Please re-read the title again.
I want you to take the backing up of your blog very, very seriously.
Just imagine…
…you don’t take backups and your blog is hacked into or your host server gets corrupted.
Can you imagine losing everything?
Your posts…your images…your comments…your themes…your plugins…the settings.
Can you imagine if you could never get any of your information back?
What would you do?
I am purposely trying to scare you because I want you to do something about it.
I want you to start taking regular backups.
I want you to check your backups are working if you are taking backups.
I want you to take some action as a result of reading this.
Backup Tools / Plugins
WP-DBManager
This plugin is the most widely used for automatically backing up your database files.
Pros:
Easy to install and use
Automatically update your database files
Automatically optimize your database files (helps improve load speed of your blog)
Repairs and restores your database files
Cons:
The plugin only backs up your database files and not your entire WordPress blog.
Cost:
Free.
I personally don’t use WP-DBManager for backing up my blog as it doesn’t backup everything.
I do use it to automatically optimize my database files though. It helps improve the loading speed of your blog.
Here’s more details on WP-DBManager :
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-dbmanager/
Automatic WordPress Backup
One of the best plugins around that backs up your ENTIRE site (WordPress database, themes, plugins, uploaded files and settings files), which means minimal downtime if you need to restore.
Pros:
Automatically backs up your entire site
Backups are stored on Amazon S3 servers
The plugin is free
Cons:
Windows servers & PHP4 are NOT supported yet (most hosts these days use Linux servers and PHP5 – but it is worth checking).
Costs:
You will have to pay a monthly fee for an S3 Amazon account. If your backup files are 50 GB, you’ll pay approx $7 a month.
Here’s more details on Automatic WordPress Backup:
http://www.webdesigncompany.net/automatic-wordpress-backup/
Vault Press
This plugin has been created by WordPress themselves – so you know it is going to be good.
Pros:
Easy to use – install the plugin and set it up.
Protect just one or as many WordPress blogs and sites as you like.
Automatically backs up your entire site using the WordPress servers
Cons:
None
Costs:
Cost ranges from $15 to $40 per month per blog site
Here’s more details on VaultPress:
iDrive
iDrive backs up your entire site and after the first backup, only backs up the files that have changed – meaning the backups are much quicker.
Pros:
Easy to use – install the plugin and set it up.
Protect just one or as many WordPress blogs and sites as you like.
Automatically backs up your entire site using their iDrive servers
Backs up your ENTIRE site
Completes incremental backups rather than full back-ups each time
Cons:
Windows servers & PHP4 are NOT supported yet (most hosts these days use Linux servers and PHP5 – but it is worth checking).
Costs:
Cost $4.95 per month for up to 150GB of data – that is plenty of space for 2 or 3 blog sites.
If you go over your allocated space, you are charged $0.50 per extra GB – which is over 3 times the S3 Amazon costs.
Here’s more details on iDrive:
https://www.webuildyourblog.com/idrive.htm
Backup Buddy
This is the backup plugin I use for myself and my clients. It is easy to use and has many options.
Pros:
Easy to install and use
Automatically backs up your entire site
3 different storage options:
1. Amazon S3 servers
2. FTP them to another host server
3. Email them (although the backup files would have to be small to be able to email them)
Migrate option. You can migrate from one server to another.
Cons:
PHP4 is NOT supported (most hosts these days use PHP5 – but it is worth checking).
You have to re-new the license use each year
Costs:
From $45 per year for 2 sites plus any S3 Amazon or hosting costs.
Here’s more details on Backup Buddy:
https://www.webuildyourblog.com/backupbuddy.htm
As I say above, I use Backup Buddy as my backup solution.
I store my back-up files on an alternative host account where I already have unlimited space hosting – so it doesn’t cost me any extra.
At the moment you can get 25% off Backup Buddy by using this discount code:
RESOLVE2011
The 25% off code expires on 31st January – simply add the discount code on the sign-up page.
https://www.webuildyourblog.com/backupbuddy.htm
Costs In Summary
| Premium Plugin | Costs | Link |
| Automatic WordPress Backup | approx $7 a month | http://www.webdesigncompany.net/automatic-wordpress-backup/ |
| ————————————————- | ——————————- | ————————————————— |
| Vault Press | from $15 per month | http://vaultpress.com/ |
| ————————————————- | ——————————- | ————————————————– |
| iDrive | $4.95 per month | https://www.webuildyourblog.com/idrive.htm |
| ————————————————- | ——————————- | ————————————————– |
| Backup Buddy | From $3 a month with discount code | https://www.webuildyourblog.com/backupbuddy.htm |
Takeaway Action
Please review your backup process and if needed invest in one of the plugins above.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Great reminder about the importance of backing up your data! Too many people think that once it’s posted online you will always have access to it, which isn’t always the case! These tools are well worth the cost.
Thanks, Nick – I totally agree!
