How to Manually Backup WordPress Database

WordPress stores all the information and changes you make on your website in its central database. As a result, this database becomes an integral part of the backup process, allowing you to protect and store changes on your WordPress site. That way, if something happens to the live version, you can always be ready with a working version of the database.

You can back up the database manually or using a WordPress backup plugin. In this article, we will show you how to manually create a copy of the database. However, if you prefer to use plugins, we recommend you first explore the best backup plugins on the market.

There are multiple ways to take a manual WordPress backup of your database. A few of them use your hosting’s cPanel functions, namely phpMyAdmin and access to your database. The other way requires you to use the Backup Wizard, an automatic function provided by some hosting packages.

How to Backup WordPress Database Using phpMyAdmin

You need to access the database to start the backup process. If you are working on a live server, contact your hosting provider or access your hosting’s cPanel. If you choose the second option, go to phpMyAdmin.

If you are working on a local server (for example, while developing your website), go to the dedicated dashboard for the local server application of your choice. For the purposes of this article, we will use XAMPP and access it via the control panel. This is a program that will allow you to work with WordPress natively, so if you’re curious, you can learn more about installing XAMPP for you. Once you access, print most admin button for MySQL.

You will be redirected to the phpMyAdmin control panel page in your default browser.

On the left side of the page, you will see a list of your databases. Choose what you need. This will open an overview of their tables.

Don’t be confused if the prefixes of the tables are different. WordPress sets “wp_” as the default prefix, but there are several ways to change this table prefix in your database.

When you select the database you want to back up, Click the Export tab. You can choose Express or Custom export methods. If you are not familiar with this process, use the Quick export method.

leave format as SQL and Click the Go button. This will start the download of the database file with the .sql extension. Save it to a local file and you’ll have a WordPress database backup.

If you are a more experienced WordPress user, you can choose the Custom export method. With this type of export you will be able to save much more options from the database. That’s why the Custom export method is recommended for larger websites with solid settings and dozens of WordPress plugins.

If you want to customize the settings for your backup version, here are some useful options.

First, the custom export option, select the tables you want to include enter the backup file. For example, if you have a WordPress plugin that is not particularly important to the functionality of the website, you may want to exclude it from the backup process as it will make the file unnecessarily bulky. This is a practical decision if you are considering doing regular, maybe weekly, or even daily WordPress backups. Any storage space you can save using this option will greatly improve and speed up the backup process..

The second part of the custom export feature, Output. This is a set of options that allow you to fine-tune how the backup is packaged. In other words, you can choose a custom name for the file, the character set, and the way you prefer it to be compressed. For example, it’s helpful to change the filename template to include date and time stamps. This allows you to easily navigate through them in the selected directory. This template was created as follows:

@[email protected]__%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S

The names of the files created will consist of the database name followed by two underscores – year, month, day and time of extraction, separated by dashes.

Other options include exporting the tables separately and placing a limit on the size of the tables. Do not change the default values ​​unless you have a clear idea of ​​how you want your backup file to look. However, if you will be backing up your WordPress site frequently, take some time to learn more about these customization options. It will make the process easier and faster.

Once you have chosen the most suitable setup for your backup, click the Go button and the file will be downloaded to your computer. Make sure to create a proper folder for all WordPress backups for better organization.

Backup WordPress Database Using Backup Wizard

The entire WordPress backup process can be partially automated using the Backup Wizard feature available with some hosting packages. When you go to your hosting’s cPanel, you can choose between the Backup or Backup Wizard features.

Both of these are extremely simple and result in the same backup file as the previous method. However, this WordPress backup method offers less autonomy over the backup options and process.

If you choose the backup function, all you have to do is find the name of the database you want to back up and click on it. The file download will start and you can save it.

If you choose the Backup Wizard, you will have slightly more customization options compared to the Backup function. When you click on the Backup Wizard, open a three-step process screen. The first step will ask you to choose whether to back up or restore a previous backup. Click the Backup button.

In the second step, you choose the type of backup you want to perform. You can choose between a full and partial backup of the website.

If you go with the partial option, you can choose the Home Directory, MySQL Database as well as Email Forwarders and Filters backup options. If you are not familiar with the differences between these options, use the MySQL Database option. It allows you to backup the database.

if you Choose the full backup option, you will also be able to back up your website files. This will result in a complete backup of your website. However, if you wish to exclude parts of your website, here are brief descriptions of the available options.

this Main Directory option stores all files you have from your server’s directory.

this MySQL Databases option, the one we’ve covered in this article. It stores all the information saved in the database. You choose the database. MySQL Databases menu and save it as a .sql file in the local folder.

Email Routers and Filters The backup option stores the configuration for all email forwarders and account-level email filters created for your domain. However, it only stores the domain’s account-level email filters from the /etc/vfilters/$domain file, which does not include user account-level email filters.

final thoughts

With this guide, you can understand the different methods used to optimize and backup your website database. Using this knowledge you will have less problems with sudden crashes of themes, plugins or servers. This means you avoid unwanted scenarios such as going offline and being unavailable to users, which can seriously affect your website’s performance and search engine rankings. Keep this tutorial in your bookmarks and make sure your website and all changes are kept safe.