WordPress backup is a great way to protect your online work. Therefore, a backup plan should be at the top of your priority list if you have a WordPress website. One of the most important things to remember as you build and grow your website is the need for a WP backup plan.
We’ll explain why WordPress backups are so vital in this guide. We’ll walk you through how to backup your WordPress site using BackupBuddy and restore it in the worst-case scenario. We’ll also go over many reasons to keep your website backup updated. Let’s get started!
Also Read :- How to Backup WordPress Site in 2022
Contents
- 1 Why Backing Up Your WordPress Site is Important?
- 2 How to Install BackupBuddy on WordPress Site?
- 3 Using Backupbuddy Restore full backup and Stash Live, set Real-time Backup.
- 4 Create Scheduled Backups.
- 5 Restore a WordPress backup.
- 6 Full backups vs. database backups
- 7 Automatic vs. Manual Backups
- 8 Site Restoration: Guided vs. Manual
- 9 Why Do You Need to Back Up Your WordPress Site?
- 10 Other Reasons BackupBuddy Is Better Than You At Backups
- 11 How Often Should My WordPress Site Be Backed Up?
- 12 Is BackupBuddy compatible with Windows servers?
- 13 Is there a limit to backup size?
- 14 Conclusion
Why Backing Up Your WordPress Site is Important?
If you have more than a few posts or spent a lot of time and effort establishing your WP website, you’d be devastated if something went wrong. That’s what we thought. This is why you should maintain your website’s backups.
Security threats exist on every website on the internet. Hackers, data theft, and server failures can affect any website.
This can happen to anyone, whether they have a WordPress site or not. Anyone with experience can tell you that the question isn’t whether it will happen, but when.
Creating an automated backup system is the first step in protecting yourself against such events.
You can backup your site and save backups in separate locations, much like your computer. This makes it easy to get your website back when you need it.
You can build a manual database backup and download your WP files if you don’t update your site regularly. If you often change your site, though, you won’t be able to maintain your backups up to date all the time.
BackupBuddy WordPress comes in handy here. It’s a WordPress backup buddy plugin. It lets you create full backups of your WP site and store them in different distant places. It is like a cloud server, your computer, or an FTP server. So we will recommend backup with backupbuddy.
How to Install BackupBuddy on WordPress Site?
You must first buy the BackupBuddy plugin before installing it on your WP site. Then, starting at $80, you get a year of plugin updates and support. You also get 1 GB of cloud storage on Stash, Stash live, and the ability to use it on two sites.
You must download the plugin to your computer after purchasing it.
You must then install and activate the BackupBuddy plugin.
Before you can get automatic updates to the newest versions, you’ll need to add your BackupBuddy license after activation. The plugin will display a link to the licensing page.
The page can also be accessed by going to Settings » iThemes Licensing.
To continue, enter your iThemes login and password and then click the license products button. Your license will be activated after successful verification.
Also Read :- Ultimate Guide on How to Backup Your WordPress With Jetpack 2022
Using Backupbuddy Restore full backup and Stash Live, set Real-time Backup.
Changes to your WordPress will be immediately saved in your Stash live cloud storage with real-time backups, such as posts, pages, images, themes, and plugins.
This ensures that you have the most recent and up-to-date backup of your site at all times. Stash Live also makes restoring your website as simple as clicking a button.
Fill in your iThemes login and password on the BackupBuddy » Stash Live page in the WordPress admin area.
You must also specify an email address where they should send fresh backup notifications. These emails will include a link to the zip downloads.
To continue, click the ‘Save settings and start backup’ option.
BackupBuddy will now begin creating and uploading your first backup to your Stash account. On your screen, you’ll be able to check the backup progress.
BackupBuddy will create and upload the entire backup because this is your first Stash live backup. Depending on how much data you have on your site, this could take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.
It will not disrupt the backup if you leave the progress screen. You can continue working on your WordPress site while the backup runs in the background.
You will be notified by email once it is completed. The backup files will also appear as snapshots on the Stash Live page.
Those snapshots can be stored on Stash Live. You may also download or move these snapshots to your server with a single click at any time.
Create Scheduled Backups.
Stash Live has real-time backups. It allows you to have the most up-to-date backups of your WordPress site.
If you don’t want to use Stash live, BackupBuddy offers different options for backing up WP.
To generate and set up backups, simply go to the BackupBuddy » Backup page.
You must first submit an email address. BackupBuddy will send you email notifications and backup emails from here.
After that, you must create a password. You will need this password if/when you use BackupBuddy to migrate your WordPress site to a new server or host.
After you’ve created your password, you’ll need to decide where you want to send your backups.
There are various options to choose from. You may store your WordPress backups in a variety of places. That includes Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, and BackupBuddy’s Stash storage.
Finally, it would be best if you decided how frequently you want to create backups. On-demand manual backups are also available. Or you may opt for a monthly or weekly full backup with daily database backups.
To continue, click the Save Settings button.
