Yesterday, I discovered a plugin for WordPress that will automatically backup your database daily to any email of your choice. Normally I’ll backup my database manually, but it is not needed now as this plugin will send backups to my email automatically daily. It is really very convenient and recommended to all WordPress users.
How to do that?
- In WordPress 2.x, the database backup plugin is already included, download it here if you don’t have it. Now head over here and get the WP-Cron plugin.
- Extract it and you will see a bunch of plugins. Upload only the wp-cron file to your plugin directory and activate it.
- Next, go to “Manage” in your dashboard and click on “Backup”. If your wp-cron is successfully installed, you will see the “Scheduled Backup” section.
- Change your “Schedule” option from “None” to “Daily” and enter the email address that you want the backups to be sent to in the “Email backup to:” box.
- If you have any plugins that uses sql too, you will see an option to backup it as well or not. This is up to you. After you are done, hit the submit button. Voila, no more worries on losing your data anymore.
It is recommended to use Gmail to backup your database as they are reliable and offer up to 2GB of space for free. If you can’t apply for a free Gmail account, you can always request one from me. I have an account that can create Gmail account, but using my domain, stupiak.com. So your email address would be yourname@stupiak.com. It is advised to check your backups once in a blue moon and delete some old backups to save some space. No matter how much space you have, it might not be sufficient after a long run.
i didn’t know that WP-Cron is still needed but this is an invaluable info for me as a WP user