Having Wordpress backup is essential and considered as a vital section of WordPress maintenance services. You can simply ask help from the WordPress service providers to create WordPress backup or use a plugin. However, using the plugin is not an appropriate solution as it may lead to WordPress errors.

So, are you interested to learn how to create WordPress back up manually? Here, in this blog, we will enlighten you about the manual process of making WordPress back up easily.

WordPress Components and their backups

Different WordPress components may require a different process for back up. First, you do not require backing up the default WordPress files. /wp-includes/ or /wp-admin/ cannot be modified by any third-party plugins.

Besides, all versions of WordPress could be downloaded from WordPress release archive. So, which files really need to be back up?

• Root Configuration files

wp-config.php and .htaccess, back up for these two root configuration files is very important. The wp-config.php consists of the database connection strings. On the other hand, the .htaccess is the server configuration file. You may also need to back up the googleCODE.html and BingSiteAuth.xml files that are known as webmaster tool identification files. You can back up these files once after you have completed the installation.

• wp-content files

It is wise to back up /wp-content/folder as it contains different plugins, themes and media assets like images. Your website development process is highly dependent on this file. Creating backups of these files could be little problematic. Hence, it is better to take help from the WordPress support providers.

• The WordPress database

The WordPress database includes all of the historic revisions, page contents, site configurations, media references, user accounts, plugin activities and much more. Hence, it is necessary to take database back up frequently-perhaps once in 24 hours. There are different process of database back-ups, such as manual back up, backup plugins and backup services.

Why manually WordPress backup is so much important

You have to create a WordPress backup system for your site, which will help you to restore the site when something goes wrong. It is common that the users are losing access to the admin area of WordPress because of the hack attempt.

Losing access to the admin area also means losing control on plugins and a chance to retrieve the site. This is where it is important to learn manual process of WordPress database backup. A Manual Backup works similar to the plugin backup. So, here are two basic processes to create manual WordPress site backup:

1. Manual Backup of WordPress by phpMyAdmin

phpMyAdmin is one of the best and easiest method to create manual backup of WordPress. It is considered as open source software, which can efficiently manage the MySQL database with the help of a Web based interface. This software is found as preinstalled on WordPress hosting providers.

At first, you have to log in to the respective WordPress hosting control panel and click on the phpMyAdmin. The phpAdmin is located under the database section.

With a single click on this option, you will launch phpMyAdmin window. Then click on the WordPress database name to select it. After that, you will be asked to export the file. You can select “custom” as it will offer maximum options to explore.

Then, you can select the tables that you want to export and cut the unwanted tables. If you are not sure, which tables are important then, better select all and export. Scroll down to reach the output section. At the output section, you will find complete export process as text. Select option “Save output to a file” and you will generate the same.

Finally, reach to the bottom of the page and you will find “Go” button. Click on it and the phpAdmin will send you the WordPress database as zip file.

2. Manual Backup of WordPress from cPanel

Creating manual WordPress site back up from the cPanel is quite easy and often followed by the WordPress maintenance service providers. Here is the step-by-step process to prepare WordPress site backup manually.

The first step is to log in to the hosting control panel. After entering in the control panel scroll down, until you reach the files section. In this section, you will find Backup button. The renowned hosting service providers, namely- SiteGround, Hostgator and Bluehost have the similar options.

Find the backups page and each the partial backups section. After that find and click on the database name and download the respective database backup file. From the same page, you can also download the WordPress files backup.

Thought summary

Remember that the manual backup of the files is very important when the hackers seize your access to the admin panel. But, manual backup process should not be the ultimate or only choice to the admins. Sometimes it is hard to run manual backup process daily… obviously because, it is a time-consuming process. At that point, it is wise to take help from the hosting services and plugins

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