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RSSHow To Manually Backup Your Blog’s Database
We work hard on our blogs and some of us spend quite a bit of time writing posts. It would suck to have all that work flushed down the drain all because you didn’t have a backup of your blog’s database. Oddly enough, there are a lot of people out there in this exact situation where they don’t have a backup!
In fact, I would say that having a backup is the most important factor in your blog’s success. Let’s face it….shit happens, your web hosting server could get hacked and somebody could delete your database. A server hard drive could go bad and you lose all your precious posts and comments. You have somebody try to fix something on your blog and somehow they screw up and corrupt your database.
There are just too many factors that can happen for you to not have a CURRENT backup of your blog. Because when the shit hits the fan and it will one day, having a recent backup of your database can mean the difference between using a fire hose to clean off the walls versus using a napkin.
Accessing phpMyAdmin
WordPress uses MySQL database to store the data for it’s options as well as the post and page data. So in order to backup your blog you are going to have to find the link to access phpMyAdmin which is software that lets you edit a MySQL database. So once you find the link to phpMyAdmin you are going to have to login using your username and password which most likely you entered while setting up your database.
Finding Your Database
Depending upon your host things may be named differently. HostGator uses a naming scheme that doesn’t really explain which database goes to which blog so you have to dig around to find out which one is which. HostGator uses something like wrdp1 for the first blog and then wrdp2, wrdp3 and so on as each blog is added. This is when you use Fantastico but you can of course set up the database yourself and give it it’s own name.
Your list of databases will be listed on the left hand side of the window after logging into phpMyAdmin. To find out which database is which click on any one of them. It will take you to the main page for that database and provide you with a listing of the tables inside of the database.
To find out which blog the database is for, click on the first icon under the Action tab for the wp_options row.
The above image is what you should see although with a lot more information in the display. Look at the first line and it should tell you the URL to your blog for which the current database is for. If the database that you picked was the wrong one use the drop down box located on the left hand side of the screen to select a different database and try again.
Backing Up The Database
Once you found the right database it is time to actually back it up. Scroll up to the top of the window and click on the name of the database.
So in the above image I would click on Database: jarret_wrdp1. This will take you back to the main page for the database displaying all the tables inside.
You should notice a similar bar listed at the top of the tables. This displays various different options used to navigate inside of your database. Click on the Export tab. This will take you to another page with even more options to play around with.
Notice the blue highlighting? These are all the tables located inside of your database. If none of these are highlighted click Select All located above the box as shown in the graphic.
Below this list you will notice quite a few radio button options and these are used to select the type of file that you would like to backup your database to. For compatibility and simplicity choose SQL if it isn’t already selected.
Don’t worry about any of the options on the right hand side, the default settings should work just fine for what we are trying to do. Below these main tables you will notice the smaller rectangular section at the bottom of the image. This is where you can set the name of the file of your blog’s backup. To save the file to your computer click the Save as file check box. Then enter in a name for the file that you would like to create and leave remember template checked.
Depending upon the size of your blog it may be wise to select one of the compression technologies that are listed. Of course even if your has one post you could use either zipped or gzipped but that is up to you. The compression options just take your blog’s backup file and make it smaller in size so that it takes up less space.
Once you have these options selected and configured to your liking all that is left is to click the Go button and select where you would like to save the file on your computer.
Isn’t There An Easier Way?
Sure there is! There are quite a few plugins out there that will backup your WordPress database for you so that you don’t have to go through what I explained.