Backing Up Your WordPress Website or Blog in Cpanel

There are two parts to backing up your WordPress site: Database and Files. You need to back up the entire site, and you need to back up your WordPress database. Below are instructions for backing up your WordPress database for various server programs. We will start with backing up the rest of your WordPress Site.

Your WordPress site consists of the following:

1. WordPress Core Installation
2. WordPress Plugins
3. WordPress Themes
4. Images and Files
5. Javascript scripts, PHP scripts, and other code files
6. Additional Files and Static Web Pages

All of these are used in various combinations to generate your website. The database contains your posts and a lot of data generated on your site, but it does not include the above elements that all come together to create the look and information on your site. These need to be saved.

Most hosts back up the entire server, including your site, but it takes time to request a copy of your site from their backups, and a speedy recovery is critical. You need to learn how to back up your own site files and restore them. Here are some methods.

Website Host Provided Backup Software 

Most website hosts provide software to back up your site. Check with your host to find out what services and programs they provide.

Create Sync With Your Site 

WinSCP and other programs allow you to sync with your website to keep a mirror copy of the content on your server and hard drive updated. It saves time and makes sure you have the latest files in both places.

Copy Your Files to Your Desktop 

Using FTP Clients or UNIX Shell Skills you can copy the files to a folder on your computer. Once there, you can zip or compress them into a zip file to save space, allowing you to keep several versions.

Remember, keep at least three backups on file, just in case one is corrupted or lost, and store them in different places and on different mediums, like CD, DVD, different hard drives, etc.

Database Backup Instructions

Back up your WordPress database regularly, and always before an upgrade or move to a new location. The following information will help you back up your WordPress database using various popular server software packages. For detailed information, contact your website host for more information on the program, control panel, and resources they provide.

Accessing phpMyAdmin

See PHPMyAdmin for more information on PHPMyAdmin.

While familiarity with phpMyAdmin is not necessary to back up your WordPress database, these instructions should take you step-by-step through the process of finding phpMyAdmin on your server and then you can follow the instructions below as a simple and easy backup or for more detailed instructions see Backing Up Your Database.

• cPanel
• Direct Admin
• Ensim
• Plesk
• vDeck
• Ferozo

cPanel

On your main control panel for cPanel, look for the MySQL logo and click the link to MySQL Databases. On the next page, look for phpMyAdmin link and click it to access your phpMyAdmin.

cPanel Access Databases

cPanel Access to phpMyAdmin

Direct Admin

From Your Account page, look for MySQL Management and click it to access phpMyAdmin.

Direct Admin Access Databases

Direct Admin Access to phpMyAdmin

Ensim

Look for the MySQL Admin logo and click the link. Under Configuration choose MySQL Administration Tool.

Plesk

Click the button for Databases. Then choose the link to the WordPress database you setup during the WordPress installation. Then click on the button for phpMyAdmin.

vDeck

From the main control panel, click Host Manager, then click Databases. In the next window, click Admin. Another window will popup taking you to the phpMyAdmin login screen.

Ferozo

Login to your Ferozo Control Panel by using your credentials. Once inside, go to the “Base de Datos” (“Data Base”) menu and then click on “Acceso phpMyAdmin” (“Access phpMyAdmin”). A new window will open displaying the phpMyAdmin login screen.

Simple Backup

The following is a very simple version of how to use phpMyAdmin to back up your WordPress database. For more detailed information see WordPress Backups and Backing Up Your Database. Once you have discovered how to access your site’s phpMyAdmin, follow these simple instructions.

Begin by clicking database in your phpMyAdmin panel. (It may not be necessary to do this, depending on your version of PHPMyAdmin)

You may have several databases. Click the one that holds your WordPress data, the database you created when you installed WordPress. (In older versions this may be done through a pull-down menu.)

This next picture shows the default tables in the Structure view tab. You may have more tables — this would happen if you have any statistics plugins or anti-spam plugins.

Click “Export”. (The next picture shows the Export tab view.)

1. Select All the tables, and check the SQL radio button.
2. Check the “Add DROP TABLE” box. (This can be useful for over-writing an existing database.)
3. Check the “Add IF NOT EXISTS” check box. (This prevents errors during restores if the tables are already there.) You can optionally check the “Complete inserts” box. (Though it won’t matter too much if you don’t.) You can optionally check the Extended Inserts if you wish. (This gives a smaller, but less readable, output file.)
4. Check the “Save as File” box
5. Check the “None” for compression. If your database is very large use a compression method.
6. Click Go. The data will now be saved into your computer.

Keep these files safe !

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