Wordpress Backup is an essential plugin for all Wordpress blog administrators by the Blog Traffic Exchange. It performs regular backups of your upload (images) current theme, and plugin directories. Backup files are available for download and optionally emailed to a specified email. Don’t get caught without a recent backup of your theme or images or plugins.
You can adjust the interval between backups and the email address to which the backups are sent.
Please note that as the size of the zip files increase, it may not be possible to email the files due to limitations of email servers.
It is also essential to backup your wordpress database. There are many excellent options for wordpress database backup… Blog Traffic Exchange recommends: WP DBManager
Installation
- Download
- Unzip
- Upload Folder to Wordpress Plugins Folder
- Activate Plugin
- Adjust Options if needed.
Troubleshooting
- Upgrade to 1.4.5
- If you have a version prior to 1.4.3, please deactivate plugin prior to upgrading.
- If you have trouble using the automatic plugin upgrade feature, please deactivate plugin prior to upgrading.
- If plugin causes memory error please make sure php.ini set memory to 32M in wp-admin folder.
- If plugin options page to make sure directory locations and permissions are set correctly.
- If you have any other problems please email me at kevin @ blogtrafficexchange dot com.
The zip process is memory intensive and will fail if there is not enough memory allocated to php. Make sure you have enough memory allocated add this line to your php.ini files in the blog root and the wp-admin folders.
memory_limit = 64M
I have it installed and tested on Bluehost.com, DreamHost.com, Midphase.com, Hostgator.com, and GoDaddy.com across 30+ sites… The only problems I ran into were not enough php memory to email the file via the chunk_split(base64_encode(file_get_contents(.... Readers have tested and confirmed 1 and 1 (Tom B.’s Rambles). Any others, be the first to tell me and get credit…
If you run into errors with 1.4.5 or higher please email me at kevin @ blogtrafficexchange.com with as many details as you can.
If your screen goes blank or you notice other irregularities after activation delete the plugin folder via ftp. This will remove the plugin.
Options
- Interval — The interval between backups.
- Email — The email address to which the backups are sent.
- Backup Directory — The directory to store the backups. Must exist and be writable.
- Backup URL — The url to the directory where the backups are stored.
- Uploads Directory — Path to uploads directory.
- Plugin Directory — Path to plugin directory.
- Theme Directory — Path to theme directory.
Download
- Wordpress Backup Current Version 1.4.5
Donate
Recovering from Disaster
So the worst has happened, but since you use this plugin you have a backup of your database, plugins, themes, and images folder. Now what? How do you get your blog back?
- Make sure you are comfortable with your current host. Since you are going to go through the effort to restore your site, if you were contemplating a move to a different hosting provider now is the time to act.
- Download the latest copy of wordpress.
- Copy the worpdress files into the desired folder location on your host. (I use the domain root, but subfolders are sometime appropriate depending on your desired setup.)
- Copy the theme, plugin, and images backup files into the correct locations. Respectively, the defaults are wordpress_root/wp-content/themes, wordpress_root/wp-content/plugins, and wordpress_root/wp-content/uploads
- Restore your database to a new database using your hosts appropriate tools. I usually use cpanel and phpmyadmin, but sometimes the database is too big and I need to use bigdump. Take note of the database location, database name, database user, and database password.
- Edit the file wordpress_root/wp-config.php and enter the values from the previous step.
- Is everything working? Do your victory dance.
- Donate
- Still having problems? I am available to help. If it is something easy or something I left out of the above instructions then I will help for free. Otherwise, assuming you have valid backups I can restore your site for $200 given the proper access.
Wordpress Backup Options
Change Log
- 7/12/09 – 1.5 – Tested and Confirmed on Wordpress 2.8.1
- 01/07/09 – 1.4.5 – Better Reinsituted automatic backup folder creation.
- 01/07/09 – 1.4.4 – Better Handling of file and directory permissions.
- 01/07/09 – 1.4.3 – Fixed location of pclzip lib in wordpress hierarchy.
