Backing up your blog is essential. Your host (hopefully) conducts regular backups of the server your site is hosted on, but if you backup yourself, you have the ability to restore your site quickly if needed.
There are two things that need to be backed up regularly:
- Your database (your posts, comments, etc.)
- Your files (your theme, plugins, images and various other items that make your site work and look nice)
How to Backup your Database
- The easiest way to backup your database is to install a plugin which automates the process. I personally use WP Database Backup, but there are many available. (Simply search the Plugin Directory as I described in How to Install a Plugin.) Note, this will not back up your files (see below).
- Find your backup plugin's settings. In the case of WP Database
Backup, go to Dashboard–>Tools–>Backup. (If you're using a different plugin, you might also find the settings in Dashboard–>Settings–>name of plugin.) - Configure your settings. It's pretty self-explanatory. Here's what mine look like. (Click any image for a larger view.)
Choose the items you want to back up:
If you want to do a backup immediately, you'd choose the place to send it and click "Backup now!" Like this:
Schedule a regular backup by choosing how often and which items you want backed up. Enter your email address and then click "Schedule backup". Like so:
As you can see, I get a backup emailed to me daily. In order to save time and not have to deal with it coming to my email inbox, I set up a filter so those emails get automatically archived in Gmail. No hassle.
How to Backup your Files
- There are various ways to do it, but I'll show you how to do so via FTP. (Here's how to access your FTP.)
- Then transfer your blog's files from your server to your computer. This process is just like I described in How to Install a Plugin or Theme Via FTP, except instead of moving your files from the left (your computer) to the right (your server), you will transfer the opposite way. Like this:
How to Zip Your Files to Save Space
This can be a pretty large file, so you might consider zipping it so it doesn't take as much room on your computer. Here's a zipping tutorial for Mac and one for Windows.
Want more detailed information about backing up? Here's more from WordPress.
Here at BloggingWithAmy you'll find tips, tools & tutorials about blogging and websites. In plain English. Want to 
thanks for posting this! I have a service with my web host where I pay $10 and they back everything up every 24 hours for me. But sometimes I think . . . what if . . . something goes horribly wrong even though they say they are backing it up?
This is a great post and well needed. I lost my contents of my other blog about a month ago and I hadn't backed it up. I had to pay my host to do it and that would take up to 72 hours. I learned a lesson so I started to back mine up. Thanks for the great post!
Thanks Amy! Oh my gosh, I've lost mine two times in the last month by trying to install plugins that just didn't work right. I've been trying to figure out how to do this….thank you. thank you. thank you. Seriously!
When tranferring files from left to right would I just grab the whole public-html file and pull it over and that would transfer all my files, right?
Yes, it might take a while, but yes, it'll pull that whole public_html file.
Amy, I am curious. I was looking at this post today as well as your post on social media plugins. One of the things that you wrote early on is that we shouldn't install too many plug ins. I wonder what would be considered to be "too many"? My list is growing!
Well, I think it varies for everyone. I don't think there's a set number but if there's any way I can make something happen on my blog without installing a plugin, I go the "without-the-plugin" route. Many times that means I have to edit my own code, etc. I realize that's not an option for everyone, in which case, a plugin is probably just fine. It's a balancing act, for sure and each blogger should ask themselves if Plugin X is really going to help my site function better, make a huge difference to readers or make blogging significantly simpler. Plugins are fun, but they do drain resources for sure. I stay away from plugins that are just fun or cool and don't serve a specific purpose. And I also review my list of plugins periodically. If there are any I'm not using, I delete them (not just deactivate, but delete entirely since a deactivated plugin still uses resources.
Thanks, Amy! I just went and deleted the ones that I wasn't using! I had tried to get my social icons working without a plug in, but it was taking too much time to line them up. Maybe if I take the CSS class I can figure it out?!
Just adding to the above comment – are there any other tutorials that you would recommend so that I can handle my own code?
Thanks!
There are all sorts of excellent tutorials at W3Schools (look in the left column).
Also, generally when there's something I want to know how to do, I just google it. Everything I've learned I've learned that way.
I noticed at the bottom of your screen shot it gives the choices ASCII, DATA, MACBINARY. On my control panel I have ASCII, BINARY with BINARY selected. Is this something that is done automatically or is it something that I need to change and what does it mean?
