If you are running a WordPress blog or website, then it’s important for you to have a complete backup of it. You never know when your site may encounter any security threat and you lose all your data. Having a regular backup your site will help you to defense against security threats, and in case anything goes wrong, you can restore the backup.
There are various WordPress backup plugins that you can install and schedule a backup of your site like BackUpWordPress, BackWPup, etc. But here in this post, I will talk about the BackWPup plugin that will help you to create complete WordPress backup for free and schedule it automatically. The reason I’m going with BackWPup because it’s the most useful plugin used by WordPress users and has over 500,000+ active installs.
How To Use BackWPup Plugin To Create Website Backup
Let’s see how you can use this plugin to create a backup of your WordPress site.
Installing the BackWPup Plugin
- Go to WordPress Dashboard >> Plugins >> Add New
- Type “BackWPup” in the search box
- Click on “Install Now” option and activate the plugin
- Once you activate the plugin, you will see a notice on your dashboard like this.
- Click on “Yes, I Agree” option to proceed further
Creating Backup Jobs
- Go to BackWPup >> Add new job to create an automated backup job for your WordPress site.
- Under General Tab, provide a name for the job. In my case, I have named it as “Sitebackup”
- Select the type of tasks that you want to perform in this job. This includes database backup, file backup, WordPress XML export, Installed plugins list, Check database tables. For instance, I have selected all the options.
- Next, under Backup File Creation, choose an Archive Format. By default, zip format is selected. However, you can choose any format that you like.
- Under Job Destination section, select the option where you want your backup to be stored. Do not store the backups on your server. Go with other options. For the sake of this tutorial, I would select Dropbox for backup.
Schedule Automatic Backup In WordPress
- Under Schedule Tab, select the option of how often do you want to schedule your site. Use “WordPress cron” option if you want to schedule the backup weekly, monthly, or daily. By default, the manual option is selected.
Selecting the Files To Backup
- Under DB Backup tab, select the files that you want to backup
- By default, this plugin selects all the files for backup which you can uncheck and reduce the backup size. If you are not sure which files to backup, keep all of them selected.
- Rename the backup file name as per your need.
- Under Files tab, select the files and directories that you want to backup. I would recommend you not to backup WordPress core files just go with wp-content/uploads folder.
Saving WordPress Backup To Dropbox
- Since we choose Dropbox as a destination for backup, click on To: Dropbox tab, and create your Dropbox account.
Once you are done with the signup process and everything, Dropbox will ask your permission to grant BackWPup access to your Dropbox account.
And that’s it. From here the plugin will take care of the rest. Whenever you want to run the backup, just click on Run Now link, the backup will be restored.
What Else Can I Do With BackWPup Plugin?
- WordPress XML Export
- Check & Repair Database
- Send Logs & Backups By Email
- Multi-site Support For Backup
- Backup Available In Various Formats
- Proper Training Videos For Complete Usage
Final Thoughts:
I can’t stress enough that you should have a WordPress site backup. Don’t wait for your site to be hacked or getting infected by any malware, start creating a backup now and restore it whenever needed.
I hope the above tutorial will help you in creating your website backup using BackWPup plugin.
If you have any questions or need any help, feel to comment below, I will help you.
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