- 01/07/09 – 1.4.2 – Added bakup url option exposure. If plugin/upload/theme directory doesn’t it will not be backed up.
- 01/07/09 – 1.4 – Added the various folder paths as options and check their existence and permissions via the options panel.
- 01/06/09 – 1.3 – Using the worpdress pclzip class from wp-admins/includes. If it doesnt exist then using the packaged version. This fixes upgrade issues noticed from 1.1 to 1.2.
- 01/06/09 – 1.2 – Added Plugins Dir. Fixed some memory issues. Release to wordpress plugin dir.
- 01/05/09 – 1.1 – Release to public.
Originally posted 2009-02-05 20:30:06. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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Categories:
Backup, Blog Tips, Blogging, Plugins, WordPress
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58 comments ↓
This looks great. One idea with images that could be nice is the option to choose an incremental backup. I can see the image e-mail getting huge as you mentioned.
If each update gave me just the last month’s images it may be easier on the file size. If I had to restore, I’d have to go through a dozen e-mails for each year my blog has been up, but that’s not bad.
Another idea here might be a monthly “archive-all” and a daily “archive-current-month.” I’m getting picky here, though, it’s really great to have something like this available.
If you also back up the plug-ins folder, it would be a more complete back up.
@Lazyman
There is something to your comment. I need to stew a bit more. Personally I am already overwhelmed with email, but if you send it to a separate email account just for the purpose of archiving then it might work. Anyone else have an opinion?
@Pinyo
Good idea. When wordpress.org let’s me into the plugin directory I will implement that feature.
Awesome plug. I installed it on our corporate web site today as well as three other sites I run. I’m not going to get stuck!
hi. Thanks for plugin
perfect.
Regards
How would one go about restoring the images, themes, etc, that have been backed up?
How to activate a manual backup. I installed your plugin on the 25th, now 3 days later the original zip dates haven’t been updated, hence, no backup has automatically been performed. What can I do to initiate a manual backup for instances such as this?
@Jeff
these are just zips of the directory… To restore a blog you would need the db and these folders.
Install a new blog.
Over write the db
Overwrite these folders
presto.
@Louie.
are there any other red warnings on the options page?
What backup interval did you set?
And to answer your question… at the moment there is no manual button. I will be rectifying this oversight shortly with a new release.
thank for plugin
Will definitely value the option to select what I want to backup, since I don’t exactly care about uploads folder…but thank you indeed.
Wow! Thank you! I always wanted to write in my site something like that. Can I take part of your post to my blog?
Thanks to you and all of the developers working with wordpress.org I’ve just started my site and you’ve made it possible to progress with such ease. Thank you!
Looks interesting! I just had to do a reinstall from backup and used WordPress Database Backup. That one doesn’t include themes and images, however.
I’ll check this one out!
Excellent. This would have saved me alot of time when my sites had database issues due to my host. Thanks for the introduction.
Before I try this, I have one question: Will this send me a copy of my theme files AND theme settings? I had an issue with a recent update of WordPress where I lost all the customized settings for my current theme… I don’t want this to happen again. Yikes!
Great post. We use this on our landscaping website that we built in wordpress. Thanks for the great tool.
Hey,
are there any security reasons I must concern. As the bte directory is writable, anyone can write anything into it.
regards,
Excellent plugin! I would also like to be able to backup folders of choice, for example the gallery folder that NextGEN Gallery stores images in.
This is what I want. Thanks for creating this plugin.
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo
Nice work Kevin. I plan to use this for my sites.
Seems to fail on a Windows server– it looks like you’re auto-generating paths, and they have the wrong slash. No matter what I do to the configuration, I can’t get this:
Backup folder does NOT exist. Please create ‘bte-wb’ folder in ‘C:\HostingSpaces\blakeyra\blakeyrat.com\wwwroot/wp-content’ folder and CHMOD it to ‘777′ or change the location of the backup folder under DB Option.
To use the correct slash for a Windows server. If it’s something I did wrong when typing in the paths, please let me know.
