The Ultimate Guide to Updraftplus Backup Plugin in 2022

Backups are the first line of defense for every WordPress website. Aside from automatic backups, it would be best to have a simple mechanism to restore the backup. In this post, we’ll teach you how to use UpdraftPlus to backup. And how you can restore your WordPress site using Updraftplus Backup Plugin.

Why Do You Need a WordPress Backup and Restore Solution?

According to research, data loss and downtime cost the global economy $1.7 trillion per year.

Data loss and security issues affect all websites on the internet. As a website owner, the following are some frequent circumstances in which you may lose data:

• Hackers may delete your data if your website is compromised.
• Your data may be lost if your hosting provider fails.
• Your host has the authority to cancel your account. And you erase all your data.

There are several more circumstances in which you may wind up losing your website. And all the valuable data you’ve accumulated over the years.

The easiest method to defend yourself is to backup your WordPress site. Unfortunately, wordPress does not have a backup option. Yet, there are many excellent WordPress backup plugins, which allow you to backup and restore your WordPress site.

UpdraftPlus is one of the most acceptable backup plugins for WordPress. It enables you to plan automatic backups. It will also assist you in restoring your WordPress site if something goes wrong.

Also Read :- 17 Best WordPress Backup Plugins Compared (2022)

UpdraftPlus Free vs. UpdraftPlus Premium

The UpdraftPlus backup plugin also offers a premium version. It includes a slew of more capabilities like:

• Cloning: Cloning allows you to generate a temporary mirror version of your site. This is handy for fast testing, demonstrations, and troubleshooting.

• Migration: The Migration tool allows you to migrate your WordPress site to a new server. It is simply a sophisticated restoration approach wherein the URLs of the sites are updated to the new hostname.

This is useful for transitioning test sites from staging to production settings.

• The ability to backup your site before every theme or core WordPress update occurs.
• Importer Add-on: Restore from backups created by other popular WordPress backup plugins.
• Backup of non-WordPress files and databases and database encryption
• WP-CLI and WordPress Multisite are supported.
• To prohibit all users from viewing complete site backups. And it creates a password-protected plugin section.

The goal of this article was to demonstrate how to set up. And it performs a complete WordPress backup. And it is restored using only the accessible version of the plugin.

The premium features provided by this plugin are excellent. That makes it an excellent alternative to premium WordPress backup plugins. For example, it provides VaultPress, BackupBuddy, and BackWPUp.

Using UpdraftPlus to Create a WordPress Backup

The first step is to install and activate the UpdraftPlus plugin.

After activation, go to Settings » UpdraftPlus Backups to adjust plugin settings.

You must now choose the settings tab. This is where you will configure an automated backup schedule and a remote location for backup storage.

First, you must establish a backup plan for your files. WordPress themes, plugins, pictures, and other uploads are examples of files. Following that, you must choose a backup schedule for your WordPress database. WordPress is a database-driven piece of software.

The frequency with which you publish new material to your website. That should determine your backup plan. For example, if you publish two blog articles each week. Then you may choose a backup of files and a weekly backup of the database.

The next step is to decide where to save your backup data. It is not a good idea to keep backups in the exact location of your website. Suppose you lose access to your backup files. Then you will also lose access to your website.

This is why you should use a distant cloud storage provider to save your backups. UpdraftPlus lets you store backups to a variety of cloud storage providers. It provides you Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and many more. You may also email your backups to yourself.

Click on a remote service to choose it. And setup instructions will appear below.

In this case, we’ll go ahead and pick Dropbox, then scroll down to the bottom of the page. Then select the option to Save Changes.

UpdraftPlus will save your preferences. But, you must still provide UpdraftPlus access to your Dropbox account.

Scroll down to the steps for setting up remote storage. And click on the link next to the ‘Authenticate with Dropbox’ option.

You will be sent to the Dropbox website by clicking on the link. You will be prompted to sign in with your Dropbox email address and password.

After logging in, you will be asked if you want UpdraftPlus to access your Dropbox account.

UpdraftPlus will only be able to access its folder in the “Apps » UpdraftPlus” area. To proceed, click the ‘Allow’ option. Then, you will be routed to the UpdraftPlus website. And you must click the ‘Complete Setup’ button to complete the setup.

You will now be returned to your WordPress site. And you will see the UpdraftPlus settings page once more.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and press the Save Changes button.

You have now established a backup schedule and a remote location for storing backups.

Also Read :- How to Backup Your WordPress With Jetpack 2022? [Ultimate Guide]

Using UpdraftPlus to Create Manual WordPress Backups

UpdraftPlus may make backups based on the schedule you set before. You may generate backups at any time.

To begin, go to Settings » UpdraftPlus Backups and click the ‘Backup Now’ option.

This will provide a pop-up window with options for selecting files/database backup. And whether to send the backup to remote storage.

To proceed, click the ‘Backup Now’ option.

UpdraftPlus will immediately begin backing up your files and database. The progress will be visible on the settings page.

Depending on the size of your website, the procedure may take some time. UpdraftPlus will begin transferring your backup files to the remote location as well.

