Finding out that you’ve lost the hours of labor you put into building your WordPress site due to an unanticipated error, attack, or failure is one of the worst feelings in the world. This might even keep you, as a developer, from meeting that crucial customer deadline.
Thankfully, WordPress makes backing up your WordPress site simple. You have the choice to manually perform this using cPanel, Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), or special WordPress plugins.
We’ll discuss a WordPress backup’s operation and significance in this article. We’ll then discuss backing up your WordPress site after that. Let’s start now!
WordPress Backups: Where Are They Stored?
Your strategy for creating backups will determine where they are kept. For instance, your backup should be saved to your computer’s hard drive if you manually downloaded your files and database from cPanel and phpMyAdmin.
If you use a tool like UpdraftPlus, your backup will be kept in the cloud according to the setting you selected when installing the plugin. Your backup files are normally kept in your current WordPress database and file system if you didn’t go with a cloud option or are using a different plugin.
Restoring files from the compromised database may not be the ideal choice if you need to restore a backup. Therefore, it’s essential that you preserve numerous copies of your backups kept in other locations, regardless of your backup solution.
Why is WordPress Backup Important?
WordPress advises that you back up everything when making a backup of your website. The files and database on your site are the two key parts of this.
The relevant plugin and theme files, code files, pictures, and static web pages are among the files you should back up. This is where all of your site’s content is stored in terms of your database. By backing it up, you can ensure that your posts, links, and comments are still there if you ever need to restore your website.
You cannot afford to lose your website data for even one day as a business. There are several potential causes for a significant data loss. The reasons for backing up your WordPress are provided here.
Human Error
Your site could fail due to even an apparent human error, which would result in data loss. Regular website backups might assist your company in recovering from a data loss swiftly and restoring operations.
Website Hack
Cybercriminals have carried out data breaches in recent years with success, resulting in the loss of crucial corporate data such as client records, payment transactions, and database entries. Your top goal in the event of a successful hack would be to retrieve this crucial data and quickly restore your website. A good backup plan can save your life even though there are numerous services available to eradicate malware.
Natural catastrophes
Natural disasters like floods or even cyclones can badly harm your hosting systems and cause the loss of corporate data, depending on where your business infrastructure is located. In this scenario, it would be simple to restore your website using a backup that was kept on storage devices that were situated in a different nation or region.
Server failure or crash
Data loss can also result from server failure or website breakdowns. Your backup data can be stored by backup systems on separate, cloud-based systems that are unaffected by server failure or crashes.
Ineffective Updates
Regular WordPress updates are published to enhance security and make new features available. Updates to WordPress’ core software or each of its installed plugins and themes are often required for this. The updating procedure, however, occasionally has the potential to damage or crash your company website.
How to Backup WordPress Files and Database?
Despite WordPress’ excellent level of security, there are always risks that could result in a content loss on your website. One of those things you’ll be happy to have is a WordPress backup.
Making a backup of your website’s database and files is similar to writing an insurance policy. You are able to use it as and when you need it. Having important components backed up enables you to swiftly restore your site to operation, whether the issue stems from a hack, attack, coding error, or any external cause.
Additionally, backing up website files can save you time and frustration. For instance, you can easily restore a recently backed-up version if you make a mistake while working on your website and can’t figure out the reason. As a result, it’s crucial to routinely backup your website using one of the three techniques listed below. Consequently, how do you backup a WordPress website?
Ways of WordPress Backups
There are numerous types of WordPress backups on the market. Let’s assess each category:
Backups from the web host you use
The majority of WordPress web host companies include backups as part of their hosting services. You as the owner of the website won’t have to worry about performing backups yourself or losing any data thanks to a dependable backup service from your web host provider. Ask your existing web host company what backup services are included in your hosting package.
Therefore, you don’t have much control over when, how, or where backups are taken and kept in this situation.
Manual backups
If you already have technical skills or knowledge, you can manually backup your website. Using an FTP program like FileZilla or the phpMyAdmin tool, you may manually backup your WordPress database and files.
