Before using the application for the first time please read the instructions below. They will help understand how it works. The more you know about its features and functionalities the happier you will be later.
If you are using a Free Web Hosting provider then WP MyBackup may reach some of their system limitations like `CPU Limit Exceeded` or `Script Timeout`. Moreover, some Free Web Hosting providers will (temporarely) suspend your website if you exceed these limitation frequently. In order to overcome that situation you might want to tune the WP MyBackup Expert settings. Check also the question #10, #18, #20 and #22 on FAQ page.
For a more comprehensive tuturial visit the Tutorials page.
I. Check if your system meets the requirements
Please click on Support page to start gathering the information about your system (like OS, web software, PHP version, other resources). It will display a table of the required PHP extensions (eg. curl, safe_mode, etc) and also will explain why they are used. Make sure they are tagged as OK/enabled (green color) with one exception - safe_mode - that could be red.
II. Configure the global options
Before you do anything else make sure your set the following global options:
If your site is running on a multi-network|multisite installation then make sure your Network Admin customizes the `Global working directory` option on Network Settings page.
go to the WP backup job tab then set:
either the backup name or the backup prefix
the temporary working directory (make sure you are read/write access)
your email address (where the notification will be sent)
Normally these steps should be done only once (ie. at install time).
III. Define the backup job
A backup job represents the totality of those options that together instruct the application what to backup, how to backup and where to copy the backup. Normally these steps should be done only once (at install time) but also when you decide to change the backup source/destination:
go to the WP files tab then set the directory you want to backup
go to the WP database tab then check the Enabled checkbox
go to the Copy backup to tab and for each destination (aka target) where you want to store your backup archives make sure that you:
check the Enabled checkbox to enable the usage of that target or uncheck it if you don`t want to use it
set the appropiate connection parameters (if any) and more important the remote directory where the backups will be stored
set the backup retention time
IV. Run the backup job
Once your global options and the backup job are defined all that must to be done is the backup itself. It can be launched manually (one-click backup) or it can be scheduled to be automatically executed (by WordPress or your OS) at a specific time in the future:
run the backup at your request
go to the WP backup job tab and click the button Run Backup Now
watch its progress; a scrollable window will be shown containing the job events and messages
run the backup automatically at a scheduled time
go to the Backup Scheduler tab and then select the child tab, depending on what scheduler you want to use:
WP-Cron
check the Enable scheduler checkbox then select one of those predefined schedule options and set the Next run datetime value (in the past if you want to start immediately, otherwise in the future)
check the Enable scheduler checkbox then copy the command-line (that was automatically created) content in clipboard
open your OS scheduler (eg. Task Scheduler in Windows, cron on Linux or something similar in your web hoster cPanel), set the appropiate execution time/frequency and nonetheless the command to be run as the command you copied earlier in clipboard
V. Restore a backup copy
If you are using the WordPress version of this software (WP MyBackup) then restoring a backup can be done as described below:
V.1.1 Full restore
restore the last successful backup created with WP MyBackup
go to Dashboard tab
if a completed (ie. successful) backup is found then a "Last completed backup" widget should be visible; click the
Restore Backup #XXX
, where XXX is the last successful backup job Id
restore a backup stored externally created (or not) by WP MyBackup
go to Dashboard tab
drag & drop (or
Select
) some backup archives into the dotted area shown on the dashboard page, with regards to:
supported formats (EXT) are: tar|gz|bz2
gz|bz2
archives are expected to be tar'ed before compression (ie. .tar.
gz|bz2
)
MySQL database backup archive should have the following pattern: [a-z0-9\-\.].sql.EXT
WordPress files backup archive should have the following pattern: [a-z0-9\-\.]-XXX.EXT, where XXX={}
The uploaded file size should not be larger than your php.ini |. Your current php.ini is configured such that the uploaded file size cannot be larger than 512.00 MiB. You may overcome this by using Upload files in chunks option (see Expert settings).
click the
Restore N files
button under the selected file area (N is the number of selected files)
If not using the WP version and don`t have installed the Restore Addon then restoring the backup assumes that (i) you have access to your website filesystem and/or MySQL database and (ii) you have a minimal knowledge of using SSH/FTP/mysqldump/phpMyAdmin or similar utilities that basically allow you to copy the files from your local system to the remote system.
