If you have a blog or website on WordPress, it is important you make regular backups to all your files and the site database. If something should ever happen to your site, having these backups prevents you from losing a lot of important data.
Fortunately, there are simple ways you can make these backups automatically, so you don’t have to remember to do it yourself. Perhaps the easiest is with a plugin called BackWPup.
Log in to your WordPress dashboard, click “plugins” and then “add new,” and search for BackWPup. After clicking “install now” and “activate,” you are ready to configure the plugin to automatically backup your WordPress data.
SETUP
Once the plugin is activated, click on the link “set up a backup job,” found on the welcome screen for the plugin near the top. This will take you to the job creation page. You can keep all of the default settings under the categories “Job Name,” “Job Tasks” and “Backup File Creation.”
JOB DESTINATION
The next step is to choose where you want your database backups to be saved. You have several areas to which you can backup your database:
- A specific folder
- Email attachments
- FTP
- Dropbox
- An S3 service
- Microsoft Azure
- Rackspace cloud files
- SugarSync
The option you choose is just a matter of personal preference. If you wish, you can select multiple options so you always have multiple areas in which your backups are located.
Once you have checked a box (or boxes) for where you want your backups to be saved, a new tab will appear at the top navigation of the main plugin page. You may need to fill in some additional information under this tab to establish a connection that allows the backup file transfer to occur. This could include an email address, an FTP file directory or an API key.
SCHEDULING BACKUPS
After you determine where you want your backups saved, you must then decide when you want them saved, and how frequently. The default setting is manual backup downloads, but ideally you will configure the plugin to update your backups on a weekly basis. You can choose the time and days that suit you best, but again, weekly updates are recommended. If you update your site especially frequently, you might choose daily updates instead.
SETTING ADDITIONAL OPTIONS
As the final step of configuring your backups, you should select the tables you wish to include in your database backup processes. The “DB Backup” tab allows you to make these selections. You can either choose specific tables, or press “all” if you want to back them all up. Be sure to click “save” after you have made your changes.
For more information and tips about data backups and web security, contact us today at Conroy Creative Counsel.
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