How to Backup WordPress Files for Beginners?

If you are a WordPress user, then you definitely know the importance of keeping backup copies of the Wordpress files because there is always a risk of losing your data. Sometimes your site might get hack, and then you could lose all the files and databases. That’s horrible, right? There are a lot of ways to secure your WordPress site, but I still think one of the best way is to backup regularly so that you can re-install your files or content and roll backed to your post in no time.

First of all, let’s learn about WordPress Files, all the WordPress sites consist of the following files:

Ø  WordPress Core Installation

Ø  WordPress Plugins

Ø  WordPress Themes

Ø  Images and Files

Ø  Javascripts, PHP scripts, and other code files

Ø  Additional Files and Static Web Pages

Accessing WordPress Files and Directories

First, you will need a FTP client to connect to your WordPress server. An easier alternative to FTP is File Manager. It is a web based application that comes built into cPanel dashboard of your WordPress hosting account.

Once you have connected to your WordPress site either using FTP or File Manager, you will see a file and directory structure that looks like this:

Files and folders in the red squares are the core WordPress files. These are the files and folders that run your WordPress site. You are not supposed to edit those files on your own.

Here is a list of core WordPress files and folders you would see in your WordPress site’s root directory.

WordPress Configuration Files

Your WordPress root directory contains some special configuration files. These files contain important settings specific to your WordPress site.

Ø  .htacces – A server configuration file, WordPress uses it to manage permalinks and redirects.

Ø  wp-config.php – This file tells WordPress how to connect to your database. It also sets some global settings for your WordPress site.

Ø  index.php – The index file basically loads and initializes all your WordPress files when a page is requested by a user.

If you don’t see .htaccess file in your root directory, then checkout our guide on why you can’t find .htaccess file in your WordPress root directory.

Depending on how your WordPress site is setup, you may or may not have the following files in your root directory.

Ø  robots.txt – Contains instructions for search engines crawlers

Ø  Favicon.ico – A favicon file is sometimes generated by WordPress hosts.

Inside wp-content Folder

WordPress stores all uploads, plugins, and themes in wp-content folder. 

It is generally assumed that you can edit files and folders inside wp-content folder. However, this is not entirely true.

Let’s take a look inside wp-content folder to understand how it works and what you can do here.

The contents of wp-content folder may differ from one WordPress site to another. But all WordPress sites usually have these:

Ø  [dir] themes

Ø  [dir] plugins

Ø  [dir] uploads

Ø  index.php

WordPress stores your theme files in /wp-content/themes/ folder. You can edit a theme file, but it is generally not recommended. As soon as you update your theme to a newer version, your changes will be overwritten during the update.

How to Backup Your WordPress Files?

#1. Backup WordPress Manually

WordPress is a web application based on PHP and MySQL. As such you need to backup all its files and its database to have a full copy of your site. The easiest way to copy your files is via FTP. To do this follow the instructions in our tutorial on how to use FTP. Make sure that you save all the files and folders in the directory WordPress is installed in (public_html if it's the main application for your site).

#2.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.

#3. Create Synchs With Your Site 

WinSCP and other programs allow you to synchronize 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.

To synchronize your files in WinScp:

Step 1 - Log in to your ftp server normally using WinScp.

Step 2 - Press the "Synchronize" button. Remote directory will automatically be set to the current ftp directory (often your root directory). Local directory would be set to the local directory as it was when you pressed Synchronize. You may want to change this to some other directory on your computer. Direction should be set to "local" to copy files FROM your web host TO your machine.
Synchronization Mode would be set to Synchronize files.

Step 3 - Click "OK" to show a summary of actions.

Step 4 - Click "OK" again to complete the synchronization.

#4.Use WordPress backup plugins

These plugins are used to take a back up of your critical data, files, tables and save them to your archives or any of the online storage for free or for a nominal price. Schedule the storage automatically and manage your entire database with these.

BackupBuddy

If you regularly update your site, then it wouldn’t be possible to always keep your backups up to date. This is where BackupBuddy comes in. It is a WordPress backup plugin, which allows you to automatically create complete backups of your WordPress site and save them on multiple remote locations like a cloud storage service, your computer, FTP server, etc.

WP Database Backup

WP-DB-Backup plugin creates a backup of your core database tables and also other tables in the database and gives you an option of saving your back up data either to your server or download to your computer or save get you backup file e-mailed to you.

BackUpWordPress

BackUpWordPress will back up your entire site, including your files and your database, at a schedule that suits your needs. It requires no setup and works on low memory – an excellent advantage if you’re operating on a shared host environment. The plugin also gives you the option to use zip and mysqldump for faster backups. That can be a significant benefit if time is of the essence.

blogVault

This plugin offers an automated backup solution directly to Dropbox, if that’s your tool of choice for online file storage. However, blogVault requires some setup, though the documentation claims that the setup is “easy” and that it will require a minimal investment of your time.