As you probably know (or should), anything that resides inside a “computer” is prone to disaster. I can think of many reasons that might happen, which will render many, many hours of work useless, all this happening within a matter of minutes. Hardware malfunction, virus attacks, malicious codes, bad coding, etc. are just but a few things that can happen to wipe out your data. When this happens, ouch!
Your data and online business along with it, regardless of its size is “vulnerable”, and there is no such thing as 100% secured. Technology is great, it has its downsides and saying something within the lines of “it will not happen to me”, is a big risk you are taking. This is the reason why you should have a “disaster recovery plan” in place. Part of this plan starts by having a backup of all your data, preferably updated, to ensure that if something bad happens, you can get your blog or website back up, and running in very little time.
Now all this is great and there are numerous ways to do it. I will skip all the details and get right straight to backing up your WordPress powered website. Note that this is for WordPress and not other platforms. These two plugins resolved one problem that I always wanted, and that is to make an exact copy of my blog, i.e., backing up not only my data files but also my theme, plugins I am using, the whole shebang.
What I like best about these solutions, is that it serves for many purposes, the most important being, protecting my online business by making an exact copy of everything inside my website. Other purposes that these plugins can be used for are:
- Migrating a site from one location to another – this is perfect if you want to move your hosting services to another
- Download a full production site down into your local machine – great for testing and making experiments
- Create new websites – If you want to create a new website that is similar to your site, you can just copy the whole settings, without having to worry about reinstalling plugins, re-creating certain configurations, etc..
HINT: If you are managing or creating websites for your clients, these solutions can also be put to good use to earn you additional income.
Anyway, here are your possible backup companions…
ManageWp: As I mentioned on my previous post about how to manage multiple WordPress sites in one dashboard, ManageWp is actually a free service that works in conjunction with the Manage WP Worker plugin. Among other things, this service allows you to “clone” your website. To know more, please read that article and head over to the developers website for more information on how to use the “clone” feature of ManageWP. It is self explanatory.
Duplicator: As the name suggests, this plugin does just that, duplicate your WordPress site. Duplicating a WordPress site for use in another location or migrating your site to another host, for example, is a very tedious tasks, let alone the technical issues involved within the process. This plugin makes all things much easier as it involves only a few steps to have a full blown “twin” of your website. Watch the video for a quick overview and head over to the developers website for further information and support. You can download the Duplicator plugin on WordPress.org’s repository.
Should you use them?
I am always in favor of using different forms to backup my backups. Does that make sense? What I am trying to say is that, I normally use two or three forms of generating my backups. I know my web hosting provider does one, I use SME Multi Cloud Storage plugin, and now ManageWP and Duplicator on other sites. I will eventually opt for either one or the other (both choices are good). BTW, ManageWP does a daily backup of my files automatically.
Regardless of which way you go, just do not neglect the purpose of backing of your data and be safe. This should be made part of your routine, one way or the other. It is a MUST do, and not a will do.
That’s it! Quickly and without hesitations, do you have a backup of your files right now? What solution are you using?
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Extreme John
Excellent write up DiTesco. Back up, back up, back up. Really very important especially in manageing small business. Failing to back it all up could up disastrous in just a blink of an eye.
Hi John. good to see you here 🙂 You pretty much summed up what I said actually and it is really important to back up your data specially if you are doing business. All the best
A. Tatum Jr
I just moved to Word Press last month so this is something I will definitely checkout. And I agree I always have more than one form of backup. Case-in-point. Yesterday the FBI raided this company and took their servers so a lot of business got hurt. You never know what may happen.
Hi. I have heard about the FBI shutting down “online poker” sites but I can imagine that something like this is also possible. Sometimes, it is the unexpected that catches us off guard 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.
Jane | Find All Answers
Right. Whenever I read posts about backup, I just feel scary. Ya when you are online, nothing is safe. And you are accountable for your possession; a blog – for some it is just pocket money, for the others it is their source.
Well, I just use WordPress DB Backup plugin and do a weekly backup; the files are emailed to me. Gotta think of going on a big higher level. Thanks for the heads ups.
Jane.
Hi Jane. Yeah, it is scary and I totally resonate with you on that. DB Backup is a popular plugin and I tried to use it before. Decided to abandon it in favor of these two and my hosts, one click full backup service. If I ma not mistaken, DB Backup does not really “back up” everything from your site, although it does for the most important parts of it, the database 🙂 Thanks and all the best
Jeff Faldalen
Hi DiTesco,
I appreciate the plug-in suggestions. I was just talking to my hosting company and I need to upgrade my server. But first I have to back up everything
I have had one of my blogs hacked already and it felt like getting kicked in the stomach
Thanks for your contribution,
Jeff Faldalen
Hi Jeff. Sorry to hear about your site getting hacked. It really can happen to anyone as in some cases, you just fall victim of “random” attacks. In any event it does happen and in addition, backing up your files before doing anything, i.e., upgrading servers, installing new plugins, upgrading wordpress, etc.. is also a wise move. Thanks for sharing your views
Sire
I use a wordpress plugin, I’m not sure which one, that emails me a backup every day. That’s probably a little over the top as I don’t write a post every day but I figured at least that way I’ve covered all my bases.
