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What are the best options for backing up my site? Any plugins that you would suggest?
What about using the "Tools, Export" option and saving it to a hard drive?
Any advice is appreciated!
Depends on what kind of server you're on. If a shared server such as Godaddy or Host Gator, I typically use Backup Buddy, but there are several other options in the WP repository as well.
I've found MyRepono.com a very effective affordable and reliable option. THe free plugins Ive used tend to work hit-miss and then just quit working - BackupBuddy is rather awesome for most users and hosting, but not all..
BackupBuddy is rather awesome for most users and hosting
I couldn't disagree more strongly. I'd recommend pen and paper over BackupBuddy. BackupBuddy oversold its capabilities, encouraging people to buy before the program worked and hid behind the statement that it was beta software. Programs like BackupBuddy will inherently have problems on shared hosts because of scripts timing out. There are variations of settings and endless discussions of ways to circumvent the timeouts, but at the end of the day, these are problems inherent with any PHP-based approach to backing up a reasonable-sized database. IMO, most of those that love BackupBuddy either have small databases or have never used it to move a broad mix of sites.
@jessicakstudio - "Tools Export" will create an XML file which can be used by the corresponding Import function. For a small site, it works reasonably well, provided you keep in mind that it does not export data in tables outside of WP. For example, Gravity Forms puts its data in tables outside of the normal WP tables, so the export option won't help you there. The problems come on import, because many find that the Importer breaks. It's being re-written to fix some of the problems, and last I checked, the re-write was in beta but wasn't complete.We do managed WP hosting, and I think the biggest thing we've learned over time is that any backup system is only as good as your ability to restore from it. Many of the PHP-based backup systems, including the WP Importer, fall apart when restoring or importing data, especially for even moderately sized sites.
If you're going to rely on any backup system, before developing strong convictions about your backup method, do a complete restore to see how well your system worked. I think many advocates of PHP-based systems will be disappointed in what they discover. If your host is not worrying about your backups (and many don't) and you don't want to change hosts, about the best method is to use phpMyAdmin to do a SQL dump and use a separate method to backup uploaded media.
Web: https://wpperform.com or Twitter: @wpperform
We do managed WordPress hosting.
Bill Murray: Thanks for your more professional and experienced perspective on this topic, especially re: Backup Buddy. I found it helpful.
@jhguynn - Glad it helped. With respect to Backup Buddy, a lot of folks swear the program works for them, and that's great. There are also a lot of affiliate links promoting the plugin. I'm not suggesting that anyone that uses an affiliate link and promotes the product does so with bad intent. Those that promote it and earn an affiliate commission from a web visitor following the affiliate link and buying the product might really believe it's the best backup solution. But I have worked with sites that bought the program, had about 2k posts/pages, and regularly failed to backup on shared hosts. Another feature that is heavily timing dependent is putting a backup file on a cloud service such as AWS, so I've seen situations where backups took place but never got placed onto the cloud service, so on server failure, the backup that never made it to a separate cloud service was lost.
With respect to Backup Buddy on Multisite, in the fall of 2011 they announced their multisite backup capability was in beta testing. See this wpcandy article from that time for confirmation.
In September of 2011 - 2 years ago, the company was promoting Backup Buddy's multisite capability, as this link from that period shows.
As of today, the latest Backup Buddy codex page on multisite says:
Again, BackupBuddy Multisite is an EXPERIMENTAL product. As such, we cannot support any issues encountered.
(their emphasis, not mine)
Promote. Take money. Cannot support. That's not a recipe I support or endorse.
Web: https://wpperform.com or Twitter: @wpperform
We do managed WordPress hosting.
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