BackupBuddy will now display the backup profiles page. To create your initial backup, select Database or Complete Backup from the drop-down menu.
Select a full backup profile if you have never created a backup before.
Make sure the box next to the option to “Send to remote destination as part of backup procedure” is checked. This will open a popup menu where you can choose one of the locations you already added.
BackupBuddy will begin generating backup files for you. You’ll be able to track the backup’s progress. You’ll receive a success message after it’s finished.
You can now verify that your backup was successfully sent to your distant destination.
Also Read :- The Ultimate Guide to Updraftplus Backup Plugin in 2022
Restore a WordPress backup.
BackupBuddy makes it simple to create backups. It also makes it simple to restore your site from backups.
Simply navigate to BackupBuddy » Restore/Migrate and scroll down to the backup area. There is a link to view or restore files, as well as a database rollback, there.
You’ll need to download and submit the importbuddy.php file to your server for a complete restore.
Full backups vs. database backups
Daily backups are a part of many good hosting companies’ hosting packages. This is a nice feature, but they only make database backups. This means that if something goes wrong with your site, everything else in your WP will be destroyed.
What is the simplest method for backing up your website? Use BackupBuddy, a well-known and dependable plugin. BackupBuddy allows you to perform full website backups for added security and database backups that you may wish to perform regularly while working on your website. Back up your database often before updating themes or plugins, just to be on the safe side.
Automatic vs. Manual Backups
You may build a comprehensive backup of your WordPress site manually or with the help of a plugin. For a manual backup, log into your site through FTP. Now, download copies of everything in your wp-admin, wp-includes, and wp-content directories. Also, use another tool (cpanel, PHPMyAdmin, etc.) to duplicate your database. This can be a difficult task if you are unfamiliar with the inner workings of WordPress and servers. Furthermore, you must remember to perform this procedure regularly to maintain your backup copies current.
You may also make your life a lot easier by using BackupBuddy to set up automatic backups. BackupBuddy includes built-in features. These allow you to create your own custom backup schedules to focus on the other parts of your website. Even better, you have the option of storing your backups on BackupBuddy Stash, Amazon S3, and Dropbox. You can also receive backups through email. This is an excellent security precaution because you should never store your backups in the same location as your live site.
Site Restoration: Guided vs. Manual
If something goes wrong with your website, using your backup files is like taking them. You may try to restore it manually or with the help of a plugin. However, if you do it yourself, you’ll need to upload your database. This may need you to create a new one in some circumstances. Also, you must re-add all your actual site contents via FTP. This can be a terrifying task if you’re not familiar with WordPress development or using developer tools like Transmit or cPanel.
Using a backup plugin to begin with is the simplest way to recover your site. If you haven’t already guessed, iThemes BackupBuddy is our preferred WordPress backup plugin for a reason. It simplifies the process of creating, managing, and implementing backups.
To use a backup, log into your WordPress site. Next, go to the BackupBuddy menu item in your dashboard. Now, select Restore/Migrate from the drop-down menu.
Choose the backup you wish to use and “migrate to remote server.” This will import your backup as well as BackupBuddy’s ImportBuddy script. Then choose a backup destination and start migrating your backups.
After then, ImportBuddy will help you through the process of restoring your site.
Why Do You Need to Back Up Your WordPress Site?
Let’s start with why having a backup strategy for your WordPress website is so crucial. Here are some of the reasons why you should back up your website.
- Your website, like your computer or phone, needs regular backups. Files on your computer or phone may be lost, and the same is true for the files on your website. This is because your website’s contents are stored on a server. But they can be accidentally deleted or lost totally. So you’ll need a backup of all the files you’ll need to keep your site up and running.
- Your website is vulnerable to data loss and security concerns. WP sites can be an easy target for hackers or security breaches if security measures are not taken. For example, if you don’t maintain a backup, a hacked website could result in permanent alterations or corrupted files. This would make it impossible to recover your website. In addition, malware, server crashes, bad commands, and, of course, user error are all potential threats.
- You’ll need to locate a backup solution because WP doesn’t have one built-in by default. WordPress is the most powerful Content Management System (CMS) available today. But the program relies on users to maintain certain aspects of their websites, such as updates, security, and backups.
- Your host’s backup may be insufficient. Some hosting companies offer website backups, so you assume you’re safe. But, because these backups aren’t intended only for WP websites, they may fall short. Host backups may not provide you with the frequency, management, or customization options that you need. If something goes wrong, you may have to rely on a support technician to restore your website manually. This can cost you time and money.
- Because most websites change regularly, backups must be performed regularly. Some examples of changes to your website are
New or updated content (such as new blog posts or pages)
New Purchases (if you run an e-commerce site)
New Comments
New users
New Picture or file uploads
Version upgrades to your plugins, themes, or WordPress core
Some of these modifications may occur in the background. So you’ll want to keep track of them all and make frequent backups in case you need to undo them.