Only last week I had to restore two blogs because they both got hacked, and if it wasn’t for those backups I would have been screwed.
Hi Sire. Maybe what you are using is WP DB Backup. I know it has that functionality of sending daily emails of your backed up files. Whether you will need it or not, it is good to know, like you said, that you have bases covered. Your recent experience is a perfect example of what would have happened if you did not have those annoying daily emails sent to you 🙂 Glad to know you got those blogs back up.
Hi DiTesco, this is powerful advice to anyone using WordPress. I’m using the BackUp Buddy Plugin. It creates a complete backup of my blog and allows me to restore it – which should come in handy if I ever move to a new host too. Thanks for sharing these other plugins!
Hi Ileane. I have heard about BackUp Buddy before, although correct me if I am wrong, but is it not a premium plugin? Anyway, I had it in my to do list to check it out “one of these days” and good to know that you have already experience and that you are happy with it. That makes my job easier 🙂 Thanks for stopping by my friend. As always, good to see you here.
Hi Mario. I hear you on someone developing a “duplicator” for other sites that are not only WordPress 🙂 That would be a great addition to the community. I do know that there are similar solutions, but unfortunately they are all paid services or software.
Reseller Hosting
Hi,
I think the duplicator is really awesome, i was googling for these kind of plugins or tools but never find any such, its really awesome as per its features.
You really are right that no one can say that he/she is 100% safe because its technology and any thing can happens. So I suggest to must try duplicator.
Regards
brian speer
That is really good to know. I usually have things backed up on an external but I have had those things go as well. Thanks for the info.
Nice post DiTesco,
It’s important to back up your website and I know I have learned this lesson the hard way. Thanks for the recommendations, I’ll check these out. 🙂
Hi John. You are welcome, and I know what you are saying.. I too have learned the hard way, being fortunate that there was an alternate solution when I needed it. That solution however is not recommended as it is really not a preventive measure. Hope you like one of these, you should decide to use them. Either way, just be sure to backup, backup, and backup some more 🙂
DiTesco thanks for this pretty nice and sweet plugin. Not to mention that its FREE. Thanks a lot for letting us know the capability of this one.
Zarah Alvie
Taking backup for your online business blogs or websites is necessary because of hackers and some time sql injectors run malicious queries in un secure sites and get accessed on theses sites and make the site useless.That’s why making your site as secure as possible and keep its backup up to date.
Nice write-up. My solution is the proprietary backup system that my hosting vendor provides. I host with Rochen and they offer “Rochen Vault”.
Years ago, I had a Joomla site hacked into. Back then, I had to submit a support ticket and Rochen restored my site from their backups. Recently, I botched a site I was building and discovered that I could now easily restore from their vault without even contacting them.
I still perform my own WordPress backups (just in case) but so far, I’ve been extremely happy paying a few extra dollars to host my (and my clients) websites and basically outsource this function.
Hi Sherryl. I am also paying some $12 a year with my hosting provider as they do have a similar feature like yours. Its great because you can do a full backup and if needed, restore only specific files or folders. Nonetheless, I like to play it safe so I still maintain a backup “off-site”, just in case they too go down 🙂 Thanks for stopping by
David
I’ve been searching for a plugin that can duplicate my wordpress blogs for a while because i’m tired of doing all the annoying optimization work over and over each time i create a new blog. Can this plugin (Duplicator) duplicate all the plugins installed, themes and all the settings into a new domain?
Hi David. As far as I can tell, yeah. It clones or duplicates any WP site. So YES, it includes plugins and everything inside your public_html file.
Ray
Backup can be time-consuming and a real pain, but a life saver should something happen. I tend to do manual backups through my host control panel, but if there is a plugin that will do it with ease and little resource usage why not.
Praveen Kumar
I din’t know about the Duplicator plugin thanks for the video you shared about Duplicator plugin i will use it to take backup
I’ve not seen these plugins, but I’ve used DB Manager and WP Time Machine for a while now. I like the time machine because you can backup files as well as the database – although for some reason I haven’t been able to get it to do it automatically, hence using DB Manager too.
Also, with time machine you can send it all straight to your DropBox account – which is handy.
John
Hello DiTesco ,
There are so many sites in word press and they certainly required backup solutions but after reading this post it became very easy for me to get backup of my sites.
aengus
yeah, I have heard a few stories of people losing their entire sites. It would NOT be cool .
Online Opportunities
Certainly it is a really bad experience to lose your site and have to start from the beginning again, for that reason having a backup of all the files of your site is very important!
Ricardus
I personally have tried ManageWP and I must say wow it’s astonishing especially the clone features. In split seconds and you will have the entire thing readily for you and also if you have multiple domains and would love to send multiple posts at one go.. It’s just astonishing.
Adam James
Great stuff, I’ve seen a lot of buzz around ManageWP of late and some cool features but Duplicator isn’t something I’ve come across yet.
I digg it though, backing up your backups.
Reminds me of a phrase my mum used to say … “better safe than sorry”.
Great post DiTesco, been hunting around for a backup plugin for ages. Thanks. I’ve also been looking for a way to manage multiple sites in the one dashboard so I’ve hit the jackpot today 😉