You know this – you know that you should always keep backups of your database and your files, but I found out the hard way that it’s not enough to just install the WP-DB -Backup plugin, set up automatic backups, and forget it. That plugin is ESSENTIAL, and I would definitely recommend that everyone using self-hosted wordpress use it, but you still need to monitor your site and the backups (Nubby Twiglet actually did a post yesterday on how to set this up).
An example:
I back up grechenscodes.com every 3 hours because sometimes I update the site that frequently. I have more than 3,000 posts there, representing years of work, and losing it all would be a disaster. And that’s precisely what happened this past weekend.
I don’t normally work on Saturdays; I try not to even turn on the computer. So, when I sat down to work Sunday morning, I noticed that grechenscodes.com was empty of posts & pages (the rest of the site was fine), and had been since Friday.
lesson no. 1: check that your site is functional everyday, as frequently as possible
So, I went to restore my database back to Friday and I didn’t have a record of it. In the DB-Backup admin, I’m only saving the last 10 backups, and even though I have it set to e-mail me the record every time, it hadn’t been. I restored the database back to the earliest one I had anyway, and nothing. No change. All of my content was still gone.
lesson no.2: keep a copy of your backup files – at least 1/day depending on how often you update your site – on your desktop or in some other location on your computer, in addition to on your server
I’m not going to lie, I freaked out. a lot. I sat at the computer wondering what I was going to do. There were tears. There was frustration. And then I thought to try and repair the database – also using the WP-Backup plugin – and somehow, it worked. All of my content was back, everything was in it’s place, nothing was missing. BIG sigh of relief.
I can’t explain it, I guess the database got corrupted somehow and all it needed was a repair, but if that hadn’t been the case, imagine the disaster…
lesson no.3: don’t forget about your theme files and other important files that are not stored in your database. at least once a week, I back up my entire wp-content (it is probably not necessary to back up the entire folder, but at this point, I err on the side of better safe than sorry) folder to my computer – or whenever I make any changes to my layout or theme. I use filezilla – it’s super-easy.
Do you have any other tips? suggestions? how often do you back up your wordpress site?
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