Wordpress
Backing Up

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Tutorial Overview

Topics covered in this tutorial (click link to jump to topic):

1.	Backing Up Wordpress
2.	Movie: Introduction to Backing up Wordpress

Backing Up Wordpress

Wordpress is not like an ordinary HTML/CSS web site. It is not just a collection of files that can be moved with an FTP client from server to server.

Wordpress is comprised of:

A database – MYSQL to be precise
A theme – which is just a collection of HTML/CSS and can be moved around using FTP
A number of plugins - FTP again
Text content – which can be backed up from the Tools > Export menu (and should be regularly)
Media content - such as PDFs and Flash files. These too can be moved with FTP BUT they must to be put back in exactly the folder they came from, otherwise the database will loose contact with them

Using your Cpanel you can back up the lot in one foul swoop, save it into the root of you web site and then download it to your computer. That is the Rolls Royce solution and is required to move a site to another server. But there are more user-friendly and faster means of backing up.

The first and obvious is to take a text dump of the site from the Tools > Export menu. This is a thirty-second job and you would be well advised to do this little task frequently. The resulting XML file is pretty good – it will have all posts and pages and post categories, but not links or any media.

You should keep a copy of your theme and media files off the server as well. This will protect you if you need to restore the site quickly on a new server. The theme and media files had to start from your computer in the first place, so keep them together in the same folder ready to be deployed in a disaster.

When Should I Back Up Wordpress?

The short answer is whenever you have invested enough time in posts, pages or links that would be a pain to reproduce that work from scratch. So, probably quite frequently.

Another time is before a version upgrade of your Wordpress core files and database. If you are using fantastico, it will create a back up of your database before the upgrade, nut you can do this yourself anytime in Cpanel's myPhp.

Movie: Introduction to Backing up Wordpress

Here is a short movie introduction to Backing up your Wordpress site.

Other Resources

http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups
http://codex.wordpress.org/Backing_Up_Your_Database
http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/php-mysql/mysql_export.htm

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