How to Set Up Automated Daily Backups for Your WordPress Site Using UpdraftPlus (A Step-by-Step Guide)

In the dynamic world of online presence, your WordPress website is a significant asset, representing countless hours of effort, creative content, and perhaps even your livelihood. Yet, many website owners overlook one of the most critical aspects of digital ownership: regular backups. Imagine waking up one day to a blank screen, a hacked site, or a disastrous update that rendered your site unusable. Without a recent backup, weeks or even months of work could be lost forever.

This tutorial is designed to equip you with the knowledge and steps to safeguard your WordPress site against such unforeseen catastrophes. We’ll walk you through the process of setting up automated daily backups using UpdraftPlus, one of the most popular and reliable backup plugins available for WordPress. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a robust backup strategy in place, allowing you to focus on growing your site with the peace of mind that your data is secure.

UpdraftPlus makes the seemingly complex task of backing up your entire website straightforward. It allows you to backup your files (themes, plugins, uploads, core WordPress files) and your database separately, and then store them securely in various remote locations like Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, and more. Let’s get started on securing your digital future.

Prerequisites:

Before we dive into the setup, make sure you have:

• A live WordPress website: This tutorial assumes you already have a functional WordPress installation.
• Administrator access: You’ll need admin credentials to install plugins and configure settings.
• A remote storage account: Decide where you want to store your backups. Popular free options include Google Drive, Dropbox, or even an FTP server if you have one. Having an off-site location is crucial; storing backups on the same server as your website defeats the purpose if the server itself fails.

Step 1: Install and Activate the UpdraftPlus Plugin

Our first step is to get the UpdraftPlus plugin onto your WordPress site.

1. Log in to your WordPress Admin Dashboard: Typically found at ZEALTERCODE0.
2. Navigate to Plugins > Add New: On the left-hand sidebar, hover over “Plugins” and click on “Add New.”
3. Search for UpdraftPlus: In the search bar on the top-right, type “UpdraftPlus.” You’ll see “UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin” by UpdraftPlus.Com, David Anderson.
4. Install the Plugin: Click the “Install Now” button next to the UpdraftPlus plugin. WordPress will download and install the plugin files.
5. Activate the Plugin: Once installed, the “Install Now” button will change to “Activate.” Click “Activate” to enable the plugin on your site.

• Tip: After activation, you might see a banner at the top of your screen saying, “Thanks for installing UpdraftPlus! Press here to start configuring your UpdraftPlus backup.” You can click this link to jump directly to the settings, or proceed to the next step to navigate there manually.

Step 2: Access the UpdraftPlus Settings

If you didn’t click the prompt from Step 1, here’s how to get to the UpdraftPlus settings dashboard.

1. Navigate to Settings > UpdraftPlus Backups: In your WordPress dashboard’s left-hand sidebar, hover over “Settings” and click on “UpdraftPlus Backups.”
2. Explore the UpdraftPlus Dashboard: You’ll land on the UpdraftPlus dashboard, which is divided into several tabs:

• Backup/Restore: This is where you’ll initiate manual backups, view existing backups, and perform restores.
• Migrate/Clone: (Often a premium feature or requires an add-on) Used for moving your site or creating a staging environment.
• Settings: This is the most crucial tab for our tutorial, where you configure your backup schedule and remote storage.
• Advanced Tools: Contains site information, log viewer, and other diagnostic tools.
• Premium/Extensions: Information about purchasing the premium version or add-ons.

• Tip: Familiarize yourself with these tabs. While we’ll focus on “Settings” for initial setup, the “Backup/Restore” tab will be where you interact with your backups moving forward.

Step 3: Configure Your Backup Schedule

Now, let’s tell UpdraftPlus how often you want your site to be backed up. This is done on the “Settings” tab.

1. Click on the ‘Settings’ tab: If you’re not already there.
2. Files backup schedule:

• This setting dictates how often your website’s files (plugins, themes, uploads, etc.) are backed up.
• Click the dropdown menu. You’ll see options like “Manual,” “Hourly,” “Daily,” “Weekly,” “Fortnightly,” and “Monthly.”
• Recommendation: For most active websites (blogs, e-commerce stores, business sites with regular updates), “Daily” is highly recommended. If you update your site multiple times a day, “Hourly” might be more suitable, but “Daily” offers a good balance of security and server resource usage.

1. Retain this many scheduled backups (Files):

• This is crucial. It tells UpdraftPlus how many separate file backups to keep.
• Recommendation: If you set your schedule to daily, keeping 3-7 backups is a good practice. This gives you several restore points over a week or more. If a problem isn’t immediately noticed (e.g., a corrupted file that only becomes apparent a few days later), having older backups can be a lifesaver. Storing only one backup could mean that if that single backup becomes corrupted, you have no recourse.

