There are several PlugIns which can create backup of your WordPress website. Sometimes hosting company does that. But you can also do that manually by cPanel time to time. Here is the way to do that.


WordPress Files Backup

  • Go to File Manager.
  • Inside File Manager, you should be able to see your WP directories and files.
  • Select and compress wp-admin, wp‐includes, wp-content, all files which have a wp- prefix, index.php, xmlrpc.php.
  • At this point you will be prompted to provide a location where the compressed file will be saved.
  • Rename the name of compress file if you wish to do so.
  • Download this compressed file (if you encounter problems while downloading the file, connect using an FTP client, and then download it).
  • Upload this file to Google Drive or Dropbox (or any preferred location), and then delete this ZIP from the location it has been compressed to using the cPanel.


Database Backup

  • To backup the WordPress database, go to cPanel again.
  • You need to know your site’s database. If you do not know which is the current database of your site, you can head over to Files Manager, and open wp-config.php. The database name will be present in that file.
  • Find phpMyAdmin in cPanel.
  • Go to the database and click on Export.
  • On the Export settings page, customise the following options: Set the backup file type to GZIP (or ZIP). Also set Max Length of Created Query to 0 (so as to avoid truncation of queries).
  • Hit Go.
  • Upload the file to Google Drive or Dropbox.


So, now that you’ve successfully backed up your WordPress site, these files will come in handy if you have a problem. However, you have to know how to restore these files, when needed.