A manual backup requires more time and effort than other backup types, and it can even require that you troubleshoot and fix any problems that may arise.
Automated backups using plugins
The quickest and easiest way to take website backups is by using plugins. If you don’t want to rely on your web host provider or lack the technical expertise to do manual backups, this is extremely helpful. WordPress backup plugins are simple to set up and may be used by even inexperienced users.
The ideal method for automating backups is to use a WordPress plugin.
How frequently should WordPress websites be backed up?
The frequency of your website’s content updates will greatly influence how frequently you decide to create backups of the website’s files and database. Your backups should occur more often than they would on a site that is largely static if you constantly make changes, add new plugins, or create articles or pages. It’s a good idea to do at least one database backup every day.
Additionally, there is a crucial exception to remember no matter how frequently you opt to schedule the file and database backups for your website. It is advised that you make a complete backup of your website before making any significant modifications.
Problems Often Found With WordPress Backups
It’s crucial to know how to backup your WordPress site’s data. But it’s also crucial to comprehend potential backup problems and how to resolve them. Here are a few typical issues and their fixes.
Storage limitations
You face the danger of running out of storage space if you use a plugin with cloud-based backups. Your backup files will eventually fill up Dropbox and Google Drive, making it impossible to add new ones.
Choose an updated plan and monitor storage space, eliminating outdated files as necessary to avoid this problem. Better yet, stay away from only using cloud storage.
Oversized websites
If your website is too large, a WordPress backup plugin may occasionally fail. During the generation of a big backup file, servers can crash. If any of your data was saved at all, it may become corrupted or lost as a result of this.
By deleting outdated files from your content folder or simply backing up important data, you can solve this issue.
Customized Sites Errors
Some plugins for backups are made to scan your WordPress website and back up the necessary information. However, if you’ve altered the code sufficiently, the plugin can have trouble finding all of your data.
Avoiding altering the website’s structure is the obvious approach. However, since there are several situations where you’ll want to make big changes, your other options are to manually back up your site or use your hosting company to do it.
Lost or Inaccessible Copies
It is generally advised to save backup files on your PC or server. However, you should never rely solely on that backup copy. You won’t be able to access your backups if your computer crashes.
Backups should ideally be kept in three different places. Attempt to have both a physical backup (on a hard disk) and a cloud copy.
Backup Your WordPress Site with The Most Feasible Plugin, Next3 AWS
The best solution that will assist you in getting your WordPress Media Library offloaded as quickly as possible to an Amazon S3 bucket using Next3 AWS. Your website will load more quickly because all of your files will be delivered through AWS S3 servers, which will lessen the load on your server. This has a significant effect on your page speed score, which implies that you’ll rank higher in search engines like Google.
Next3 AWS is one of the most effective plugins because of its amazing module, Backup media for WordPress is one of them. It will serve you properly to provide all the features of backup. The amazing plugin with its module effectively accomplishes the goal without performing any complex tasks, it follows that the plugin will be the first priority for everyone.
Let’s explore the feature of Backup media for WordPress.
Generate a database backup
Before moving or doing anything else, create a backup of all database tables. You can choose from a number of alternatives to obtain individual table backups.
Get Media Files Backup
Before moving any Media Files somewhere else or to the cloud, make a backup of all of them. Plugins, themes, uploads, and other files can all be backed up separately. Your backup files are accessible by downloading them
Restore & Delete Backup
Data from backups can be easily removed and restored. Additionally, you can download and manage backup files.
As a user, I’ll highly recommend you the module Backup media for WordPress of the Next3 AWS plugin. Make a great deal with the plugin and have a secure journey with WordPress.
Conclusion
Regular backups are essential for maintaining your WordPress security. For your business, it’s equally important to select the backup plugin that can meet all of your needs.
In this essay, we’ve emphasized the key characteristics that each WordPress backup tool should have. While capabilities like incremental backups and offsite storage ensure that your website performance is unaffected in any way, features like numerous backups and scheduled backups guarantee that you never lose any website data.
We strongly advise evaluating your website’s requirements and purchasing a trustworthy backup plugin right away.