1. Database backup schedule:

• This setting is for your WordPress database, which contains all your posts, pages, comments, user data, and plugin settings. This is arguably the most critical part of your site.
• Recommendation: Just like with your files, set this to “Daily” for active sites.

1. Retain this many scheduled backups (Database):

• Again, choose the number of database backups to keep.
• Recommendation: Match this with your files backup retention, so 3-7 backups.

• Tip: While daily backups are great, always consider making an extra manual backup before any major changes to your site (e.g., updating WordPress core, installing a new theme, running a major plugin update).

Step 4: Choose Your Remote Storage Location

Storing backups on the same server as your website is risky. If your server crashes or gets compromised, you could lose both your site and its backups. This step ensures your backups are stored safely off-site.

1. Select your remote storage option: In the “Settings” tab, scroll down to the “Choose your remote storage” section. You’ll see a list of icons for various cloud services and protocols. Popular free options include:

• Google Drive: Excellent integration, generous free storage (15 GB).
• Dropbox: Another strong contender, good integration.
• FTP: If you have access to another server or web hosting account.
• Email: Not recommended for large sites due to email attachment size limits, but an option for very small sites.

Let’s walk through connecting to Google Drive as it’s a popular and robust choice:

1. Click the Google Drive icon: A checkbox will appear next to it, indicating it’s selected.
2. Scroll to the bottom and click “Save Changes”: This is a critical step to register your intent to use Google Drive. UpdraftPlus needs to save this setting before it can initiate the authentication process.
3. Follow the authentication link: After saving changes, a new message will appear at the top of the UpdraftPlus settings screen, prompting you to “Follow this link to complete the setup of your remote storage.” Click this link.
4. Log in to your Google account: You’ll be redirected to a Google authentication page. Choose the Google account you wish to use for storing your backups and log in if prompted.
5. Grant permissions: Google will ask for your permission for UpdraftPlus to “See, edit, create, and delete all of your Google Drive files.” While this sounds broad, it’s necessary for UpdraftPlus to manage your backup files. Click “Allow” or “Continue.”
6. Complete the setup: You’ll be redirected back to your WordPress site, and UpdraftPlus will confirm the successful connection. You should see a message like “Success: You have authenticated your Google Drive account.”

• Important: UpdraftPlus will create a dedicated folder within your chosen remote storage (e.g., “UpdraftPlus” in Google Drive) to keep your backups organized. Do not delete this folder manually from your remote storage unless you understand the implications.

• Other options:
• Dropbox: Similar authentication process to Google Drive.
• FTP: Requires you to manually enter FTP server address, username, password, and the remote path where backups should be stored. Ensure the FTP user has write permissions to the specified directory.
• Email: Less setup, but as noted, only viable for very small databases and files due to size limits.

Step 5: Select What to Include in Your Backup

This section determines exactly which parts of your WordPress installation will be included in the backup files.

1. Scroll down to “Include in files backup”:

• Plugins: Keep this checked. You’ll want to restore all your plugins.
• Themes: Keep this checked. Essential for your site’s design and functionality.
• Uploads: Keep this checked. This directory contains all your images, videos, and other media files uploaded through WordPress. This is often the largest part of your site.
• Other directories found inside ZEALTERCODE0: Keep this checked. This includes any custom folders or files added by themes or plugins within the ZEALTERCODE1 directory (e.g., cache folders, custom fonts, etc.).
• WordPress core files: Keep this checked. These are the main WordPress files (e.g., ZEALTERCODE0, ZEALTERCODE1, main root files). While you can often get these from a fresh WordPress download, including them ensures a complete, point-in-time snapshot.

1. Exclude from files backup:

• Generally, for beginners, it’s best to leave these options at their default, which is usually nothing excluded.
• You might consider excluding specific folders if you know they contain temporary files, very large cache files that can be regenerated, or backups from other backup plugins (to avoid backing up backups!). However, unless you have a specific reason and understand the implications, keep everything included for maximum safety.

• Tip: The more you include, the larger your backup files will be, potentially taking longer to upload and consuming more remote storage space. However, completeness is generally more important than file size for critical data.

Step 6: Email Basic Reports (Optional but Recommended)

This small setting can save you a lot of worry.

1. Tick the “Email basic report” checkbox: Found near the bottom of the “Settings” tab.
2. What it does: UpdraftPlus will send you an email notification after each scheduled backup, letting you know if it succeeded or failed. This is invaluable for monitoring your backup system without needing to log into your WordPress dashboard constantly. If a backup fails, you’ll be notified immediately and can investigate.

