Personal moment, kids. You touched my heart and my soul with the comments in this post. You made me think, evaluate and realize that THIS is the stuff that we need to keep talking about. THIS is the stuff that matters. The issues that face us, our children (or future children) and the community at large. Thanks for reaffirming why I do what I do.
There is a sentence that makes my poor bloggie heart break in half. And sends chills up my spine.
“Katy, I’ve never backed up my blog.“
I wanted a sad panda, but...
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People, please. PLEASE. Heed my words.
Back up your blog. And your photos. And your hard drive. And your social networks.
It doesn’t take much to crash a website. Playing with your CSS? Miss a tag and you’ll be facing the white screen of death. Have an easy to crack password? Hackers can come in and wipe out all your work. If your host has a major crash or a virus infests your computer…do you feel confident that your stuff is safe?
If you need to actually see what losing it all can feel like, check out:
I didn’t lose it all all, but it was close enough to give me a real scare. Thank goodness for backups. And for other inspirational reading, why not go to:
- When the Cat Locks You Out, Do You Have a Backup Plan?
- Digital Deaths: Who Gets Your Stuff
- How I Size, Store and Upload Photos
The good news? Depending on your budget and skills, it can be easy (effortless, even), automated and fast.
(Note: this is a tutorial for self-hosted WordPress blogs. If you are not self-hosted, you most likely have SOME backups done by WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, etc. If that’s good enough for you…good luck. If not, and you want to take control of your site, check out my tips for getting your blog self-hosted.)
Step 1: Back up your database.
If you do nothing else, please back up your database. Those are the posts and pages that that you have slaved over; the core tables that actually make up your work. If you lose these, you lose your blog. Period.:
(Once you install the plugin, you’ll need to go to your Tools Menu and click the “Backup” option)
The plugin lets you decide which tables and files are backed up, then gives you options for saving to your server, sending via email or saving to your desktop (or other hard drive).
There are other plugins, but this is the one I use. I automatically back up my database via plugin every week (and do a manual backup before ever touching my files).
I have not used it but I believe that this plugin also offers a restore feature, which makes it easier to put your information back on the blog if you do lose it.
Step 1b: Save the database carefully.
If your hard drive crashes, it won’t do you any good to have saved the database there. And if your email account is attached to your blog and THAT crashes, you’re SOL as well. So I advise backing up to multiple places (I usually save to my desktop AND send via email) and then saving the most recent backup to an external hard drive or an online storage spot like Mozy or Carbonite.
Step 2: Back up your files.
Guess what? Your blog files are NOT the same as your database. And if you lose your files, you lose your theme, any images hosted on the site (!!!!), plugins and more. Dire stuff, people.
So you need to do this in addition to backing up your database. This one’s trickier.
Use an FTP client like FileZilla or use your cPanel to get into the files. You’ll see lots of scary stuff. Don’t touch. Just copy the files to a safe place like your desktop or external hard drive. This could take a while, and it’s a large file. Be patient. You can get choosy if you want (if you have old themes that you never need again or plugins that you wouldn’t cry over, you can keep those out of the backup, but really — WHY?)
Step 2b. Save the files carefully.
See Step 1b. Everything applies. I’d even consider buying a special hard drive or GIANT flash drive, just for blog backups.
Step 3: Back up everything else.
I use Backupify because it automatically backs up my Flickr account, Twitter and my Gmail contacts. I back all of THAT stuff up on Mozy. And yes, I still do a lot of hoping and praying that I never have to access any of it, because that’s a headache I’m not ready to have.
Want all of this taken care of for you? I’ve heard really good things about http://vaultpress.com/, but it is a paid service…and not cheap. If your blog is your job, I’d consider this a wise investment.
And yes…in many cases, your host will do automatic backups and may be able to help if your site does crash. My internal voice is dripping with disdain right now because I think leaving your site’s security in someone else’s hands is just ASKING for drama.
- One more option — although I caution you, it WILL take up a lot of room on your server, and if you hit your limit, you could be locked out or have to pay your host more: Create the backup via cPanel (directions here). If you want, you can then download that file and delete the old one, but it’s a bit advanced!
