversely, these plugins usually offer a feature enabling you to restore a backup from a.zip file. Listed below are five highly used WordPress plugins designed to backup your site.

Different Plugin Options

1. UpdraftPlus : UpdraftPlus is one of the highest-ranking backup WordPress plugins in the world. Likewise, many technological institutions, such as NASA and Microsoft, rely on this popular plugin. Both free and premium versions of the plugin are available for installation onto your WordPress site.

2. BackWPUp : Like most WordPress backup plugins, BackWPUp allows users to set automatic backup schedules for their site easily. The pro version of BackWPUp also provides full user support and useful additional features to maintain website security to the fullest.

3. BackUpWordPress: “BackUpWordPress” is reliable and a free plugin. It also comes with automatic scheduling of site backups. Notably, its disadvantage for the free version of BackUpWordPress is non-cloud supportive. So, investing in the premium plugin is worth the cost and offers better features.

4. Duplicator:  This free plugin allows users more functionality in their backups. It quickly clones, migrates, and redistributes its WordPress site with ease. However, users must upgrade to the pro version to unlock the popular automatic scheduling feature for this plugin.

5. All-in-One WP Migration: Lastly, All-in-One WP Migration is a better simple-to-use plugin. Due to its feature, it better enables users with the backup of WordPress websites. With a simple drag and drop actions, users are free to backup without restriction. Also, the plugin complies with all hosts. Lastly, the premium version offers cloud transfer services.

Manually Export your Site’s Database

Essential backup practices are to backup website databases regularly. Thankfully, many WordPress plugins speed up the backup process.

However, users must develop an understanding of website databases to directly manage a backup.

Guide to Manually Creating a Backup File of Your Entire Website

Follow these detailed steps to manually create a backup file of your entire WordPress website and its database onto your computer.

Backing up Database Through cPanel

1. Sign in to your cPanel admin account, provided by your web hosting service.
2. Navigate to the “Databases” dropdown menu and choose the “phpMyAdmin” option.
3. In the phpMyAdmin interface, locate your WordPress website’s database from the list on the left-hand side.
4. Click on the “Export” tab. In the subsequent dialog box, set the Export method to “Quick” and the Format to “SQL.” Press “Go,” and a SQL file will start downloading.
5. Once downloaded, move this backup file to a folder on your computer labeled “Database.” The file should have a .sql extension for easy identification.

Exporting Website Files Using an FTP Client

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a valuable tool for web developers, offering connectivity between live website servers and a local computer. With FTP credentials set up on servers, users can easily download site directories and transfer them to different locations as backup files. This is a highly effective backup method, except when using cPanel or plugins. However, be aware that FTP transfer times can be lengthy, which may lead to some user impatience.

Popular FTP Clients:

Here’s a list of popular FTP clients you can use to facilitate this process:
– (list of FTP clients)

By following these steps, you’ll have manually backed up the entire website, ensuring you have both the database and site files as backup files on your computer.

1. WinSCP

Mainly, this FTP client is a powerful tool for Windows users. It has an easy-to-use interface design with a wide range of features. Moreover, its compatibility with various protocols makes WinSCP essential for all WordPress users.

2. Cyberduck

On the other hand, Cyberduck optimization design works for both Windows and Mac. Plus, its seamless integration with the local environment in Mac computers makes it an obvious choice for Mac users. Additionally, Cyberduck also supports a wide range of host servers.

3. FileZilla

Next on the list is FileZilla. The program is compatible with multiple host computers and is very popular for Linux users. Perspectively, it is common that web developers gravitate towards this option for user-friendly plugins and functionality in features.

Transferring via FTP

Manual data transfer sites via FTP include essential rules. First, FTP users are to download the entire site’s file directory for proper installation. In simmer terms, this consists of the WordPress Core Installation. The actual files for the WordPress CMS include WordPress Plugins folder, WordPress Themes folder, and media assets. Second, website backup and retrieval are its WordPress database. To clarify, the MySQL database stores WordPress site content, such as posts, comments, user accounts, and other data. If  everything is in order, downloading  website content from web servers is a relatively simple process.

Transfer FTP Steps

1. If FTP client is not connected, log in with FTP credentials. In detail, the web hosting provider provides FTP credentials. Designate a folder on your computer that contains site files and databases.
2. Open your FTP client. Typically, local servers are on user screens. Correctly, the screen displays local servers on the left-side panel and the server on the right-side panel.
3. On the right panel, locate the “public_html.” The folder holds user site files. Next, transfer data into the designated folder on your local computer. Afterward, drag the selected folder onto the left panel. 

