Questions
Backing up a WordPress site: the real questions
The questions people ask when backing up their site, restoring it or moving it, with short, practical answers.
Backing up your site
- How to back up an entire WordPress siteDatabase, media, plugins, theme, WordPress: what a full backup contains, what it leaves out, and how to make one yourself.
- How often should you back up a WordPress site?Every night, every week, before every update? The right rhythm depends on what you can afford to lose. How to choose it, and how long to keep backups.
- Where to store backups and how to protect themA backup kept only on the site's server disappears with it. Where to store it, how to lock it away, and what GDPR expects of you.
- How can you tell if a backup really works?A backup you have never reopened is still only a promise. Three ways to check it works before the day you actually need it.
When something breaks
- Restoring a WordPress backup, step by stepTaking your site back to a past moment, or onto another WordPress: the steps, what gets replaced, and the precautions to take before you click.
- An update broke your site: how to roll backA plugin or WordPress has just updated, and your site looks wrong? How to get back to how things were, and stop it happening again.
- Your WordPress site won't load: what to do?Blank screen, critical error, admin area out of reach: the first steps, in order, to get a WordPress site that has stopped responding back online.
Moving, and special cases
- Moving a WordPress site to a new hostChanging host without losing a single page: prepare the new server, transfer the site, check it, then point your domain name at it.
- Changing a WordPress site's domain nameA new address for your site: rewrite the links everywhere, redirect the old address and tell Google, without losing your visitors.
- Backing up and importing a large WordPress siteA site heavy with photos or videos? What really limits backing it up and importing it, and how to get past your host's upload limit.