Andrew
You know Andrew, I always thought that backing the website on the same server is a great solution but I realized after (thank God that only the db was corrupted) a problem with one of my servers that this is not the case.
Now, although I didn’t bought an other service, the company offered to install two more Hard drives in RAID 1 with my normal drives for a small one time fee. At least now I know my data is in two places that are synchronized and I don’t have to do daily backups.
Alex,
Sounds like you have found a great solution.
Do they charge you for the synchronized solution?
Andrew
The charged my a one time fee for installing the new hard drives and that’s it :).
Alex,
So am I right in saying your whole blog is constantly being backed up to a different server?
Andrew
It’s not a different server, it’s a different hard drive. So at any one moment, I have 2 hard-drives with the same information.
Alex,
So without being too pessimistic…if the server gets corrupted…you have no backups?
Andrew
If this doesn’t scare your readers straight, Andrew, I don’t know what will. 🙂
Great info on available tools!
Ana
Ana,
Thanks!
I want to scare people into taking action.
I get so many requests from people who have been hacked and not had backups in place.
“horse…bolt…door” are the words that spring to mind.
Andrew
I was doing a blog move on my dedicated server and almost lost everything. Luckily I had a recent database backup– it was really scary to think I would have lost everything!
There is definitely a market for this type of thing for bloggers who make money. Everyone else will have to resort to doing it manually I suppose!
Zac,
You were lucky!
Manually is a way forward but it can take time.
I just prefer…set-up and forget…and for a few dollars a month, it is worth it.
Andrew
I’m curious. What do any of these solutions do that I can’t get for free with my FTP client?
I don’t update my blogs daily, so backing it up daily would be a waste. What I do is about once a week, I point FileZilla to my blogs and download everything that has changed in the last week. The process takes about one minute per blog.
Automation.
Andrew
Its true that we shall have to take the backup of our blog. We can risk losing everything. Even if you didnt backup the entire blog, never forget to backup the database, because that is what holds your posts and other details. Why do we need to shell out the cash ? You can set it in your server to make a full backup daily or any other periods.
David,
Is the backup saved on the same server as your blog?
Andrew
Hi,
Don’t you think cpanel full backup is not enough for a secure backup ?
If you use hostgator they do have backup on every sunday but they charge 10 $ for that but still that is more economical than paying 7$ every month to amazon , what you say ?
Girish
That sounds like an economical solution. Is that $10 a one-off payment or each year or…?
I update my blog most days, so a weekly backup could be out of date.
Andrew
Andrew,
$10 is for per case basis. If you need to restore your account they will take the latest backup from last sunday and restore it for you.
I know , for those who update the blog daily will not be a good solution but it helps at times.
Girish
It sounds like a good alternative to the ones I list.
Andrew
Yes Backing up your blogs and all your online stuff is a very good idea. I am making manual back ups of my blogs after 2 of my blogs were blocked and removed by blogger dot com.
Does Backup Buddy works with Blogger dot com?
No, it only works with WordPress.
Andrew
The information in this blog is really a appreciable. I would really like to say that the knowledge you have about this is quit impressing. But the main thing here is the way to present the information, and you have done it very nicely. Great work and love to visit on your blog again and again. Keep posting nice information.
Thanks – I appreciate your kind words.
Andrew
Hi Andrew. It’s the strangest thing but all of a sudden I stopped getting email back up of my blog from WP-DBManager. So I tried backing it up manually and it still didn’t work. I started looking around for another plugin and found BackUp WordPress. Seems like a pretty good alternative but I’m going to look into the options you offered here and see what makes sense for me. Thanks for the run down!
Ileane
I hope you get your backup situation resolved…real quick.
Andrew
Oh boy, I once lost my entire blog a couple of years ago due to a silly mistake on my part (I was a SQL newbie back then).. I didn’t have any backups, I begged my web hosts to restore what they had backed up, but to no avail. I lost maybe 5 years worth of posts, and even worse the blog was making me a steady income everyday. From that moment on, I learned ALWAYS back up things every month or so.
Henway
If anyone is sitting on the fence about doing backups…they need to read your comment.
Andrew
Andrew ,
Thanks for always sharing the GREAT stuff.
I have 3 questions:
1. Please give me the link of the following in your post:
“Click here and read the full post (825 words, 1 image, estimated 3:18 mins reading time)”
2. Some plugins are asking for API Key. I don’t know how to get one. I’m using WordPress.org / self hosted
3. I don’t know how to get Akismet. I have installed the plugin using your Income Blogging Book. But resolve the following message continuously showing on my WordPress.org panel
“Akismet is almost ready. You must enter your Akismet API key for it to work.”
Waiting for your reply
Kamil,
Re: answers…
1. I use the Post Teaser plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/post-teaser/
2 and 3. To get your API key, you need to open a WordPress.com account. Once opened, you will get access to your WordPress API key which is needed for Akismet.
Andrew
Andrew, I made an account in WordPress.com, but it is not giving me any API.
