Yesterday, I published an article titled Backup Your WordPress Database NOW!, but I was using version 1.6 of the WP Backup plugin. Derek of Derek Semmler.com, mentioned that his version of the backup plugin has an option for automatic backups! I looked into it further and found that the WordPress developers had bundled the version 1.6 of the plugin starting with WordPress version 2.0 (which is when I got it) but removed it from the core at WordPress version 2.1!
Download the latest version of the WordPress Database Backup plugin.
Usage
From the end user’s perspective, this plugin is basically the same as it always has been, but now you can schedule backups Hourly, Daily or Weekly and specify which tables in your database are backed up!
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You can click the image for a larger view!
On top of backing it up, I also export my articles as a double backup once a week!
Saman, thanks for the mention and glad to hear that you have updated to the latest version to take advantage of the scheduled backups.
No problem, thanks for the help! It is a great feature! I know a lot of users rely on their host to back up there databases, but I like having control over it!
How does the hourly scheduling work, have you looked into it?
I haven’t used it, but nothing changes on the plugin’s page so I would imagine that you get an hourly email! Although, I don’t know how useful that really is… Not for me and my small site anyway!
I was wondering how they kept the process going. I assume it does not use Cron, but must have some method of keeping the process alive..
This WordPress plugin is the worst form of false security out there!!!
If you want a real backup system you need to use a cron job such as I have detailed in this post How To: Backup your database with a cron job.
How is it “false security”?! You get a hourly/weekly or monthly backup. Most hosts out there do a nightly backup anyway, this plugin is for that extra layer security - that’s all.
If a site is really so critical that you need a rolling seven day backup, then that site’s webmaster should already be backing up the databases and this post would not apply. This post is for the rest of us.
I have copies of this entire site on two separate local backups, and then I have this plugin set to weekly which is emailed to a third server. This article for bloggers who don’t backup normally - this should be their first step in backups!
It depends on the reliability of the process / keepalive. If that works then there will be nothing wrong with the plugin.
Cron will always be more reliable, but not all hosts offer access to cron…
What he said!
Seriously, if a hosting company does not allow you to run cron jobs you need to get a better hosting company!
As for hosting companies doing nightly backups, yes most do. They also charge you a fee to restore from their backups!
Also, any backups stored on your server should be behind your public_html directory. You do not want your backups stored in a publicly accessable area.
In my case, they aren’t. Like I said, I have backups on three different computers…
But your mileage may very!
Thanks for this update. I’m glad someone has taken over the care of this plugin.