What WordPress files do you need to back up?

There are three types of files on your WordPress site, as well as one database.

• WordPress’s Core Files
• Files in the wp-content directory (your theme, plugins, and uploads)
• Configuration files for WordPress
• WordPress’s Database

Backing up WordPress’s Core Files

The files that power your WordPress site are known as core WordPress files. Usually, you would never change these files. So they remain the same on all WordPress sites.

All files in the root folder are considered fundamental WordPress files. Therefore, you may always download new copies of these files from the WordPress.org website. This is why you don’t have to back up these files all the time.

Creating a backup of the wp-content folder

WordPress saves all your pictures, media, themes, and plugins under the wp-content folder. This folder’s contents are unique to your website.

Suppose you know what plugins and themes you have installed on your WordPress site. You can always get new copies of these plugins from their respective providers. You do not need to backup the plugins and themes directories in this scenario.

Suppose you can’t recall all the plugins or themes you’ve installed. Then you should back them up as well. Likewise, if you have a custom theme, you should always back up these directories.

All your photos and uploads will be saved in the /wp-content/uploads folder. You will not be able to rebuild this folder if you lose it. This folder must be backed up.

The wp-content folder is also where your WordPress plugins may build their directories.

W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache plugins may also generate directories. You can safely disregard those files because the plugins can renew them. Plugins such as Envira Gallery generate folders to hold files for your galleries. These folders must be backed up. You must ensure that any files uploaded via plugins are not excluded from backups.

Creating a Backup of WordPress Configuration Files

WordPress configuration files offer critical information about your WordPress website’s settings. WordPress’s two most important configuration files are:

• wp-config.php file
• .htaccess file

These files are options specific to your WordPress site. They can be manually recreated. But it is usually a good idea to have them in backups.

WordPress Database Backup

WordPress keeps all its data in a MySQL database. This is where you save all your articles, pages, users, comments, and anything else. This is the section of your WordPress site that is most updated, which is why you should do more regular database backups.

Make a backup of non-WordPress files and databases with More files Add on

With this More Files Add on, you may backup anything in your WordPress root directory. And any other folders on your web server. Usually, UpdraftPlus produces backup archives of everything in WordPress’s content directory. It includes the database, plugins, uploads, themes, and so on.

With this Add-On, UpdraftPlus backs up all files from your WordPress installation. It includes those you added.

It also allows you to back up different directories from your web server. That isn’t part of WordPress at all. UpdraftPlus can restore WordPress core files and non-standard files in your WordPress installation.

Manually restoring directories from outside of WordPress is simple. This add-on also includes the ability to download files from your backups from your WordPress dashboard.

Add a number equal to the number of websites for which this add-on is required. If you need many, UpdraftPlus Premium is the most excellent bargain. UpdraftPlus Premium contains this and every other add-on at a considerable discount for the best value.

Backups include the following items:

• Changes to the WordPress core.
• Outside of the regular upload procedures, new files are added to WordPress.
• Other resources located in the same directory as WordPress
• Other folders’ files on your server
• Your wp-config.php file. So you won’t have to re-enter database settings. And other customizations when you restore it.
• From your WordPress dashboard, you can also browse your backups. And you can download individual files.

Using UpdraftPlus to Restore Your WordPress Backup

Making backups is simple, but the actual value of blockages is recovering them with the same ease. UpdraftPlus makes restoring your WordPress site from a backup simple.

If your WordPress site was hacked or you wish to start over. Then you must first erase everything and reinstall WordPress. Then, on your brand-new WordPress site, reinstall. And then activate the UpdraftPlus plugin.

After activation, go to Settings » UpdraftPlus Backups and select the Restore option.

This takes you to the backups page. UpdraftPlus will search your server. And check if it can locate an existing backup in your website’s/wp-content/updraft/ folder. But, because you erased everything on your website, it will not locate the backup files.

Suppose you saved the backup files to your computer. Then you may upload and restore them by clicking the ‘Upload backup files’ link.

UpdraftPlus can also be connected to a distant site (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.). UpdraftPlus will be able to scan remote locations and use before saved backups in this manner.

Click on the Settings tab. And then, select the remote place where you before saved your backups.

To authenticate your website with the remote storage provider, follow the steps.

To restore your settings, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the page.

Return to the ‘Existing Backups’ page and click the ‘Rescan remote location’ link.

UpdraftPlus will now search the remote storage location for backups. You may now restore a backup by clicking the restore button next to it. In addition, UpdraftPlus will now prompt you to select what you want to restore. You must pick all choices before clicking the ‘Restore’ button.

UpdraftPlus will now retrieve your backup files from the remote location. And it begins the process of restoring your site from the backup.

What makes UpdraftPlus stand out from other backup plugins?

Backup plugins are not all made equal. It is not difficult to create a simple backup plugin that works 80 percent of the time. Yet, it is critical to install a backup plugin, such as UpdraftPlus. That works in almost every circumstance — they are far rarer. Some other backup plugins charge extra for services like mechanical restoration. That UpdraftPlus includes it as free.