For most WordPress users, something unexpected and bad happening to your website represents one of their worst nightmares. Data loss, compatibility issues, design glitches… these are fixable, of course, but damage control takes time.
As the old saying goes, it’s better to be safe than sorry, so having proper backups for your WordPress website is one of the smartest things you can do for both your site website and ultimately your business.
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Website backup (current value) one of the best ways to keep your site safe. There are too many things that can go wrong and cause you to lose important data, hours of work. Here are some reasons to make it a habit: creating regular WordPress website backups:
Insurance in case of server problems
: These days, hosting companies offer fairly reliable insurance in the following cases. server outages and prolonged downtime. In most cases, they can take most, if not all, of your data. But even then, what you’re getting back may be an old version of your website. So you’ll have to rework the server to get it back to the state it was before it crashed.
Hacking and malware
: Even if you are using the latest Security solutions for WordPress and if you are doing your best to fend off hacker attacks, the truth is – you are never 100% safe. Hackers can break through the tiniest vulnerabilities and break your website. It’s not just data loss that’s the issue here, of course, that’s also a major concern. Hackers can also use your site to spread malware and spam, and even blacklist your site by search engines. Regular site backups help you quickly and efficiently revert to a pre-attack state.
Human mistake
: Even the most cautious among us sometimes slip and make mistakes. Unwanted deletion of an important file or piece of data takes only a mouse or two clicks and can have devastating consequences. This is especially important for larger websites with few administrators and many authors. Someone on your team is more likely to accidentally delete an entire library of posts, so you definitely want to make regular backups.
Easier site migration
: Having several exact copies of your website and all its data makes things infinitely easier when (and if) the time comes. change your hosting provider. Website migration is a fairly simple process, ideally with full support from the provider, but having a backup copy available immediately makes things much easier and guarantees a smooth and fast migration.
Compatibility issues after fresh installs
: Website backups are especially important when: theme updates and installations of new plugins on your site. Sometimes a fresh install may not click quite right with your site’s ecosystem. When that happens, a backup version should be available so you can revert to it by then. compatibility issues completely resolved.
The easiest way to back up your WordPress site and not waste a ton of time doing it is to use a plugin. This WordPress repository It offers a number of excellent backup plugins with UpdraftPlus to be one of the best. The plugin comes in a free and premium version. The free one should do the job just fine, but if you need additional options, you can opt for the paid version.
This free plugin not only has over two million active installs, but also best grades all backup and restore plugins available in the repository.
It allows quick and easy creation of backup copies of all your website files and folders, and also helps users restore them easily.
UpdraftPlus is very fast and efficient and allows you to schedule in addition to manual backups. automatic backupsto completely relax your mind.
You can choose to host your server with this versatile WordPress backup plugin. backup copies on your server or you can choose one of the remote storage options.
talking about remote storageThe free version of the UpdraftPlus plugin offers more storage solutions for WordPress than any other backup plugin: you can save your backup files to: Dropbox, Amazon S3, Google Drive Rack Space Cloud, Updraft Vault, dream objects, OpenStack Swift and of course, email.
In its free version, UpdraftPlus offers enough features for your backup needs. However, if you decide to use the premium version of the plugin, you can also store backups to additional remote storage destinations such as: Microsoft Azure, Microsoft OneDrive, rear flame B2, Google Cloud StorageSFTP, SCP and WebDAV. Plus, UpdraftPlus premium includes advanced reporting, migration and import tools, free updates, free support for a year, and is completely ad-free.
After installing and activating UpdraftPlus, the plugin will appear under your Dashboard. Settings Click on the plugin and it will open scheduling and other setup optionsand you will perform your manual backups here as well.
Here you can choose back up your website data immediately, without further managing the settings. This is a quick and easy solution if you don’t have any special needs or scheduled backups, and you can also use it to create backups outside of your preset schedule.
Click Backup/Restore press the tab and simply back up now button.
You will now be asked to specify what you want or do not want to include in your backup. Tick the boxes you need (the third box just locates the backup Settings) and click Backup now.
However, it is highly recommended schedule regular backups. That way you don’t run the risk of forgetting to make a backup.
To set a schedule, click on it. Settings Go to the tab and set the interval at which you want your files and database to be backed up. Here you can also specify how many scheduled backups you want to keep.
You can also choose which remote location your data is stored in. As we mentioned earlier, the free version of the plugin offers a number of storage solutions, including: Dropbox, Amazon S3, Google Drive, Google Cloud and others.
If you want to send your WordPress backups to multiple remote storages, there is a premium plugin for this plugin that is definitely worth a try.
Additionally, you can choose not to send files to remote storage. In this case, your data could be at risk if something goes wrong with your server.
We’ve decided to set Google Drive as our remote storage option.
Obviously, you will be asked to login to your Google Drive account to complete the authentication.
Connect your email account and you will be redirected to Google Drive. Now, click To let Press the button to finish the process.
To complete the Google Drive setup Complete setup button below.
UpdraftPlus also has a very convenient system to specify. file types you want or don’t want to include in your backup. This WordPress backup plugin allows you to backup specific folders such as: plugins, themes and downloadsas well as other directories in your wp-content folder.
Note that if you check Downloads, you can also specify files or directories you want to exclude from backup. For example, you can exclude all files with a certain extension or all files starting with the given characters. You can also add your own exclusion rule.
Now let’s take a quick look at how to do an action. manual backupassuming you’ve already customized all the backup options to your preferences and created regular schedules.
Click back up now button to start the backup process. The duration of the process will depend on the size of your website, ie the number of files and directories you have backed up. There will be a progress bar showing how long it will take.
How to Restore Backups
After the backup is successfully completed, the copy you created will appear in the list of available backup copies. With download filesJust click the file type you need (database, plugins, themes, downloads, others).
You can also view the log and download the log files if you want. Of course, you can delete the copy and most importantly restore it if you don’t need it.
Choose exactly what you want to restore: plugins, themes, downloads, databases or other files and click on it. reinstate button.
Confirm by clicking once more reinstateand you are all set.
final thoughts
As you can see, by using the free or premium version of the WordPress UpdraftPlus backup plugin to backup your website data, you can be sure. your uploads, themes, plugins and databases are always safe. Easily backup your data manually or copy your data to remote storage with just a few clicks. This is the best way to keep your data safe and save yourself a lot of time and energy in case something unexpected happens.
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