UpdraftPlus WordPress Plugin
- Why Backup & Restore Solutions are Important
- Features and Benefits
- How to Backup Your WordPress Site with UpdraftPlus
- How to Restore Your WordPress Site with UpdraftPlus
- How to Backup Your WordPress Database with UpdraftPlus
Important Note: We sometimes recommend third-party plugins or resources from other companies. While we attempt to direct you to helpful, trustworthy resources, our agents do not support third-party plugins; it is the customer's responsibility to install and maintain these resources.
Why Backup & Restore Solutions are Important
Hacking, dodgy updates, server crashes, or simple user error can ruin your WordPress site. Without good backups, you lose everything. That’s why you can use a restore solution such as UpdraftPlus to keep your WordPress site safe.Back to top
Features and Benefits
The free version of UpdraftPlus performs full, manual, or scheduled backups of all your WordPress files, databases, plugins, and themes and restores them directly from your WordPress dashboard.It also:
- Backs up to multiple cloud storage options: Amazon S3 (or compatible, e.g., DigitalOcean Spaces), DreamObjects, Dropbox, Google Drive, UpdraftPlus Vault, Rackspace Cloud, FTP, Openstack Swift, and emails.
- Can create multiple archives
- Downloads backup archives directly from your WordPress dashboard
- Automatically resumes and retries failed uploads.
- UpdraftPlus is supported on all current versions of PHP and is translated into over 16 languages.
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How to Backup Your WordPress Site with UpdraftPlus
- Install and activate the UpdraftPlus plugin. For more information, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
- Upon activation, go to the Settings » UpdraftPlus Backups page to configure the plugin settings.
- Click on the settings tab.
This is where you will set up an automatic backup schedule and a remote location to store your backups.
- Set a backup schedule for your files. Files include your WordPress images, plugins, themes, and other uploads.
- After that, select a backup schedule for your WordPress database. WordPress is a database-driven software. All your website settings, comments, posts, and pages are stored in the database. Your backup schedule should be based on how often you update your website.
- Choose where to store your backup files.
Note: It is not a good idea to save your backups in the same location as your website. Losing your website means losing access to your website files and database. Also, too many backups stored on one's server will result in a TOS violation. This is why you need to use a remote cloud storage service to store your backups. UpdraftPlus allows you to save your backups to different cloud storage services, including Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and many more. You can also email your backups to an email address.
- Click on a remote service to select, and you will see setup instructions below. Follow the instructions provided according to the cloud storage service you selected.
- UpdraftPlus will only have permission to its own folder in the "Apps » UpdraftPlus" folder. Click on the Allow button to continue.
- You will be redirected to the UpdraftPlus website where you need to click on the Complete Setup button to finish the setup.
How to Restore Your WordPress Site with UpdraftPlus
Follow the instructions below if your WordPress website was hacked, or you want to start fresh.
- It is recommended that you install WordPress to a different folder/subdirectory.
- Once your new WordPress site is installed, configure the wp-config.php file to connect it to your Database.
- Install and activate the UpdraftPlus plugin again on your new WordPress site.
- Upon activation, visit the Settings » UpdraftPlus Backups page and click on the Restore button.
This will bring you to the backups page. UpdraftPlus will scan your server to see any existing backup in /wp-content/updraft/ folder on your website.
- If you saved the backup files on your computer, you could click on the Upload backup files link to manually upload and restore them.
- Click on the Settings tab and then choose the remote server you used earlier to store your backups.
You can connect UpdraftPlus to a remote location like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. UpdraftPlus will be able to scan remote locations and use your previously-stored backups.
- Follow the instructions to authenticate your website with the remote storage service.
- Click on the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page to restore your settings.
- Switch back to the Existing Backups tab and click on the Rescan remote location link.
- UpdraftPlus will look for backups in the remote storage location and display them below. Click on the restore button next to a backup.
- UpdraftPlus will ask you what you would like to restore. Select all options and then click the Restore button.
- UpdraftPlus will now retrieve your backup files from the remote server and start restoring your site from the backup.
How to Backup your WordPress Database with UpdraftPlus
Follow the instructions below to backup your database:
- Install the UpdraftPlus WordPress backup plugin.
- Modify your database backup settings.
- Choose where you’d like your backups to be stored.
- Backup your WordPress root database.
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