• Tip: Ensure the email address associated with your WordPress admin account is valid and regularly checked.

Step 7: Save Your Settings and Run Your First Backup

You’ve configured all the essential settings. Now it’s time to put them into action and create your first backup.

1. Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the ‘Settings’ tab: This is crucial! All your configuration choices won’t be applied until you click this button.
2. Navigate back to the ‘Backup/Restore’ tab: Click on this tab at the top of the UpdraftPlus dashboard.
3. Initiate your first manual backup:

• Click the large “Backup Now” button.
• A pop-up window will appear with options:
• Include your database in the backup: Keep this checked.
• Include your files in the backup: Keep this checked.
• Send this backup to remote storage: Keep this checked. (This ensures it goes to your Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.)
• Allow this backup to be deleted manually: (Usually checked by default) Leave it as is.
• Click “Backup Now” within the pop-up.

1. Monitor the backup process: You’ll see a progress bar and messages indicating what UpdraftPlus is doing (e.g., “Backing up database,” “Backing up plugins,” “Uploading backup to Google Drive”). This process can take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or more, depending on your site’s size and your internet connection speed.
2. Confirmation: Once completed, you’ll see a message like “The backup has finished running.” Below that, in the “Existing backups” section, your new backup will be listed with the date and time, and icons representing the different components (Database, Plugins, Themes, Uploads, Others).

• Tip: Your first backup will likely be the longest as it’s creating everything from scratch. Subsequent daily backups, especially if you enable incremental backups (a premium feature), will often be faster.

Step 8: Verify Your Backup (Crucial for Peace of Mind)

A backup isn’t truly a backup until you’ve verified it. This doesn’t necessarily mean restoring your entire site immediately, but at least confirming the files exist and appear valid.

1. Check your remote storage:

• Go to your chosen remote storage service (e.g., log in to your Google Drive account).
• Navigate to the folder UpdraftPlus created (e.g., “UpdraftPlus”).
• You should see several files with names starting with ZEALTERCODE0 followed by your site’s name, a date, and then ZEALTERCODE1 (for database), ZEALTERCODE2, ZEALTERCODE3, ZEALTERCODE4, or ZEALTERCODE5.
• The presence of these files confirms that UpdraftPlus successfully uploaded them.

1. Download and inspect a component (optional but recommended):

• From the “Existing backups” section in your WordPress dashboard, click on any of the component icons (e.g., “db” for database, “uploads”).
• UpdraftPlus will give you the option to download the component to your computer.
• For the database file (.zip containing a .sql file): You can open the ZEALTERCODE0 file in a text editor to confirm it contains SQL commands (it will look like a lot of code, but you’ll see table names and data).
• For the uploads file (.zip): Unzip it and browse through the folders to ensure your images and other media are present.
• This step isn’t a full restore test, but it confirms the backup files are accessible and contain data.

• Tip: Ideally, you would periodically test a full restore on a staging or local environment to ensure your backups are perfectly viable. This is especially true for mission-critical websites.

Helpful Tips for Ongoing Backup Management:

• Don’t set and forget: While automated, it’s wise to occasionally check your “Existing backups” list in UpdraftPlus and glance at your remote storage. Also, pay attention to the email reports you configured.
• Backup before major updates: Always run an extra manual backup before updating WordPress core, themes, or plugins. This provides an immediate rollback point if something goes wrong.
• Monitor storage space: If your site grows rapidly, keep an eye on your remote storage space to ensure you don’t run out.
• Consider multiple remote storage locations: For critical sites, UpdraftPlus Premium allows you to send backups to multiple remote destinations, providing an extra layer of redundancy.
• Understand restore options: In case of an emergency, you’ll go to the “Backup/Restore” tab, select a backup, and click “Restore.” UpdraftPlus guides you through choosing which components to restore.
• Explore UpdraftPlus Premium: If you need features like incremental backups (only backing up changes since the last full backup, saving time and space), more remote storage options, or direct migrator functionality, consider upgrading to UpdraftPlus Premium.

Conclusion:

Congratulations! You’ve successfully configured automated daily backups for your WordPress website using UpdraftPlus. You now have a robust safety net that will protect your digital assets from unforeseen issues like server failures, security breaches, or user errors. The peace of mind that comes with knowing your site can be restored at any time is invaluable.

Make a habit of checking your backup reports periodically, and remember to always create a manual backup before undertaking significant changes to your site. With UpdraftPlus diligently working in the background, you can focus on creating great content and engaging with your audience, confident that your hard work is securely preserved.