While we make multiple nightly backups, we strongly urge you to keep your own backups as well. This page gives instructions on how to do this. For both of the below options make sure you are logged in as an Adminstrator. We encourage you to make backups at least once a month, more often if desired or you’re just about to make significant changes to your website.

WordPress Export

All websites have access to the built-in WordPress export tool. To make a backup using this:

  1. In the Dashboard go to Tools > Export in the lefthand sidebar
  2. We suggest exporting all content
  3. Click the Download Export File button

This will download an export file to your computer that you can import to another WordPress website. This backs up content of pages, posts, etc., but does not back up media files. Upon importing this file WordPress will attempt to grab them from your website. As such, if you want to back up media do so by manually downloading them from within the Media section of the Dashboard one by one (go to the file, copy the link next to Copy Link, paste it in a new tab or window, then use your browser’s save image or download option to save the file).

WordPress Backup

Websites that are individually hosted, that is, not simple websites on our WordPress Multisite Network, have access to a full backup tool. Generally if your organization is smaller we probably offered you our network. You know which kind of website you are if you cannot see the Plugins section in the Dashboard then you are on the network, and therefore cannot use this backup method. To make a backup:

  1. In the Dashboard go to BackWPup > Jobs
  2. You will find a job titled Manual Full Backup
  3. When hovering over that title you should see a Run now option below it, click this to run the backup. This backup can take a long time, so feel free to go off and do other things, even in the same browser tab, and check back later. You can ignore the warning about debug.log as that is just telling you that a specific log file you don’t really need cannot be backed up.
  4. When the backup is done go to BackWPup > Backups to see the list of stored backups (only the latest backup is kept) and download the backup you just made to your computer.

This backup contains the following, everything you’d need to brng your website up somewhere else:

  • The same export described above
  • All the files that are a part of your WordPress website, including all uploads
  • An export of the database for your website
  • A list of the plugins on your website