Backing up your blog
Backing up your blog is an incredibly important thing to do. You don’t want to ever experience losing your data due to a web host server failure. Some higher-end web hosts automatically backup all your data, but most do not.
Also, if you are ever going to upgrade your version of WordPress, it is very important to backup your database and all your files first. That way you can proceed with upgrading with the peace of mind that even if you royally screw the pooch, you can always restore your blog to it’s previous state.
Luckily, as with many things WordPress, there is a plugin that basically will handle this for you. BackupWordPress is a pretty sweet plugin that automatically backs up your WP database, uploaded pictures, config-file, and all your files. It even will do regular, automatic backups and email you the zipped files of the backups.
The following video shows how to use this powerful plugin.
Download the plugin right here.
Related Posts: How to upload and install a Plugin and Upgrading WordPress
Questions? Instead of emailing for support, please leave your questions in the comments so that others can benefit from the clarification. Thanks!
Jared,
You support for this theme just gets better and better. I just spent an hour tweaking it with all of the “upgrades” that have come up in the blog (http://www.professionalphotographertheme.com/tips/).
Thanks again!
I went ahead and activated the Plugin and got this message when trying to manually back up the blog.
Forbidden
You don’t have permission to access /blog/wp-admin/admin.php on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Have you run into this problem?
@Rick: I haven’t. Since we did you install, I’ll try to get in and see what I can do. I’ll get back to you.
Hi Jared,
I have just successfully upgraded Wordpress. However now I have some strange formatting chances that have happened. Some of my post titles have changed colours, the comments box has lost its scroll bars and looks strange, and the spacing of the posts has changed. Please help!!!!
Thanks
Chantelle
@chantelle bliss: it’s almost certainly that you need to re-tweak the ajaxd-wordpress plugin. when you upgrade, those settings can get reset. here is the tutorial:
http://www.professionalphotographertheme.com/tutorials/installing-prophoto.html#awp
Hey Jared!
I uploaded the backupwordpress plugin using Filezilla, and now when I go to my dashboard to the plugins area, hit refresh, I still dont see the new backup plugin. I go to my cPanel, and see that the backupwordpress folder is in the plugins folder under content-wp. Just curious why it’s still not showing up on my dashboard.
Rach
thanks jared, I have done that, and it’s still all over the place? any ideas?
@Rach: double-check that the entire plugin was uploaded. in fact, i might just delete it and reupload. if that still doesn’t work, send me an email through the support tab.
Jared, thanks for the response. I figured it out this morning, and it’s working just fine.
@chantelle bliss: it looks fine to me, so i’m not sure what you’re talking about. why don’t you send me an email through the support tab and give me an exact description with screenshots of what looks funny.
Mine is doing the same thing as Rick’s.
Forbidden
You don’t have permission to access /blog/wp-admin/admin.php on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
@jess m: i’m not really sure what to tell you. i’ve had cases where i can’t get this plugin to work either. you might try using and FTP program to set the permissionos of the /blog/wp-admin/admin.php file to 777 and try again. otherwise, you might not be able to use this plugin.
if that doesn’t work, search the wordpress plugin directory for WP Automatic Upgrade. it also backs up your blog and upgrades it, if your server will allow it. or google a wordpress database backup plugin and try another one.
if you can get the database backed up somehow, then you can use an FTP program to backup your entire wp-content folder and your wp-config.php file. if you have both of those, and your databasea backup, you’re protected in case something goes really wrong.
I’m getting an internal error 500 when I perform a backup. What does that code mean?
-Jeff
Jared I installed the Back-up Plugin and it seems to be working fine, but I set it to send a copy to my email and used the 10mb size and I am already over that! I have only a few days worth of blogging and I am using full sized large pictures, but I am just wondering if I am missing something that would reduce the size, but still keep the look?
Thanks, Debbie
@Jeff: 500 error is kind of a generic server configuration error. I’m not sure what to tell you. The backup plugin might not work for you. Or, you could call your webhost tech support. they can look at your server logs and get more info and possibly talk you through it.
@Debbie: that’s pretty normal actually, a vanilla wordpress install is 4 or 5 mb by itself, so i’m not surprised. you can download the file just by going into your wordpress admin area and to the “BackupWordPress” tab. just use the emails as a reminder to go download the actual file.