So go forth and back up. Sleep soundly knowing that your blog baby is OK.
About Katy
Been there done that
Bookmarking this! I have only had a self-hosted blog for a couple of months, but I’ve never backed it up. I did think I broke it once when I was trying to install sitemeter, but I ended up being able to use the back button on my browser to get the code back.
Welll….now I’m paranoid about backing up and want to be self-hosted. My friend Michelle JUST switched over and she loves it. So, at least I’ll have someone to hold my hand when I do it.
Excellent post and informative. I’m just working on backing my stuff up and this information has definitely saved me a lot of researching time.
Awesome post, Katy! I’ve already made my Backupify account and backed up my blog via the plug-in. Gotta work on getting an external harddrive and whatnot for storing what is becoming a massive chunk of photos on my computer’s hard drive, but, you know. Baby steps. Thanks!
Great advice Katy! I have a cousin who I’m going to be seeing this weekend who is my resident computer geek/expert. I’m going to be talking to him about self-hosting and making sure I’m backing everything up properly.
OMG you are literally reading my mind. I have to do this for work and I sat at my computer screen as my eyes bled trying to figure it out! Seriously me (and my coworker) thank you!!!!
Wow! I had no idea. I have that plug in and I back up weekly to my host but didn’t know the files are separate and never thought about social media. Most of this stuff goes over my head, honestly. I am going to bookmark this post!
uh oh … I don’t mean to make you cry but …
Done. Thanks buddy, you are a life savor!
to…many…big…words!
I get an e mail every week with my database backup, but I dont do anything for pictures etc. and messing with that stuff is scary and something I dont know if I know enough about to do or how or where to save. hhmm..must do research.
i am about to switch to self hosted and then i am gonna come here and pick your brain. because i don’t wanna be an idiot and lose things.
i am about to switch to self hosted and then i am gonna come here and pick your brain. because i don’t wanna be an idiot and lose things.
Get out the tissue, but I’ve never backed it up. Well, I’ve backed it up, but I haven’t backed up my blog. Nevermind.
I can’t do it this second, but I promise tomorrow!
Book marking this. I’m not self-hosted yet, but having wiped out many a laptop during college and high school midterm/final periods…I know what it’d feel like.
Thank you!! I’ve backed up in the past but not all these ways. You just saved me a huge headache and a lot of tears.
thank you, Katy! I have only been self hosted a few months, and was recently thinking about how to backup. this is a big help for a newbie like me!
I just did 1 and 3 and I feel so much more secure. Thanks for posting this!
This is such an informative post– thanks for this Katy! Although I’m still retarded and cant figure it out completely, I’m a little closer to backing up haha :/
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Thanks for this info Katy!! Useful stuff – ahhh I can’t imagine loosing it all! *envisioning a large breakdown* haha…
Hope you are having fun at HLS!
Katy, great post!!
I am currently paying an annual fee to have someone do the backups for me, monthly. And they send me a copy of it. It’s running me about $50 a month which isnt’ cheap but it’s PEACE OF MIND!
I have been too scared to figure out how to do this b/c as you said, one wrong thing and you’re facing the white screen of death.
Thank you for the blow by blow for how to DIY.
Gem of a post! I did a Blogging 101 series (I think Jenn of Peas & Crayons linked both of us in her post this week) but anyway…this is a great backup tutorial and I will remember this and pass it along to others. Thanks for posting it!
Averie —
I’m so glad you liked the post! I actually need to update it, because since I wrote this, I started paying $15 a month to VaultPress for live, real-time and seamless backing up of EVERYTHING. They keep it all on their servers (the people that created WordPress also created VaultPress) so I don’t have to fool around with any of the files. Totally worth it to me.
Hi
I have been using the FREE backup software for my Gmail account that is available from SysCloudSoft. I backed up all my Gmail data, and some Google Apps docs also free.
http://www.syscloudsoft.com is their website
The free part is good. Cos I did not want to spend much on backup.