Easily Backup and Move Your Site
Backing up your work is a must, and it's something that can be done in a matter of minutes. And moving your site may become a necessity as you grow your business. Below are a few steps you can take to protect your business. If you're not willing to look out for yourself today, don't look to blame someone else tomorrow.
First of all, I've stressed in other posts and comments how vitally important it is to use plugins that are updated regularly and tested with the current version of WordPress, which is 4.9.3 at this writing (*Updated 2/6/18*). If you are using a plugin that is not updated, you are asking for trouble.
I know that some people here have advocated using WP Clone. But that plugin has not been updated in more than a year and, as such, is an ugly old dog that I would not pet. I have recently needed to migrate sites to another hosting company, and I've used a plugin to perform backups and successfully move the sites.
All-in-One WP Migration is authored by ServMask and offers 1-click functionality to backup, export and import site files. You can check it out at the WP Repository at https://wordpress.org/plugins/...
Backup your site at the touch of a button. You can see in this image below that all you have to do is click the Backup button in the WP Dashboard. Then select Create Backup and Save the File to your computer.
It's a similar process for moving, or migrating a site. You can see in this image below that all you have to do is click the Export button. Then select Export to File and Save the File to your computer.
If you're moving the site to a new hosting company, as I recently did, you'll need to go to the current domain registrar and change the DNS. For the past 12+ years, I've purchased all of my domains from NameCheap because I can host the sites wherever I want. I pay $12 per year to renew my sites there as well. So, like Flavor Flav said back in his Public Enemy days, don't believe the hype. :-)
So I went to NameCheap, changed the DNS, and then logged into my new hosting provider. I added the domain name - in this case it's Surfside Sandbox - and then I installed WordPress. It usually takes a couple of hours for the DNS to change, so I went out to lunch with my dad.
When I got back, I logged into my new WP Dashboard and installed and activated the All-in-One WP Migration plugin. You can see in this image below that all you have to do is click the Import button.
This plugin is especially sweet because of the 1-click and Drag and Drop features. You can see in the image below that while the Import window was open, all I needed to do was locate the folder where I placed the Backup/Migrate file. And then I just dragged it into the Import box.
Within minutes, my new site was up and running, and looked exactly like my original. Of course, you'll want to make sure that your plugins and permalinks are updated, and take a walk through of everything, but you'll find this method to be very simple and secure in backing up and moving your sites. Peace friends! :-)
Recent Comments
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Bob the King! Thanks for endorsing this All-in-One Migration plug-in. Blue Host also recommended it, but I wanted to get some feedback from a trusted source - and now I have!
Definite;y going to use this great plugin moving forward - and ditch WP Clone. Thanks so much bro!
Thanks, Bob! I'll add this to my Dashboard asap. I appreciate your valuable and easy to implement posts. :) Enjoy your day!
Thanks for this - after installing and activating this plugin, I went to backups, create backup and it bumped me to exports without giving me an option to save it to my desktop. Any ideas on what's going wrong?
Nothing is wrong, it's just prompting you to select how you want to save the file. See in the 3rd image where it says Export File? I click the Advanced Options drop down and then selected Export to File. It will then run the backup and you can download it to your hard drive. That's the method I always use. Need to run out for a bit but will be back later to answer questions if you have any, or you can PM me. Hope this helps! :-)
Thank you for sharing this much needed info, Bob! I personally will immediate act in installing the plug-in that you recommended but also delete that WP Clone plug-in.
My pleasure Gail, hope you are well too. I used this tool to move all 12 of my sites to another hosting company after they continually crashed here. Today is my last day at WA. Wishing you peace and blessings. :-)
Thanks Bob. Very sorry to see you go but glad that we got to say 'au revoir'. All the best to you and hope you get all you want out of life. :) Gail
Hi Bob, thanks for this.
Due to recent experiences with the WPClone Plugin that broke my permalinks! among other things. I delete it of course, and all the backup files I saved on my laptop.
I wish I knew that this plugin existed for the backup files part. I thought it was only to migrate a website.
I'm emailing this post to myself so I can have it and will add this plugin, and back up my website. Actually, I have a blog post I wrote a while back here I need to delete since it's about backing up our websites and I mentioned the nasty WPClone in it.
Thanks for caring and sharing this! I appreciate it.
Update.
That didn't take long!
Now that I have it downloaded, can I 'deactivate' it since it's not needed?
Thanks :)
You're very welcome Patsy. And yes, you may deactivate it and activate it again when you want to run a backup. It is really a very stable and easy-to-use resource. Peace my friend! :-)
Do I know you? blahahahaha I crack me up. It's nearly 70 degrees here, I'm hitting the beach for an hour. Sorry, not trying to be mean. Peace my friend! :-)
Good stuff Bob! So moving sites this way with this plugin requires no FTP/Filezilla software? It sure looks that way. If not this is very cool!
Nope, no FTP and/or Filezilla, of which I am comfortable with and utilize as well. This is simple and effective to use. Go ahead and ask why I migrated 12 sites away from WA hosting. ;-)
This is awesome information and I hope a lot of people read it. Most people do not think about backing up their site. I do a daily backup just in case something goes weird while I am working in it. At min.. I loose what I have done that day
Most people here don't think about a lot of things because Kyle and Carson give them a false sense of security and knowledge, laughing to the bank along the way. True story. :-)
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I tried backing up using All in One WP Migration, followed all your steps here, got to Export > File, and this is the message I received in the Screenshot.
Out of Disk Space. But I don't quite understand why, there is over 683 GB of available free space available on my OS (C Drive) - the total size of all the files of the website is only 357 MB.
Your screenshot suggests that the out of disk space is at the WA end. Contact WA Support.
Thanks Dave, did not realize this. I will do.