Site backup is a must do preventive measure for Website owner

Today, while working on article for my website, I was notified by wordpress to update to the latest version. I thought, what harm could it do to my content and clicked the update button in the middle of work. As soon as I clicked, I saw the sign "back up before updating as some data loss may occur" and that send a chill down my spine. I had worked very hard to create 4 articles in a week. Is all my hard work going to vanish just because of one hasty move? How am I going to rewrite all those articles? Many thoughts crossed my mind as I watched the maintenance bar progress. Hopefully, everything went well. But that may not be the case always. Website crash happen often and in rare case you may lose all your work.

Backup using FTP

I was so close to losing my work and I was already feeling very bad. So, I created this post to bring awareness on data loss among the WA members. Though, at first, I thought of creating a tutorial on this topic but I find this (video by Welshy about connecting to domain via ftp) and cancel my plan.

You can connect to you site by using the method explained in the video above. Then at the point where you drag the files from computer to server to upload them, you need to do the reverse. You already have files on server, so you have to drag files from server to your computer to back up your files. Later on, in case, you need to restore the files, you can follow the video.

If you find any problem connecting to your site via ftp then here is another nice tutorial by nathaniell on Troubleshoot Connecting to FTP at WA..

[update]

I put above method because I usually work on wordpress installed on my computer and then synchronize the content to the server wordpress. In this way, data will be updated in both server wordpress and my computer. Plus, I also want you to know about ftp which is a great and powerful way to transfer files.

Backup Using Wordpress inbuild export feature or Plugin

However, you don't have to use the method I am using. You can use the export feature of wordpress(tools>>export) or plugin like "backWPup free" to achieve that. I want to thank RussStewart and dch1959 for letting me know about these things which I haven't tried before.

Here's a nice video tutorial by Kyle on using export feature to back up your site.

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/how-to-back-up-your-wordpress-site-using-tools-export

Few words

Site backup is a must do preventive measure for Website owner. I know almost all the members here use the online wordpress to manage site so please back up your files on some safe place. Don't give even a slight chance for bad luck to ruin your work.

Thanks for spending your valuable minutes to read my post... :)