Download Backup from cPanel

Downloads are possible from cPanel.  This feature assists users in the process of downloading full website backups. In fact, it applies to all websites. For example, sites built via the WordPress platform are cPanel friendly. Correspondingly, WHM and InterWorx offer cPanel for web hosting control panels.

Deleting WordPress Sites

To restore a backup version of your WordPress site also includes a removal of the WordPress site. First, you must remove the current version from the web-server. To accomplish this, you must wipe two components of your live website: the file directory and database. Before continuing with the deletion process, there are two rules of thumb to follow.

Preparing to Delete WordPress

First, make a backup of your existing WordPress site. For data safety, step number one saves unfamiliar users from damaging or losing data. Second, note the names of the current database and its user(s) (all of which is information that will be useful later). For an in-depth tutorial on deleting your files and database, watch the video below.

Deleting Your Website Files

Finally, users are ready to clean WordPress off their computers. First, users begin removing all associated files from the website. This includes any web-based content related to your sites, such as your blog posts, themes, and plugins. Users quickly complete file removal through cPanel and web hosting platform account use.

1. After logging into your web hosting account, open the File Manager.
2. Locate your website within your file directory.  
3. Select all existing files—hold the SHIFT key and select the first and last file to highlight all.
4. Select the “Delete” button—you may have to right-click “Delete.”

Deleting Your Database

Lastly, the final step to entirely removing site content is to cancel the database. Mostly, users will find that website data remains while the live site vanishes. To check website data, refresh the site after wiping the files.

1. Within cPanel, select “MySQL Databases” under the Databases dropdown menu.
2. Identify your database (if there are multiple databases on the web-server, you can search for your database with the name you noted earlier).
3. Delete the database.

Deleting Website Data

Before proceeding to the backup site, it is essential to delete additional website data. For thoroughness, other users of your website must be removed. First, simply scroll down to the Current Users subsection on the same page. Second, identify the user(s) that had access to the WordPress database. In essence, users should reference the usernames noted earlier. Lastly, select the “X” icon to remove this user.

Restoring from a Backup

Generally speaking, all of the backup methods have complementary features for restoring from a backup (typically a .zip file). In the case of FTP, simply  start by transferring the backup directory (unzipped) over to the server. Under these circumstances, many backup plugins listed also offer features to restore your site within the same plugin. Similarly, WordPress users can regain their WordPress sites and databases to previously backed-up versions via FTP and cPanel. For an in-depth tutorial on restoring WordPress files and database from a backup, watch this video below.

Restoring Website Files from a Backup Version via FTP

Reasonably, restoring files from FTP backup versions are also an option. Surprisingly, uploading the site’s backed-up files from the local server is very simple if you have used an FTP client to back up your WordPress site. By comparison, it is the same process of traditional backups, but in reverse. First, select the files you wish to transfer from your local server. Second, move files to a remote server. Lastly, drag files from the remote server into the proper directory folder.

Restoring Website Files from a Backup Version via cPanel

Alternatively, cPanel backups are a great substitute to restore websites. Without a doubt, restoring your WordPress site files is a relatively simple process. First, users will remain within the same window they deleted their data in. As a reminder, ensure that old WordPress files have been removed from proper removal processes before continuing with the restoration process. Take a look at the steps to restore data from a cPanel backup.

1. Within the same File Manager in cPanel, select the “Upload” button from the menu options.
2. In the window, upload your site backup (in .zip file).
3. When the .zip file appears in your directory, “Extract” the internal data. It is recommended to remove the .zip file from your web server after the extraction process is completed.

Restoring Database from a Backup Version via cPanel

To continue, reverting WordPress databases back to a prior version is relatively straightforward. As a precaution, users require confirmation of having existing downloaded data from the files before restoring to previous databases. The existing files are data identifiable in locations on computers. These simple steps will ensure users how to restore the data on cPanel.

1. Log into your cPanel account.
2. Select “Backup” under the “Files” dropdown menu.
3. Scroll down until you locate the subheading “Restore a MySQL Database Backup.”
4. Select “Choose file” and locate the appropriate database files, which should be easily found on your computer.
5. Select “Upload” to finish the process.  

Conclusion

In conclusion, backing up your WordPress website is an essential task that should not be taken lightly. A backup ensures that all your website data, including posts, pages, themes, and plugins, can be restored in case of any disaster, such as a server crash or hacker attack. You can use various methods to back up your website, including plugins, manual backups, or a combination.

Regardless of your chosen method, it is crucial to update your backups regularly and store them securely. Doing so can minimize the risk of losing valuable data and prevent downtime that can negatively impact your online presence and reputation.
In conclusion, back up your WordPress website today and ensure the safety and security of your website data. It’s always better to be safe than sorry, so don’t wait until it’s too late to take action.