How to backup your WordPress system?

If you use hosting, then the company that offers such a service should perform systematic data backup. This way, if necessary, you have access to versions of the site from different days or even different times of the day and can restore them. You are also able to do the backup yourself. What should you know about backing up your WordPress system?

Why is your WordPress not secure?

The WP system is by far the most popular CMS in the world. According to w3techs.com, it has more than 63% share for sites that use the CMS. If we consider all existing sites, including those not using the CMS, this share is more than 43%.

Source: https://w3techs.com/

There is a huge community working on WP. This makes it constantly developed and secure. If you have a basic version of the system, there is little risk that the site will be hacked. Mostly the cause of problems are plugins and themes. Be sure to keep them updated.

According to the developers of the systems security-related plugin Sucuri, in 2018 as many as 90% of queries about cleaning a site from infection involved WordPress.

Source: https://kinsta.com/blog/wordpress-statistics/

As for the most common reasons for break-ins, these were:

• 41% – a gap in the hosting platform,
• 52% – WordPress plugins,
• 44% – the old version of the WordPress system.

It is important to keep the system, plugins and themes up-to-date, but also to use hosting that provides data protection. The server service should guarantee systematic backup, so when choosing a hosting offer, pay attention to:

• Frequency of making copies – preferably at least once a day,
• access to old copies – i.e., whether you can use a backup from a particular day only, from a week ago, two weeks ago or a month ago.

The older the copies stored on the server, the better, because if the site is attacked or you simply lose data, you can restore the site.

Create backups on your own

It should be mandatory for the hosting company to provide data backup, but do not forget that servers are devices – damage to the storage media can occur. A copy should always be saved not only on one hardware. However, it is possible that such a coincidence that both machines on which the data is located will fail. What then? Unfortunately, but you will lose your sites. That’s why it is imperative that you make backups yourself and do it systematically. This way, at most you will lose the data of a few days, and not all the files.

You can restore backups up to 14 days back in KRU, but we still advise you to do them yourself as well, just in case.

Did you know that March 31 is World Backup Day? This is when various institutions often conduct surveys on backup. Every year the situation is improving, but we are still far from perfect. Only 24% of respondents do backup regularly. The survey was about phones and computers, but is the situation better for servers? Do you remember to back up your data? If not, take care of it as soon as possible!

Source: https://swresearch.pl/news/backup-po-polsku-czyli-jak-polacy-tworza-kopie-zapasowe-danych

How to create a backup of WordPress system data?

You have several options – less and more demanding. We will show you three methods you can use. Remember to create the backup systematically and as often as possible. How to make one? Check.

Backup your WordPress system with a plugin.

Log in to the administration panel of your WP-based site and go to the Plugins tab. Then choose Add New, search for Backup Migration plugin. It has more than 60 thousand active installations, is updated and very positively reviewed. In the WP database you will find plenty of plugins that are used for backups, but for this one you will not be negatively surprised by the limitations. Some plugins allow you to transfer only small sites that occupy a small area. Here it is different. The plugin also has the advantage of being easy to use. Have you managed to find a plugin? Then turn it on.

The Backup Migration option will appear in the left-hand menu in the administration panel. Click it. Expand: What will be included in the backup? You can possibly deselect files, databases or other items that you do not want in the backup. On the other hand, if you care about a full copy of the site, in that case do not change anything.

To create a backup, click Create Backup Now!

Then the plug-in will count how much data will be backed up. All you still have to do is click Create Backup.

The plug-in displays how the process is progressing. It goes through the process expressly. In the summary you will see a link to download the backup.

To restore a copy, you need to use this plugin again. It works great when you want to move your site to a new server. Thanks to it, this task should not cause you any problems, even if you have no experience in this.

Create a backup through the KRU management panel

If you are using our offer, then log into the service management panel. Select Advanced Features and then Create/Restore Backup.

You can decide what should be included in the backup. If you don’t have any special requirements, don’t exactly need a copy of specific files, then don’t change anything and click Create Backup. This will create a backup of all the data you have on your hosting account, including databases.

When the copy is made, then you will receive a message. If you want to restore the created copy, then again select Advanced Features and then Create/Restore Backup.

Select a copy and click Restore.

Note that in the above screenshot there is also an option: View current backups. You can download the files from there. It’s worth doing this so that you don’t take up disk space and have a backup stored in the memory of, for example, your computer.

Manually create a copy of the WordPress system files and database

The next method requires the most steps, but is also effective and worthy of consideration. Log in to the KRU administration panel, select System Information and Files, and then File Management.

Navigate to the files of the domain whose data copy you want to make. Select domains, highlight the domain you are interested in and open the public_html folder. Point to all the files – just click the square next to Name, at the very top. In the screenshot below, this option is marked with an arrow.

Now select Add to archive.

You can decide where to save the archive, but it’s better to leave it as it is – the file will be in the public_html folder. When it’s ready, click Download to save a copy to your device.

That’s not all. You still need a database backup. In the KRU management panel, select Additional features and then phpMyAdmin.

On the right side, click the database you are interested in. If you don’t know what it’s called, take a look at the wp-config.php file, which you’ll find in the public_html folder. The name of the database is given there.

Now select Export.

In the next step, click Export again. Then you will automatically download a file that is a backup of the database.

To restore a copy of the database, you must use the Import function.

Now you have a copy of the files and the base – you can rest easy. But are you sure?

Testing the backup

Since you have a file archive, make sure it works. It happens that after downloading a file, for various reasons, it cannot be opened, and thus you will not be able to access the data. So every time you download an archive, check that it definitely works. If an error pops up, then perform the action again or generate a copy once again.