How would you feel if you lost all of the data from your WordPress site? Want to put in all the hard work again for your website?
I am guessing most (if not all) of you will answer ‘no’ to these questions. If that is true, you need to keep regular backups of your site. No, I am not going to lecture you about the importance of keeping regular backups, you already know that. But I request that you create a backup schedule for your site today. While it won’t take more than an hour now, it will save countless hours later.
Among all the backup plugins for WordPress, the BackUpWordPress plugin is a very popular one. In today’s post, I will introduce you to this excellent plugin and show how to use it. You can watch the video of how to install the configure the plugin, or read the text article below:
After you have created a backup, it’s important to know how to use it to restore your website. The Backup WordPress plugin doesn’t have a restore option, so you will have to restore your site manually. If you following along in the tutorial video below I walk you through how to restore your website from a backup:
Getting Started With The Backup WordPress Plugin
Once you install and activate the plugin, it will create a new sub-menu titled ‘Backups’ under the ‘Tools’ menu. Go to Tools > Backups to access the backup configuration page.
The interface is divided into three main tabs – Database Daily, Complete Weekly and +add schedule. The first two are default backup schedules that are created for you.
Default Backup Schedules
Let’s discuss Database Daily first. Here, you have three options – Run now, Settings and Delete. The Settings link will allow you to set up different options for this schedule –
From the ‘Backup’ field, you can select which part to backup. Available options include Both Database & Files, Database Only, Files Only. Then, in the ‘Schedule’ field, choose the backup frequency. It is possible to set the frequency to once hourly, twice daily, once daily, once weekly, once biweekly or once monthly. In the ‘Start Time’ field, you can choose the time when the backup process should start.
Then, you can choose how many numbers of backups files should be saved in the server. Lastly, you can enable email notifications by providing your email address(s). After making all changes, click ‘Done’.
Besides the schedule, you can also create a backup instantly. To do that, click ‘Run now’. Depending on your database size, the process might take some time. Once the backup is completed, the backup will be saved and listed below.
You can either download the backup or delete it. And if you want to delete the schedule, simply click the ‘Delete’ link on the top.
Similarly, you can change the settings for the ‘Complete Weekly’ schedule or create an instant backup.
Creating a New Backup Schedule
Besides the default schedules, BackUpWordPress lets you create custom schedules too. To create a new schedule, go to the ‘+add schedule’ tab.
You will find the same options as the ones in the schedule editing process. You can choose which things to backup, fix the schedule, time, number of backups, email notifications, etc. After customizing the backup, click ‘Done’.
At this point, you will have a new backup schedule along with the default schedules.
Saving Backups in the Cloud
Besides saving the backups in the server, you can also choose to save them in cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud, etc. However, you need to purchase an add-on for that purpose. While the cloud storages are priced at $24 separately, you can buy the developer bundle for $99. The developer bundle allows you to use the feature in unlimited sites and supports all cloud storage providers.
Final Words
As you can see, BackUpWordPress makes the whole backup process very easy. If you are still planning to do the backup later, I have three words for you – Do it now. You can thank me later.
By the way, if you have any questions or confusion about the plugin, please let me know by leaving a comment below. I will get back to you ASAP.