Whereever API is written it is linking to http://akismet.com/wordpress/
What to do now?
Kamil,
If you go to your Akismet settings from within your blog’s dashboard, it steps you through where to get the API key.
Andrew
Thanks, it’s done.
Now, can I use the same API for my all blogs?
Or do I have to make separate WordPress.com account for separate API to assign each separate API to each blogs?
Regards,
Kamil,
yes you can use the same API for all your blogs.
Andrew
I read recently WP is now charging for the key…
Really? I didn’t know that.
That’s a bit off.
Andrew
Hi Andrew
I am really thankful for techie friends who sorted this for me when they checked my back office! I get backup every couple of days and a friend does my whole site frequently too. How awful to lose the information we work so hard to put together and share with our readers.
For those who don’t have backups, you have certainly covered it well. Hope they take notice and take action. I’m glad I did.
BTW I now have a brand new look to my blog thanks to a very kind and generous friend who did it for me. It now looks more professional but still inviting; was the way Alex Whalley described it when he visited after the upgrade. That was the effect I wanted so very happy with it.
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia
It’s great to know you have it all covered.
Your new site looks brill!
Andrew
Wooo…! awesome post !
Really daily backup manually too difficult for lazy people like me!
Really andrew thanks for this great post!
RT it 🙂
Thanks, Shashank!
Andrew
Wow … this was eye opening info!
I have been running WP-DBManager for my sites, but I never realized that it has such limitations.
I want to try Backup Buddy as you suggested.
Cheers,
Timo
Timo,
It is worth trying.
Andrew
Great side by side feature comparison.
Thanks, Alison.
Andrew
it seems we reached the threaded comments limit.
First of all, it doesn’t matter if the servers breaks because all I care about is my data.
The data i have now is always mirrored on an other hard-drive (this is done automatically when the data is written on the original hard-drive), so in case that one drive gets corrupted because of bad sectors, broken raid arrays, bad mdr arrays or whatever my data is safe on the other hard drive.
But in case I corrupt the data (like inserting gibberish in the database or whatever) that is backed up too. But that is easily solvable by implementing an incremental backup.
The likely hood of both HD breaking at the same time is slim.
Alex,
I understand now.
Sounds like your backups are secure!
Andrew
Hey Andrew,
Thank you so much for the information. Before reading this the only plugin I knew about to help back up my site was WP-DBManager, and I was misinformed about this plugin because I thought it backed up my entire site but like you said that is not true.
It is a scary thought that you can quickly lose everything on your site that you have been working so hard to build.
Thanks for sending me in the right direction. I think I am going to try iDrive because of the price. Once again thanks a lot for sharing and your recommendations.
John,
I’m pleased I could help and I hope you find a solution you like.
Andrew
My blog can crash, my host can crash, but so can all these other “on-site solutions”, no?
Dennis
What side of bed did you get out of?
Wow – what a thought!
These guys have numerous backups and security facilities in place for your backups.
I backup to another server on a different host.
So for me to lose my data, both servers on 2 different hosts would have to crash, get corrupted within a few hours of each other.
I be surprized that would happen. I’m not saying it couldn’t but what are the chances.
Perhaps I should have 2 or 3 backup facilities in place!
Andrew
LOL sorry man, I have no faith in online backup, storage, or any of that.
If it’s in-house and goes screwy, I do whatever I can to get my stuff back, and KNOW I did all I could.
It goes screwy online and I get an OOPS gee golly whiz I don’t know what happened, and their say so that they did all they could to recover it.
Well…we are all different!
Andrew
Hmm…
Andrew,
What about just using the back-up option in CPanelX and then once it is done, downloading it to an external drive? For those who post 1 – 2 times per week, that maybe a good option?
Adam,
Yes, you can do that but I prefer the automatic route.
I don’t want to have remind myself to do the backup and then go through the process of doing it.
Andrew
i’ve been making database backups daily for my main site and weekly for my other sites (not updated regularly).
iDrive looks like a good option, I like he differential approach plus im assuming non-restriction to wordpress,
Donace,
re: iDrive.
Certainly not restricted to WordPress.
Andrew
Perfect timing Andrew! I was just talking to a friend today about what plugins to use.
I currently use WordPress Backup (by BTE) and WP-DBManager but I’ll have to check out Backup Buddy since it seems to be a 2’fer 🙂 no need for 2 different plugins.
Question: You mentioned you use WP-DBManager to optimize the speed of your blog…do you just turn off the automatic backup of the DB and leave optimize on?
Kesha
You asked:
“You mentioned you use WP-DBManager to optimize the speed of your blog…do you just turn off the automatic backup of the DB and leave optimize on?”
I do. Check out my latest video:
https://www.webuildyourblog.com/4473/simple-speed-plugins-business-blog/
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thanks your the exstensive list of back-up options. Will do some more comparative research.
Anne,
You are welcome. I hope it helps you make a decision.
Andrew