Oh no! My dog ate my website! That is exactly what it feels like when you upgrade your WordPress site and your older plugins don’t exactly get along with the new software. When dealing with WordPress, it is not uncommon to run into a few bugs and hiccups. Sometimes you upgrade for security (like when a new version of WordPress is released). Or maybe the newer version of that plugin you love runs much faster or looks much sleeker than its crusty predecessor. Whatever reason you chose to modify your WordPress setup, it is imperative that you back everything up – just in case things go wrong (and they do).
So – without ado – here are a few options that will help (and most likely save) you or your client’s website.
X-CLONER
XCloner is a Backup and Restore component designed for PHP/Mysql websites, and it works as a native plugin for WordPress. It was created to create and restore the clone on any other location with the help of the automatic Restore script they provide, independent from the main package!
XCloner Backup tool uses Open Source standards like TAR and Mysql formats so you can rest assured your backups can be restored in a variety of ways, giving you more flexibility and full control.
WP Time Machine
Create archives of all your WordPress data & files and have them stored remotely. That’s right! Remote storage of…
1. Your data (from your WordPress MySQL database)
2. Your files (and Uploads) — everything in wp-content
3. Your .htaccess file
4. Instructions for a smooth recovery
5. A shell script that can help automate recovery — though this is still a “work in progress”
You provide the remote account; this plugin provides a connection to the offsite facility you choose.
You can choose to store your files on…
1. You can use Dropbox (if you don’t have a dropbox use this link): http://www.dropbox.com/
2. Also, archives can be ‘sent’ to Amazon’s AWS S3: https://s3.amazonaws.com
3. And, FTP is now supported as well (just provide an offsite host, username & password, and optionally a remote directory on that host)
Some recent improvements include:
1. A new option to exclude cache directories
2. Automatic exclusion of MySQL tables that don’t start with your table prefix
This Plugin requires PHP5 for all of its features!
With PHP4, the only offsite service capable of working at this time is FTP.
Author: Paul G Petty
WP DB Backup
WP-DB-Backup allows you easily to backup your core WordPress database tables. You may also backup other tables in the same database.
This is a really nifty plugin for a quick and easy backup of your database. Keep in mind, though, that if you need to restore your site, you will need your database AND files (typically stored in your wp-content folder).
If you need help backing up your WordPress site, let us know – we’d love to help. And we’d love to hear how you’re backing up your site. What systems, plugins, or modules do you use?