UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin Tutorial (How to backup & restore your WordPress Site)

Are you trying to set up a WordPress backup strategy?

Backups are the first layer of security for any WordPress site. In addition to automatic backups, you should also have an easy way to restore the backup when it becomes unavailable.

This post will walk you through the simple process of using UpdraftPlus to backup and restore your WordPress website.

Why You Need a Backup & Restore Solution for WordPress?

All websites on the internet are vulnerable to data loss and security threats. According to research, data loss and downtime cost $1.7 trillion each year to the global economy.

As a website owner, these are some common scenarios when you may lose your data:

• Your website can get hacked, and hackers may destroy your data.
• Your hosting provider can lose your data.
• Your host reserves the right to terminate your account and delete all your data.

There are a lot of other scenarios in which you may lose both your WordPress website and all of the valuable data created over the years. Taking regular backups of your website is the best defense against these assaults.

WordPress does not come with a built-in backup solution. You can, however, automatically backup and restore your WordPress website with several great WordPress backup plugins.

Although we recommend Duplicator for backups, UpdraftPlus is also one of the best WordPress backup plugins. You can use it to create schedules for automatic backups. It will also assist you in restoring your website in case something bad happens.

Let’s take a look at how to easily back up and restore your WordPress site with UpdraftPlus. You can use the links below to navigate through the tutorial:

Using UpdraftPlus to Create a Backup of WordPress

Installing and active the free UpdraftPlus plugin is the first thing you should do.

Upon activation, you need to configure the plugin’s settings. Go to “Settings” tabs.

This is the section where you can configure a remote backup location to store your backups and an automated backup schedule.

Firstly, select a backup schedule for your files, Next, you need to select a database backup schedule. The backup schedule will be based on how frequently you update your website with new content.

For example, if you add two blog posts each week, you can select a fortnightly backup of files and a weekly database backup.

Next, you need to decide where to store your backup files. Keeping your backups in the same location as your website is not a good idea. Losing your website means you will also lose access to your backup files.

For this reason, you need to choose a remote cloud storage provider to store your backups.

You can store your backups on several cloud storage services, including Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, and many others. Your backups can also be sent to an email address.

Simply click on a remote service to select it, and you will see setup instructions below.

For the sake of this guide, we will guide how to use Dropbox as your remote backup storage service with UpdraftPlus.

We’ll go ahead & click on Dropbox, then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the “Save Changes” button, our settings will be saved by UpdraftPlus.

Then click the link “Follow this link to authorize access to your Dropbox account (you won’t be able to backup to Dropbox without it).”

The link will take you to the Dropbox website, where you will be asked to sign in using your Dropbox email and password.

After finishing all steps, click “Complete setup” you will be taken back to your wordPress site, and you will see the “UpdraftPlus Backup/Restore” section again, navigate to “Setting” section, Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

You’ve now set up a backup schedule and a remote location to store your backups.

Using UpdraftPlus to Restore Your WordPress Backup

Creating backups is easy, but the really useful thing about backups is the ability to restore them with the same ease.

UpdraftPlus makes it easy to restore your WordPress site from a backup.

If your WordPress site was hacked or you want to start fresh, you first need to delete everything and install WordPress again.

Then, on your newly created WordPress site, reinstall and activate the UpdraftPlus plugin.

Upon activation, navigate to the “Backup / Restore” section and Scroll down to the “Existing backups” part, choose the right backup files and click the ‘Restore’ button, next, choose the components to restore.

Our UpdraftPlus Review

UpdraftPlus is a strong WordPress backup plugin that is ideal for DIY users who want the freedom to choose their backup schedule and remote storage location.

UpdraftPlus is one of the most popular choices among users. You can, however, upgrade to UpdraftPlus Premium to access premium add-ons, such as Website Migrator, UpdraftVault, priority support, and additional features. The premium plan is $70 per year.

If you prefer a more affordable & effective solution, you can use Duplicator instead. It enables you to schedule backups, create recovery points, use multi-cloud storage interfaces, and more.

We also recommend Jetpack VaultPress Backup if you want real-time backups and unlimited storage but don’t want to pay for a third-party storage provider like Dropbox.

VaultPress requires a premium subscription, which starts at $59.40 per year. This package includes 10GB of cloud storage, a 30-day backup archive, a simple 1-click restore, and priority expert help.