We maintain the backup of our shared hosting clients' accounts regularly; however, it is highly recommended to secure a local copy, especially when you make any change in your WordPress website, such as a version upgrade.
This article will guide you to secure the complete backup of your WordPress website via the detailed steps below.
Steps to Backup your MySQL Database
I) Using phpMyAdmin
1. Log in to phpMyAdmin.
2. Click on Databases in your phpMyAdmin panel. (It may not be necessary to do this, depending on your version of phpMyAdmin)
3. You may have several databases.
Click the one that holds your WordPress data, the database you created when you installed WordPress. (In older versions, this can be done through a pull-down menu.)
4. Depicted below is a picture of the default tables in the Structure View tab.
You may have more tables - this would happen if you have any statistics plugins or anti-spam plugins.
5. Click on the Export option.
There are two methods to export, Quick and Custom:
a) If you choose Quick Export, it will allow you to download a .sql file to your computer right away after you click on Go.
b) If you choose Custom Export, follow these steps:
- Select all the tables
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- Check the Save output to a file option in the Output section and select None for Compression.
(If your database is huge, use a compression method)
- Check the Save output to a file option in the Output section and select None for Compression.
- Select SQL from the Format drop-down menu.
- Check Add DROP TABLE.
This can be useful for overwriting an existing database.
- Check IF NOT EXISTS
This prevents errors during restores if the tables are already there.
- Click on the Go option.
The data will now be saved on your computer.
6. Keep these files safe, copied, and stored in separate places on different media.
Using cPanel
Kindly visit the following article to take MySQL database backup via cPanel - https://manage.accuwebhosting.com/knowledgebase/918/How-to-Take-MySQL-database-backup-from-cPanel.html.
III) Using WebsitePanel
Kindly visit the following article to take MySQL database backup via WebsitePanel - https://manage.accuwebhosting.com/knowledgebase/973/How-to-backup-MySQL-database-from-WebsitePanel.html.
Steps to Backup your Emails
To take the backup of your emails, you can configure your email accounts into any email client program (like Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, etc.) and download all the emails into your local system.
Please check the following link to configure your email account with an email client software - https://manage.accuwebhosting.com/knowledgebase/9/Email-Clients.
Steps to backup the Web-contents
You can download your web content into your local system using FTP client software. For that, first, you will need an FTP account.
If you do not know how to create an FTP account, then kindly visit the following URL:
- Using cPanel - https://manage.accuwebhosting.com/knowledgebase/1988/How-to-create-additional-FTP-accounts-in-cPanel.html.
- Using WebsitePanel - https://manage.accuwebhosting.com/knowledgebase/284/How-to-in-Create-an-FTP-account-in-WebsitePanel.html.
Once you have an FTP account, visit the following article to configure that FTP account with any FTP client software and download your web contents - https://manage.accuwebhosting.com/knowledgebase/113/Complete-FTP-guide-with-all-FTP-clients.
