How to backup your WordPress Site the Easy Way!

The Easiest Way to Backup Your WordPress Website.

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Backing up your WordPress site can be a real pain. Especially if you do it the WordPress Codex way. You have to copy all of your WordPress files via ftp, that parts not so bad, but then you have to go in to your web host login to your MySQL database click a bunch of settings that don’t make sense and then cross your fingers and pray that you did it right. Total pain.

But there is an easier way! The BackupBuddy plugin! I’ve been personally using this plugin on all of my sites for the last 2 years and it’s amazing! Easy to use for backup’s and easy to use to restore your site. Plus it saves me hours of my time from doing it the old fashioned way! Find out exactly how to do it. Read ON!

Here is your JTAP (Just the Answer Please) on how to backup your WordPress site the easy way.

Step1: Get the BackupBuddy Plugin

This is a premium plugin, but there is no easier to backup your WordPress website. BackupBuddy it’s Awesome!  Click here to Get the BackupBuddy Plugin

Step 2: Install and activate the plugin…

If you need help with this read this post on how to install premium wordpress plugin’s that are not part of the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Step 3: Set your BackupBuddy password and error email address

In order to restore a backup, or move your backed up site to a new server location BackupBuddy needs you to set up a password. The password is used for the php file that automates the reloading of your site. Automation, now that’s what I’m talking about!

Go to your Dashboard > BackupBuddy > Settings and put in a password.

Look down a little bit farther and fill in the “Error notification recipient(s)” field. That way if something goes wrong with a backup you’ll be the first to know.

Step 4: Back it UP!

Under BackupBuddy in your dashboard select Backup. The backup window will appear. You will see to Areas. An upper area of the settings and a lower area. The Lower area will show you all the past backups of your site. If this is your fist backup the lower area will be empty.

In the upper area is where you will do your first backup. You are given a choice between a Database Only Backup and a Full Complete Backup. I recommend doing a full backup.

The Full Complete Backup: backups all of your site files, all your posts, all of your images that you have uploaded and any changes that you have made to your site. It makes a full and complete copy of your site. You can actually take this copy and move your website to another location.

The Database only backup: Backs up everything that is in your WordPress database so all of the texts in your posts and pages. Some of the settings in your plugins things like that. It does not save the images that you have uploaded or changes that you may have made to style sheets of your WordPress site.

Step 5: Save your backup someplace!

After the backup is completed a copy of it is saved in the wp-content folder under uploads/backupbuddy_backups. You are also given an option to download the file to you computer. I recommend doing this the first time and then periodically so that you have a copy of your site on your computer.

Important! You will also need a copy of the importbuddy.php file if you need to completely reload your site. You can get that file by going to your Dashboard > BackupBuddy > Restore/Migrate then click on the Download importbuddy.php button. Keep the importbuddy.php file and the zip copy of your website backup together so that you have both of them if you need them!

You are all done! Site backed up. BackupBuddy installed. I recommend scheduling a regular backup. That give you just one less thing to worry about!