Backin' it up

How do you make a post about backing up your WordPress blog sound exciting?  Answer: you don't!  But with a WordPress security update just released (2.8.6), we are reminded that backing up your self-hosted blog is a necessary evil.  Luckily, there's a plugin that makes the process decidedly un-evil, which I'll tell you about in a minute.  So even if you don't feel like reading this post right now, you'll always know that it's here for you to return to when you're ready to do a backup.   At the very least, scroll down to the part about the plugin I recommend and set it to do automatic database backups for you.

Why backup your blog?

It's good to be in the habit of backing up your blog, just in case something happens.  Even if you're not self-hosted, you should still occasionally use the Tools–>Export feature of WordPress to create an XML file of your posts and images, just in case your blog should somehow be hacked or you should accidentally delete a post.

To the self-hosters among us, backing up is far more important.  You never know what might happen when you install an out-of-date plugin or mess up an upgrade to the latest version of WordPress.  One-click installs and upgrades, such as those offered by Bluehost (where we host this blog), definitely take a lot of the worry and hassle out of the process, but it still doesn't hurt to be prepared.  You should always backup your database and files before upgrading, and I like to backup after doing any amount of work on my blog that I'd be upset if it were lost.

How to backup your WordPress blog

There are two main parts to a backup: backing up your database, and backing up your files.

Backing up your database

Without going into too much detail, your database consists primarily of your posts and settings.  For those interested in doing it the old-fashioned way, WordPress support offers a useful set of instructions for backups (I like the phpMyAdmin version of the database backup).  But you can save yourself a lot of trouble with the database backup by using the plugin WP-DB-Backup.  What I love about this plugin is that you can set it to automatically backup your database and save or email you the file twice a day, once a day, weekly, etc.  If you do nothing else I recommend in this post, at least get this free plugin and set it to do automatic backups!

Backing up your files

Your files are what WordPress uses to run.  They consist of the WordPress core files, your theme, your images, and a lot more.  The only way I know to backup files is to use an FTP client like Filezilla.  This might sound intimidating but it's a very easy graphical Windows-like system to use.  Again, the WordPress team comes to the rescue with an easy-to-understand set of instructions for using Filezilla.  I won't try to explain it any better than they do; I'll just tell you that basically all you're doing is using the program to drag copies of your files from your website into a folder on your computer.  There's really not much more to it than that.  Files don't change nearly as often as your database, so I generally backup my files only before making a big change to my blog, like trying to manually edit the code or upgrading WordPress.

Happy backups!  Better safe than sorry, right?  As always, feel free to contact us with any questions you have, whether technical or just looking for some feedback on your site.