I understand that open source users don’t like Windows, but this is the first thing I’ve encountered in WordPress that hasn’t worked flawlessly on a Windows server, so it’s very disappointing.
@james schend
sorry to disappoint. but the admin section of the plugin has all the paths which are being backed up…
Adjust those values as needed.
Kevin,
I’ve tried adjusting the paths, but the incorrect slash keeps coming back. I don’t know, maybe I’m being retarded or something, but I just can’t get it to work.
Oh well, thanks anyway.
Thanks for the plugin! It is working fine.
Hi -
I just installed this on a client site. I filled in the email address field. I was emailed the plugins & themes zip files. The upload.zip file was not emailed. I had to download it from the Wordpress Backup under settings in the admin. Is this correct? Was the file not sent because of its size approx 71mb?
Thanks!
I can’t seem to get this to work on my site. Using WP2.7.1 – every time I install the files (done it manually and automatically through WP) and then activate the plugin I get a blank screen – also shuts down the site. If I delete the plugin everything goes back to normal (thanks for that pointer, by the way…). Do you have any ideas why that might be happening? I’d love to have your plugin working on my site – it is a great idea and a great service to the WP community. Thanks again. Phil.
Stupidly, I just deleted all my legit comments rather than the spam comments i wished to delete.
Is there any way i can get these comments back either using Wordpress Backup or just via Wordpress that you know of?
Regards, Chris
Good plugin. Suggestion: add date of backup to the file names (as in Chester Lan’s WP-Backup plugin), so files dont get overwritten, so u can go back to a specific backup. Cheers from London!
I’ve just had the same problem as Phil above… I think the plugin may need looking at (or, has some other conflict with something else)… Cheers, John.
Hi,
I love your plugin and have used it for several months without problem with WP 2.7.1 – since upgrading to 2.8 the plugin has caused a problem with WP-SpamFree plugin.. if one is activated and I try to activate the other I get a server 500 error.. has anyone else reported this or do you know of any fix?
Thanks for any info or advice
The plugin worked great in WP 2.7.1, when I upgraded to 2.8 and activate the plugin I get server 500 error when I try to go to admin panel.. the blog (front end) still works.. but no admin access.. when I delete the plugin it’s OK… I think it has to do with overall memory used by 2.8 vs 2.7.1 – if I deactivate several other plugins.. wordpress backup works..
You should add an option to also make the backup of the database automatically, eg: every 1 day … That sends to the email… They should also be optional to make backups of each directory, example, if someone does not want to make a backup of ”Plugins” but if you want to backup ”Uploads”… You should add these two new options for the next version.
It’s easy to say’’should”jaja … no?
Any way… I wanted a plugin with the options I’m looking for, I tried this and no that’s not helped me, so I recommend that … I am not the only thing I wish that …
Hi, I have a question regarding backup of the “uploads” directory – how does one associate the attachments with their original contents? Does one have to reinstall wordpress on a new computer (let’s assume the first one melted) in order to make any use of this data backup? Thanks
I am newbie for wordpress can you guys tell me or mail me how do i change the options of this plugin. i have checked everywhere but cant find the options. i am using wordpress 2.8.2
please help
Thank you, works fine on Ubuntu server 9.04.
Silly question possibly but if this plugin backs up image, plugin and theme data what about other content like text for posts and pages?
Nice plugin, but it goes to memory error pretty fast.
You should consider option to make backup in smaller chungs, for instance, to backup separately each subdirectory of choosen source (uploads, themes, plugins…). That would make more backup files but they would be smaller so memory and email attachment limitations would be less problem.
Incremental backup would aslo help a lot to solve resources issues.
Backup of database is required(also in smaller chunks, each table separately if needed). Without it, files backup does not mean a lot.
I agree, memory errors (PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 100663296 bytes exhausted) can be seen quite fast. It would be great to be able to send backups in smaller pieces. Otherwise this plugin is not so useful when your blog grows.
Having memory issues on ICD Soft hosting and WP 2.7.1 even after increasing memory to 64M.
Just thought I would mention….
I tried to get into my dashboard this evening only to be greeted by the BIG WHITE PAGE.