V.2.1 Full restore
download the backup archive from the remote storage location
extract to a temporary directory the backup archive(s)
connect via SSH/FTP/whatever the remote location and copy whatever file you want from the temporary directory to the remote location where your website files are located
in case you want to restore also the database content then you may use an application like phpMyAdmin (see this video tutorial) to import the .sql file from the *.sql.* archive extracted earlier at the temporary location.
find the last full backup (F) you are interested in
find ALL the incremental backups (I) created between the date of (F) and the date of the next full backup
follow the same steps mentioned at V.2.1 for all found archives
V.2.4 Restore via Addon
However, if you have installed the Restore Addon then restoring the backup is like shooting fish in a barrel:
go to the Restore tab then follow the instruction provided there. Basically is just a "next-next-finish" 6-steps task assisted by Wizard.
for restoring an incremental or differential backup make sure you select the restore point from a backup target option and not from a date interval (see step 3 of 6)
Sometimes you want to create different backup jobs for different purposes. For instance a job that will pack your images into a ZIP archive then upload it to your Google Drive, another job that will pack with GZIP compression and encrypt your MySQL database and then upload it to your Dropbox drive, a job that will pack with BZip2 compresssion some other directory then upload it to a FTP server.
Using the backup procedure(s) described above this wouldn`t work. It requires a tool that allows you to define and run in a batch all these different backup jobs. The Advanced backup Wizard is just what we need. Defining such a job is just a 6-steps task where you are assisted by a Wizard:
go to the Backup jobs++ tab then start defining a new job by clicking the Add new button
select the target type (ie. disk,FTP,Dropbox,etc) and also set a short description of your job (like "domain.com PNGs @ Dropbox")
Once you have defined all necessary jobs you may run each one at a time or any of them in the same batch by clicking the Run Backup button. To exclude some jobs from running in batch make sure you uncheck their Enabled checkbox.
VII. Install an addon
The WP MyBackup Pro version allows you to extend its core functionality by installing any of those 20+ available addons.The installation procees is straightforward:
copy the addon files (*.tar.bz2) to the ROOT/dropin/ folder
go to the License tab
the Addons Drop-in page should be shown; follow the instructions there
VIII. Advanced options
By default the WP MyBackup settings are tunned to fit everyone expectations. However, you might want to tune these settings in order to fit your needs. Here are few options you way want to consider:
WP backup job Expert settings
Use file relative path (important for restoring the backup at other location)
Script memory limit (inline with hosting limitations)
Max. execution time (inline with hosting limitations)
CPU throttling (overcomes `CPU Limit Exceeded`)
WP files Expert settings
Do not compress files by extension (spare the CPU when possible)
Exclude files by extension (eg. do not backup some huge files)
Exclude file links
VIII. Troubleshooting
Hopefully you will never encounter a problem thus you will never have to follow the instructions below. But we live in an imperfect world where imperfect people (like me) write imperfect software (like this one) so probably this chapter cannot be avoided forever.
What to do when something doesn`t work as expected:
You are not the only one who might encounter a specific issue => check the FAQ. If it does not help then continue to read below.
if the application provides an error message or any other kind of output that seems related to the problem you encountered try to follow the instruction shown there (if any)
if the application shows a warning/error message (see example) that you suspect to be the root of the problem then we have to bring the heavy artillery:
go to the Support tab then in the Expert settings panel make sure you set ON the following options:
Debug trace ON
Curl debug ON
Statistics debug ON
SMTP debug ON
Restore debug ON
and unset/uncheck the following options:
Yayui optimize ON
Re-execute the job or whatever cause the problem you are debugging then check the following log(s) in the Log files tab:
if the problem seems to be related to network connection/authentication then check the Curl Debug log
if the problem seems to be related to email (eg. email not sent) then check the SMTP Debug log
if the problem seems to be related to some options not saved you may check the Trace Action log; this log traces all requests (like save, tab changed, etc) sent from your browser to this application; if you are a (former) sysadmin or coder you might eventually hack the problem
if the problem seems to be more an unexpected warning/error thrown by the PHP/web server then probably something is rotten in the state of Denmark (I live in Sweden so I know what I am talking about). If that`s the case then open a support ticket by following the instruction found at the Support Center. Make sure you have downloaded all the log files mentioned earlier together with the Jobs log and the Full log. Moreover, the information provided by the Check PHP setup button (in the Support tab) is also very useful when open a helpdesk ticket.
As a software developer I did helpdesk, troubleshooting and support (level 1 to 3) for many, many years now. Hopefully I can help you finding the cause and fix the problem.
This function does not work on this site. It only works on the Support tab of the WP MyBackup plugin.