- You’ll need a backup before updating your themes, plugins, or WordPress core. Version upgrades to your themes, plugins and WordPress core often include security fixes. So keeping your website’s software up to date is a critical security best practice. Most developers test for backward compatibility before releasing updates. But, it’s always a good idea to back up your data before doing so in case something goes wrong.
- Backing up your website is like having insurance for it. Your website has a significant monetary value based on the time you spent establishing, modifying, and maintaining it.
Other Reasons BackupBuddy Is Better Than You At Backups
You can do more than just backup your website using BackupBuddy.
- BackupBuddy makes managing WordPress backups and security a little easier.
- You can restore individual files besides complete website restores. This is useful if you want to experiment with your stylesheet. Or if you accidentally changed your theme to something unpleasant.
- You may pick and choose which files to replace with its Restore/Migrate options. This way, you don’t have to update everything if you don’t want to.
You can also use BackupBuddy for site migrations, which is really useful if you’re a developer. To migrate your website to a different domain or host, use the Restore/Migrate option. Also, BackupBuddy allows you to migrate everything themes, plugins, and even widgets. This makes the process easy.
There are also further capabilities-
- URL substitution (if you’re transferring to a new domain)
- Push/pull deployment (if you’re relocating a site from a staging site).
- You can also use BackupBuddy to clone a website. This is a useful feature if you wish to copy your site to a local or staging place for testing. You may also use BackupBuddy to import your site onto many domains if you’re setting up a network of comparable sites. It is great for affiliate marketers with lots of similar landing pages.
- BackupBuddy also includes a tonne of useful tools for backup management. Have you seen how simple this plugin is?
There are options for iThemes Sync integration. You can use them for:
- remote backups
- tracking file edits
- active-backup schedules
- managing your BackupBuddy Stash
- backup completion email notifications
- to keep your site issue-free, you can use automatic database scan & repair
- server tools to troubleshoot hosting problems that may be preventing backups
- free malware scans
These are only a few of the many reasons why BackupBuddy is so popular.
Also Read :- Best Ways to Fix Image Upload Issues in WordPress (2022)
How Often Should My WordPress Site Be Backed Up?
You should back up your WordPress site as often as it changes.
Because WordPress websites have a lot going on behind the scenes, changes to your website can include many things you may have never considered before.
Here are a few instances of website changes:
- Content creation/editing (e.g., new posts/pages)
- New transactions (if you run an ecommerce website or online store)
- Updating the version of your plugins, themes, or WordPress core
- Adding new plugins or themes to your site
- Registrations of new users
- Adding New Comments
- Adjustments to the settings
When you upgrade WordPress in any way, for example, you should save a full backup right away. This is correct for changes to:
- The core version of WordPress
- Themes\sPlugins
- Changes in development
- Content
But, exactly, what makes up site content? Anything you develop and post on your website counts as content, including new:
- Blogs and articles
- Photographs and videos
- Infographics
- Audio files such as podcasts and other audio files
The frequency with which new content is posted to the site is essential in determining how soon you should backup. Therefore, daily—or even hourly—changes will be seen on more active websites.
Running WP backups on a regular basis, based on your site’s activity, is a critical step that you should not miss.
You can perform your backups once a week if you run a restaurant website and update it once a week. However, suppose your site has a busy blog or eCommerce platform with much hour-by-hour activity. Then, you’ll need to run backups several times a day.
Because your site was not backed up before a data breach, consider the time-consuming task of reposting dozens of articles or product descriptions.
Also, if your site receives a large number of user comments or contact form responses, such interactions are captured and saved in your WordPress database. Finally, suppose your site’s user behavior is predictable. Then, you’ll need a real-time WP backup solution that creates new site restore points whenever a change is detected.
Is BackupBuddy compatible with Windows servers?
Yes. When running on a Windows server, BackupBuddy will switch to the slower compatibility mode unless you upload the zip.exe file to the base of your site. Without this file, several advanced capabilities in Windows may not be available. If Windows is recognized, the plugin’s Getting Started page will provide Windows instructions.
Is there a limit to backup size?
There isn’t a hard and fast rule. But the amount of data that may be backed up is determined by server setups. Script timeouts, memory constraints, CPU consumption, and hard drive use can influence backup capabilities. When used on shared hosting, BackupBuddy is designed to back up WordPress sites. But not entire servers or large volumes of data.
In most cases, shared hosting enables backups of 400-1500MB before server limits hinder progress. This is a restriction of shared hosting. As the name implies, you’re sharing resources with a lot of other users on each server.
Conclusion
After reading this article, we hope that you have a clear understanding of the value of WP backups, and how to backup your wordpress site with backupbuddy. As well as how to build your backup strategy. We hope this article has solved all your concerns about backing up your WordPress site. You can now ensure that your WP site is safe and secure with backups that work like magic with only a little effort. If you still have any doubts we have added a video below by Ryan Urlacher who has explained it in detail