How to Backup and Restore your WordPress Site?

Backup is basically taking a copy of your website, so that if you make any changes to your site and an error occurs you can recover your content, settings, and designs etc. Backing up your WordPress site is essential. Whether it’s a plugin or theme update, security breach, a server crash, or an accidental deletion, having a backup can save you from potential data loss and site downtime. 

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the steps to easily backup and restore your WordPress site. Let’s Begin 🚀

Why Backup is Essential?

Backups protect your content, settings, and customizations. You can restore your site to a previous version quickly in case of issues. Also, Backup files serve as a safety net against malware, hacks, or corrupted files.

Backup can be a Full Backup including all WordPress files, themes, plugins, uploads, and your site’s database or Database-Only Backups including only the database (content, user data, and settings). Based on your preference you can select the type of backup.

How to Backup Your WordPress Site?

A plugin is the easiest method to Backup your site. Plugins automate the process and offer convenient scheduling options. Here are some popular plugins that you can use. Example: UpdraftPlus, Jetpack Backups (formerly VaultPress), WP Time Capsule, Duplicator etc.

In this guide we will be using the free version of UpdraftPlus.

Step 1: Install and Activate UpdraftPlus

• From your WordPress dashboard navigate to > Plugins > Add New Plugin and search for “UpdraftPlus” in the Search bar.

• Locate it in the results then click Install Now, and then Activate.

Step 2: Configure Backup Settings

• Once the plugin is activated, it’s time to set up your backup preferences. From your dashboard go to > Settings > UpdraftPlus > Backup/Restore .This is where you’ll manage backups. You can see in the database “Nothing currently schedued”. So we have to schedule our backup now from Settings .

• In the Settings tab, choose how frequently you want to back up Files and Database. By default it will be set up as “Manual” but according to your preferences you can choose from hourly, daily, weekly and monthly. For example if you frequently update your site, a daily backup is recommended. For less frequently updated sites, a weekly backup might be sufficient.

• Here I have scheduled the files and database backup schedule to weekly. You can also select how many backups you want to retain. This controls how many previous backups UpdraftPlus will store before deleting the oldest ones. For example to keep the last “2″ backups , enter “2” in each field for both Files and Database.

Step 3: Choose Remote Storage

• Scroll down to choose your remote storage and select a preferred cloud storage option like Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, or others. Once you choose a storage option, you’ll need to follow the setup instructions specific to that service to connect it with UpdraftPlus. As an example here I am selecting ‘Google Drive‘.

• (Optional if you select a remote storage other than Google Drive) Click on > Sign in with Google and it will redirect to to your mail where you can select your email where you your backup to be stored.

• Once you do do, click on ‘Complete Setup‘. It will redirect you to the settings tab of ‘UpdraftPlus’.

• You can see after the setup your remote storage is selected as it will show that you are now authenticated.

• You can scroll below and go through other options, you can skip them for now and after reviewing all your changes, Click on > Save Changes.

Step 3: Perform a Manual Backup

• You can perform an immediate backup if needed. Go to Backup/Restore tab > Backup Now. UpdraftPlus will take a few minutes to back up, depending on your site size.

• A dialog box will appear. You can choose whether to include files, the database, or both and also if you want this backup to be only deleted manually. Click > Backup Now to start the process. Your manual backup will be ready.

How to view Existing Backups?

• You can also view your backups in your Google Drive storage. Go to Your Google Drive and an UpdraftPlus folder will be created automatically and you can find all your backups there.

• You can also view all your Existing Backups in the UpdraftPlus section. From your dashboard go to > Settings> UpdraftPlus> Backup/restore > Existing Backups.

How to Restore a Backup in your WordPress Site?

• From your dashboard go to > Settings> UpdraftPlus> Backup/restore > Existing Backups. Here, you’ll see a list of available backups. Find the backup you want to restore. Click the Restore button next to it.

• UpdraftPlus will ask which components you want to restore like Plugins, Themes, Uploads, Other Files, and Database. Choose all components if you’re restoring a full backup or you can select the specific one’s and click on > Next.

• UpdraftPlus will start the restoration process and start downloading your backup from your storage.

• The restoration process may take a few minutes. Once done, you’ll get a confirmation message.

• Once the restoration is successful, click on > Return to UpdraftPlus Configuration.

After restoring your site, check if everything is working as expected. Visit your site and check if pages, posts, plugins, and other elements are functioning as before. If you’re using a caching plugin, clear your site cache to ensure that you see the latest version of your restored site.

Best Practices for Backups

Backups are essesntial for any site. And while backing up, we can take care of a few more things to be extra precautious.

• Automating backups on a schedule like (daily or weekly) instead of the manual backups protects from sudden errors.
• Using a remote storage for backup like Google Drive or Dropbox gives us extra security.
• Also testing restorations periodically to verify that your backups are getting restored as expected is always a good thing.

Conclusion

Regular backups and a clear restoration plan are essential to keeping your WordPress site safe. Using a plugin for backup is the easiest way but you can also choose to do it manually without a plugin. With a solid backup routine in place, you can enjoy peace of mind, knowing that your content and hard work are protected.

Hope this guide helped you in successfully creating a backup or restoring a backup. If you have any questions related to backups/restoration , feel free to reach out or ask your questions in the comments below!

Also, Explore our JetixWP blog for more awesome and insightful articles like this one! 🌟