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      Automatically Back Up Your WordPress Database
      by Mitchell Wischmann on October 7, 2011

      Are you regularly backing up your WordPress database? I never used to until I learned how valuable a backup can be. If your site is hacked, or your server fails, and you don’t have a backup, all your hard work is gone. If you do have a backup though, you can restore your site in just a few clicks.

      Regularly backing up your database is easy, thanks to a WordPress plugin called WP-DBManager. Here’s how you can set up automatic backups of your database, and the backup will even be emailed to you!

      How To Automatically Back Up Your WordPress Database

        1. Login to your WordPress dashboard. Under Plugins, select Add New and search for WP-DBManager.
        2. Install the plugin. You should notice a new section labeled Database in the dashboard.
        3. Expand the Database section and click on DB Options.
        4. Scroll down to the Automatic Scheduling section. You’ll select how often your database is backed up here.
        5. If you update your blog multiple times per day, choose to backup once per day. Make sure to enter your email address to receive the backups!
        6. Save your changes, and you’ll get a copy of your backup in your inbox daily!

      Have you been backing up your database?

      Mitchell Wischmann is a Savvy Blogging contributing writer and author of My Frugal Tech and FrugalFinders.com.

: Leave a Comment

  • Amy @ Atlanta Deal Sites on October 07, 2011 at 8:33 am
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    Good advice. I use this plugin as well. One tip, setup separate email account just for your backup because sooner or later it will fill up your inbox. I just setup a separate gmail to receive all my backup files.

    • The Happy Housewife on October 07, 2011 at 8:40 am
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      Great tip Amy!

    • Mitchell Wischmann on October 07, 2011 at 9:07 am
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      Great idea! I set up a filter in my main Gmail account so the backup emails go into a folder automatically. I never see them in my inbox.

  • Christina @ Northern Cheapskate on October 07, 2011 at 9:20 am
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    My understanding is that this plugin doesn’t back up your images or other things like plugins and theme data. You can manually do those, but I just discovered a plugin called Backup Daddy that will back up everything. It also lets you back it up to a remote location.

    I’m kinda paranoid about backups so I use both! :-)

  • Goob on October 07, 2011 at 11:42 am
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    If you want something a little more bulletproof, Vaultpress.com will cover an entire site (database, plugins, images, etc.) in real time for only $15 a month. It’s run by Automattic, the company that makes WordPress.

  • Gena on October 07, 2011 at 4:58 pm
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    Does anyone know how to solve this issue, which showed up as soon as I activated the plugin?:

    Your backup folder MIGHT be visible to the public

    To correct this issue, move the .htaccess file from wp-content/plugins/wp-dbmanager to (gives my website’s folder)

    • Mitchell Wischmann on October 07, 2011 at 5:18 pm
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      Hi Gena,

      To solve this issue, you can go into your website’s file manager or cPanel and move the htaccess.txt file. You’ll find it in the wp-content/plugins/wp-dbmanager folder. Move it to the wp-content/backup-db folder, and then rename it to .htaccess.

      If you would like some help with this, please feel free to contact me at myfrugaltech.com!

  • Gena on October 08, 2011 at 8:12 pm
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    I moved the file as you suggested and I still get the error. I renamed the file to just htaccess without the .txt
    this is the content of the file:

    order allow, deny
    deny from all

    is this correct or should it be deny only?

    Thanks for the help!

  • Gena on October 08, 2011 at 8:15 pm
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    Never mind–we figured it out!

  • Krystyn on October 10, 2011 at 10:24 am
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    Any suggestions for when your database requires too much memory to run the backup? It’s not the size of the file, it’s the memory to make the file.

    I’m using WP-DB backup, but it causes the same issue. Basically, the backup isn’t created.

    • Mitchell Wischmann on January 13, 2012 at 4:54 pm
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      You will need to increase the amount of memory allowed to WordPress. Check out this Codex article for the code to do that.

  • Jessica on October 12, 2011 at 5:59 pm
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    I installed this plugin a few days ago and am not receiving backups by e-mail (even checked Spam folder). I triple checked my e-mail address as mentioned in Step 5 and everything looks correct. What could be going wrong?

    Thanks for the heads up on this plugin! Looking forward to more technical posts from you, Mitchell :)

    • Mitchell Wischmann on January 13, 2012 at 4:55 pm
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      Try disabling the emailed backups, saving, then re-enabling. I’ve had this issue with a few clients and this seemed to do the trick!

  • Meghan on January 05, 2012 at 8:09 pm
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    I just had to do a total re-build of my wordpress sites and I found out something important. This ONLY backs up your database, which is great… except that your photos and other files are not in the database. You need to do a periodic backup of your files, as well. My host has a backup wizard that will let me do this.

  • Kristi on January 19, 2012 at 12:05 pm
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    I never even thought about having a back-up system! I’ve been on this website for about twenty minutes and I’m already learning so much! Thank you so much for the wonderful information.