Found a great site
http://www.hightechdad.com/2009/06/10/fixing-blank-empty-or-white-wordpress-pages-after-upgrade/
suggesting that I rename my plugins folder and try to log in to determine if it was a problem with a plugin and of course it worked.
As I started to activate my plugins one at a time, when I reached your plugin, I had the BIG WHITE PAGE again and I had to start again by renaming my Plugins folder.
I when ahead and upgraded this plugin, but I still kept getting the BIG WHITE PAGE.
I don’t know if anyone else has had this problem, but I would like to hear from you if you know how I can fix it and continue to use your plugin
Thanks Catherine
Do you suppose that BTE could write a word or two about RESTORING one of the backups?
Just an arrow or pointer or 10 seconds about how to actually recover from one of the events we’re backing up for?
I would find it useful and I suspect other swould as well.
Dennis
@Dennis
Good Idea I added a section to the main post.
This looks like a must have plug in.
One thing that would be cool- the ability to specify times between backups. Weekly is good, but for some sites, a monthly backup would be preferred, since it’s not updated that much, so it’d be less stress on the server doing something not really needed.
But thanks, this looks cool.
@Steve
The time between backups is configurable.
this page is very Important
thank you with wordpress plugins
I have a strange problem with this plugin – the uploads and themes folders are backed up properly, but the plugins folder not – of around 15 plugins that I have installed only 7 are included in the zip – I use the latest version of both Wordpress Backup and Wordpress itself
Hi Kevin,
I’m experiencing a strange effect while your plugin is active. Basically it seems to mess with the CSS of the admin page titles, it appears to have added either padding or margin to the top of them. Any ideas?
I haven’t noticed any other strange bugs like that but if I do I’ll post it here.
Cheers,
Robert
I’m getting the “big white page” just like Catherine. It’s only after I install this plugin. It could be conflicting with other plugins, of course, but I’ve tried all ways to install this thing, always with the same outcome!
Weird thing is, I have another blog on this same host with all the same plugins and theme…oh well.
just add another useful plugin for wp! work perfectly on my site. u did a great job though. thanks a bunch.
i stumble this!
I’m stumped after finding this plugin very reliable…
The site was moved and afterwards on the settings page, it doesn’t recognize any of the settings (giving me red warnings for all). I’ve deleted and re-installed but not sure what else to do to get it working again. Any suggestions?
Thank You for your dedication!
db
A minor problem caused me to restore a “theme” backup to this site http://wellnesscarechiro.com. I should say attempt to restore as it was not possible to do so.
The zipped backup file, one of a series I download every week, bore no resemblance to the theme folder it originated from on the website. It would appear that the plugin is flawed regarding creating the theme backup file (only).
All of my WP sites now use this form of backup. I’ve checked three of the twenty-one and all exhibit the same problem – the theme backup file is incorrect in a major way.
This is a serious situation for me. What is your response regarding the plugin?
Dennis Foreman
I have used this plugin with no problems before. But on one web site it locks up the web site and shuts it down until I delete this plugin using cpanel. It has something to do with the site having about 100 meg in images, and backing that up takes all the processor power shutting the web site down. I cannot get back in to change the configuration without reinstalling and activating it, but then the web site goes down again!
Hi. I’ve posted a bug on the WordPress plugin page. Please look into it. Thanks for the hard work thus far
I have been utilizing this great plugin on many sites with great results….until I did the 2.9 upgrade. I will post details on the WordPress Plugin Page…
i have the same problem as bob davis. everything was fine and after loading a bunch of big video files the site locked up. renaming the Wordpress Backup directory deactivated it and everything was fine.
so having a more sophisticated way to deal with big files or lots of files would be great. maybe as simple as skipping large files? or maybe/also some kind of incremental backups ?
thanks for an excellent plugin… it’s appreciated…
i have a problem that i uninstall this plugin one day,but it still mail a backup to my mailbox. Moreover,even i turn down my wordpress , it’s still remains the same situation .
what should i do to solve the problem?
it’s appreciated
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