How to Use UpdraftPlus to Backup and Restore a WordPress Website?
It's not new to backup your WordPress website. Every time you read a security guide, most WordPress professionals recommend you to backup your site before making any changes.
Of course! It's all about preparing for a hard time. I understand it can be a little bit scary for non-techie users. But what if I told that backing up a site using UpdraftPlus isn't so difficult?
Most WordPress users don't know to code, and that's the first question they ask if they require coding skills to maintain, back up, or update their site. In this article, I am going to answers all of such questions.
There are many guides available on the web where you can learn how to backup a WordPress website using cPanel built-in options or manually. But today, you are going to master UpdraftPlus—a plugin for backing up a WordPress site—at its best.
A Step By Step Process to Backup Your WordPress Site Using UpdraftPlus
Once in a while, every time something new comes up, people refrain themselves from doing that. Well, UpdraftPlus is one of the most reputed plugins people use to back up their site.
Here are some steps you can follow:
Step 1:-
First of all, log in to your WordPress admin panel and install and activate UpdraftPlus. I hope you know how to install a WordPress plugin.
Step 2:-
Go to Settings>>UpdraftPlus Backups where you see the available backups. As you just installed this plugin, there is no backup file present.
Step 3:-
To initiate the backup process, you need to click on the big Backup Now button.
Step 4:-
Within a few seconds, the backup process starts, and you can see a backup file under Existing Backups. You can see there are separate backups for the database, plugins, themes, and others.
Step 5:-
Now, you may be wondering how to download these backup files to your computer. Well, all you need to do is click on any of the buttons including database, plugins, and others, a box appears above the backup files.
Here, when I click on the database button, a box comes up with two options—Download to your computer and Delete from your web server.
Here you want to download, so, click on the first button and the downloading process starts in your browser.
Similarly, you can download all the files to your computer.
Isn't that easy to backup your website and its database using this plugin? You will be glad to know that you can also schedule the backup in advance. I just explained a manual method of download the backup files a WordPress site. You can also use Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Cloud, and a few other platforms to store the backup files.
If you click on the Settings tab of the UpdraftPlus plugin, you can see a lot of options to choose from. Of course! You can schedule the backup for files and database.
Now that you have learned how to backup your WordPress site, it's time to learn the restoring process. If you don't know how to restore, the backup files are of no use.
Restoring Backup Files Using UpdraftPlus
One of the best features of this plugin is how convenient it is to manage the backup files. You can use the backup files if your website gets hacked, or you wish to migrate your site from one host to another.
If you want to restore the backup files to your existing website, you have to delete the WordPress installation and start from scratch.
Have a new WordPress installation. Either use cPanel or use the re-install option from the WordPress admin panel.
As usual, install and activate the UpdraftPlus plugin to restore the backup files you backed up in earlier.
Follow these steps.
Step 1:-
Once again, after installing and activating UpdraftPlus, go to Settings>>UpdraftPlus Backups and scroll down to find an option to Upload backup files.
Click, and you can see a button to Select Files. Choose the backup files of the database, plugins, themes, and others.
Step 2:-
Whenever you upload a file, you see it under Existing backups. You can also find an option to restore the file. Click to initiate the restoring process.
Step 3:-
A popup appears to select a checkbox for the database. Check it and click on the Restore button. Depending on the size of the database, the process finishes accordingly.
Similarly, you have to repeat the restoring process for all the backup files. Once done, clear cache and check your site's content.
If you find everything just like your previous website, congrats! You have successfully finished the restoring process for your WordPress site.
Sometimes, you might notice some media files missing from your blog posts. Well, you can always upload again to your current WordPress media library.
Checking everything on your site is important. Blog migration or restoration can be tricky sometimes. I hope you don't face any problem.
Isn't it Easy to Backup and Restore a WordPress Site Using UpdraftPlus?
Every time you read a new tutorial, you should think if you want to use it or not. It's always a good thing to try something in a local environment.
I know, for non-techie people, the concept of creating a local environment is scary, but if you try, it's easy. Anyways, I have explained a step by step process to backup and restore a Wordpress website using UpdraftPlus.
I am sure; you won't fret while following this tutorial. Each step has a screenshot to guide you on how the process works. Backing up a site can be tricky because of so many options.
But with the use of the UpdraftPlus plugin, everything seems a piece of cake. As I mentioned earlier, it's important to decide whether you want to download the backup files to your computer or store them to any of the platforms available.
Many WordPress experts recommend having more than one copy of the site's backup files. So, you can download to your computer as well as use Dropbox or any other plugin to keep another copy.
Depending on your choice and convenience, you can go for an option. I hope you can easily follow this tutorial to backup and restore your WordPress site.
Just because of easy WordPress is, even a non-techie person can manage their site. Enjoy using WordPress!