I can't remember now if I changed the default settings on those. I doubt it. If I did, it would only be because it was suggested to me by someone else since formats of files (that's what they are) extend way beyond my level of expertise or interest.
If you're curious, you can see an explanation for them here.
Hi Amy!
I just tried to do a backup using your instructions. I did end up getting a short error message at the end that said that there was a problem w/ GET so I phoned Bluehost.
They said that if you use wordpress and do an FTP backup transferring public HTML to your HD that you will miss some of the database. They said that it is best to use the Backup feature on the control panel instead.
Thought you might like to know
Well, I've managed to mess things up royally and I'm about ready to throw in the towel.
Positive: I have today's email with the back up for my blog from Bluehost.
Negative: I removed the theme which had bugs in it. I didn't have it backed up, except for the email mentioned in my positive. I don't have a blog now. It's disappeared. I was going to go into my dashboard, but I can't.
Now, I 'm overwhelmed and lost!
What can/should I do. I don't understand what to do with the email backup that I have.
I recommend you call Bluehost and see if they can restore it for you.
OK. Bluehost helped me. All was not lost. I was able to access the blog on the backside. Now, I'm lost on how to fix the initial problem, which is the issue with the code on the theme.
Below, is the issue explained in Networked Blogs and then the link is for the BytesForAll Forum that is for the theme. I am totally lost regarding what to do with this file mentioned in the forum. I don't have a clue.
"I am using Atahualpa and the Networked Blogs widget began to fail after the last update. I didn't put the two together until I noticed another issue with the theme. It has a problem holding spaces after certain punctuation, such as commas. I checked the BytesForAll forum and they provided the php code fix for the issue.
"After installing the fix for the punctuation, the Networked Blogs widget is working fine. The fix has something to do with compression settings. Simple code replacement, just a few lines. Here is a link for that fix http://forum.bytesforall.com/showthread.php?t=14143
If you have a wordpress site and are using Atahualpa, you might give it a try. At the least, it will fix your comma space problem.
.
KB"
Thanks, again.
Bonnie
Yay! I would try deleting Atahualpa and either using a different theme (like TwentyTen) or reinstalling Atahualpa again.
Yep! Yay!
I did reinstall it, per Bluehost's instructions, and then activated it, again, but the same issue is showing: No Networked Blogs followers pics, no Google Adsense Ads, my Young Living ad is messed up.
If I changed to TwentyTen, would I lose how my sidebars are set up and all my ads?
Thanks!
Bonnie
Hi, Amy!
I asked this a couple weeks ago, but I don't think it made it through to you, as I never saw a reply.
You wrote on July 7th:
"Yay! I would try deleting Atahualpa and either using a different theme (like TwentyTen) or reinstalling Atahualpa again."
I then asked:
"I did reinstall it, per Bluehost’s instructions, and then activated it, again, but the same issue is showing: No Networked Blogs followers pics, no Google Adsense Ads, my Young Living ad is messed up.
If I changed to TwentyTen, would I lose how my sidebars are set up and all my ads?
Thanks!
Bonnie"
Drag and drop your widgets into the section on your Widgets page at the bottom which says "Inactive Widgets." That way you can remove them from your sidebar but still keep their settings.
Then I can reapply them to the new theme?
Thank You, Amy!
Bonnie
I have a couple questions..do you need to back up your files with FTP fairly often? also do you have a post about using your backup if you need to? I am sot of figuring out how to back up database and files, but I would have no idea what to do with them if I needed to set my blog back up. When I click on what I've saved it says something like Windows can't open them, but can check for the program that created them. That is on my database backup. Also on the FTP, to zip it you have to do that after you upload, am I correct on that? Thanks bunches!
I would backup your theme files when you update them. While I do backup my database files regularly, I have never had to use them. If I would, I would just call my host and have them walk me through. I just set them to backup in the background and I don't pay much attention to them.
Have you had problems with this plugin not emailing you the backup file when your database gets large enough? It's backing it up on my sever, but never emailing it to me–nor does it allow me to download it when I do the backup and download.
I'm having the same issue. It doesn't back up at all anymore. Guess I will look for a new plug-in.