A Bristol Geek

I have posted before on the subject of WordPress backups, shortly after my blog was hit by the WordPress White Screen of Death (solution here). However I felt that as it is such an important subject it deserved it’s own page here in the WP Tips ‘n’ Tricks section.

When it comes to backups you have three choices:

1. No backups (really not the best of choices)
2. Manual Backups (potentially technical, and often forgotten!)
3. An automated solution (need I say more?)

Luckily for everyone (because who likes doing work when someone else can do it!) there is an excellent WordPress plug-in that automates your backups. That plug-in is called “WordPress Database Backup”, and it does everything that it needs to do.  You can do one off backups, or you can schedule them to run at various intervals, by default “WP-DB-Backup” includes all the core WordPress tables so you have nothing to worry about.

WP Database Backup Options

Installing WP-DB-Backup is simple, navigate to your admin panel and go to “Plugins/Add New”.  Search for “WP-DB-Backup” and click install.  Once you have it installed it can be found under “Tools/Backup”.  There are a few settings that need to be checked, but otherwise everything is done.The top half of the page allows you to pick tables for a one off backup, you can then scroll down and pick how to receive your backup (email, download, store on server). I would recommend that you tick all the tables in the list on the right, that way you ensure that you have backed up all of your plug-in settings also.

WP Database Backup Schedule

The bottom half of the page allows you to setup a scheduled backup for different intervals, along with the ability to set the email address that the backup will be sent to.  I would suggest setting up a GMail account (if you don’t already have one) that way you should never run out of space to store your backups! As I said above I suggest picking all the table for your backup.  It is worth noting that when you install a new plug-in, you will need to come here and select any new tables that the plug-in has created.

There now you have a regular backup of your WordPress database, but don’t forget to take a backup of your WordPress files and folders once in a while! Oh and I will shortly be adding a page explaining how to restore these backups!!

I have posted before on the subject of WordPress backups, shortly after my blog was hit by the WordPress White Screen of Death (solution here). However I felt that as...