Are you looking to set up a backup solution for WordPress?
Backups are the first layer of security for any WordPress site. Aside from having automated backups, you also need to have an easy way to restore the backup if needed

In this article, we will show you how to easily back up and restore your WordPress site with UpdraftPlus

 Why You Need a Backup & Restore Solution for WordPress
All websites on the internet are vulnerable to data loss and security threats. Research shows that data loss and downtime cost $1.7 trillion each year to the global economy

As a website owner, these are some common scenarios when you may lose your data:
- Your website can get hacked and hackers mayyour data

- Your hosting provider can lose your data
- Your host reserves the right to terminate your account and delete all your data

There are many other scenarios where you could end up losing your WordPress website and all the valuable data created over the years. The best way to protect yourself against these threats is to regularly back up your site

WordPress does not come with a built-in backup solution. However, there are several great WordPress backup plugins that allow you to automatically back up and restore your WordPress site

UpdraftPlus is one of the best WordPress backup plugins. It allows you to set up automatic backup schedules. It will also help you restore your site in case something bad happens

Having said that, let’s take a look at how to easily back up and restore your WordPress site with UpdraftPlus. You can use the links below to navigate through the tutorial

 Creating WordPress Backup with UpdraftPlus
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the free UpdraftPlus plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin

Upon activation, you need to visit the
**Settings » UpdraftPlus Backups** page to configure the plugin’s settings

Now you need to click on the settings tab

This is where you will set up an automatic backup schedule and a remote location to store your backups

**Choosing a Backup Schedule With UpdraftPlus**
First, you need to choose a backup schedule for your files. Files include your WordPress themes, plugins, images, and other uploads

After that, you need to select a backup schedule for your WordPress database. WordPress is a database-driven software. All your posts and pages, comments, and website settings are stored in the database


Your backup schedule should be based on how often you add new content to your website

For example, If you add two blog posts each week, then you can select a fortnightly backup of files and a weekly backup of the database

**Choosing Where to Store Your Backup Files**
Next, you need to choose where to store your backup files

It is a bad idea to save your backups in the same location as your website. Losing your website means you will also lose access to your backup files

This is why you need to choose a remote cloud storage service to store your backups

UpdraftPlus allows you to save your backups to several cloud storage services including Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and many others. You can also send your backups to an email address

Simply click on a remote service to select it, and you will see setup instructions below

**Storing Your Backups on Dropbox Using UpdraftPlus**
For the sake of this tutorial, we will show you how to use Dropbox as your remote backup storage service with UpdraftPlus

We will go ahead and click on Dropbox to select it and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the save changes button

UpdraftPlus will save your settings. However, you still need to give UpdraftPlus access to your Dropbox account

Scroll down to remote storage setup instructions and click on the link next to ‘Authenticate with Dropbox’ option

The link will take you to the Dropbox website where you will be asked to sign in using your Dropbox email and password

After login, you will be asked if you want to allow UpdraftPlus to access your Dropbox account

UpdraftPlus will only have permission to access its own
Apps/UpdraftPlus.Com folder inside Dropbox. Click on ‘Allow’ button to continue

You will be redirected to the UpdraftPlus website where you need to click on the ‘Complete Setup’ button to finish the setup

You will now be taken back to your WordPress site, and you will see the UpdraftPlus settings page again. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Save Changes button

You have now set up a backup schedule and remote location to store your backups

 Creating Manual WordPress Backups with UpdraftPlus
UpdraftPlus can automatically create backups based on the schedule you selected earlier. However, you can also manually create backups any time you want

First, you need to visit
**Settings » UpdraftPlus Backups** and click on ‘Backup Now’ button


This will bring up a popup with options to back up your WordPress database and files, and whether you want to send the backup to remote storage

For a full backup, you will need to back up both the database and files. You can learn more in our guide on which WordPress files you should back up

Click on the ‘Backup Now’ button to continue

UpdraftPlus will now start creating a backup of your files and database. You will be able to see the progress on the settings page

The process may take a while depending on the size of your website

UpdraftPlus will also start uploading your backup files to the remote location

 Restoring Your WordPress Backup with UpdraftPlus
Creating backups is easy, but the really useful part about backups is the ability to restore them with the same ease

UpdraftPlus makes it easy to restore your WordPress site from a backup

If your WordPress site was hacked or you want to start fresh, then first you will need to delete everything and install WordPress again

Next, you will need to install and activate the UpdraftPlus plugin again on your fresh new WordPress site

Upon activation, you need to visit
**Settings » UpdraftPlus Backups** page and click on the ‘Restore’ button

This will bring you to the backups page. UpdraftPlus will scan your server to see if it can find an existing backup in the
/wp-content/updraft/ folder on your website. However, since you deleted everything from your website, it will not be able to find the backup files

If you saved the backup files on your computer, then you can click on ‘Upload backup files’ link to manually upload and restore them

You can also connect UpdraftPlus to a remote location, such as Dropbox or Google Drive. This way UpdraftPlus will be able to scan the remote location and use your previously stored backups

You need to click on the Settings tab and then choose the remote location you used earlier to store your backups

Follow the instructions to authenticate your website with the remote storage service

Once you click on the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the page, you can switch back to ‘Existing Backups’ tab and click on the ‘Rescan remote location’ link

UpdraftPlus will now look for backups in the remote storage location and display them below. You can now click the ‘Restore’ button next to a recent backup

UpdraftPlus will now ask you what you would like to restore. You need to select all options and then click ‘Restore’ button


UpdraftPlus will now fetch your backup files from the remote location and start restoring your site from the backup

 Our UpdraftPlus Review
UpdraftPlus is a powerful WordPress backup plugin, and it’s a great option for DIY users who want the flexibility to choose their backup schedule and remote storage location

Because UpdraftPlus is free, it’s a popular choice among users. However, you can upgrade to UpdraftPlus Premium to access premium add-ons such as Website Migrator, UpdraftVault, priority support, and more options. The premium option costs $70 per year

However, like most WordPress backup plugins, UpdraftPlus lacks the ability to do real-time backups of your website

If you want real-time backups and unlimited storage and don’t want to pay for a third-party storage service like Dropbox, then we recommend using Jetpack VaultPress Backup instead. This is what we use on WPBeginner

VaultPress requires a paid plan starting at $60 per year. This includes 10GB of cloud storage, 30-day backup archive, easy 1-click restore, and priority expert support. You can learn more in our guide on how to create WordPress backups using Jetpack

 Final Thoughts
Backups allow you to recover your website in an emergency. However, they cannot protect your website against common security threats like hacking, malware, and code injection

At WPBeginner, we use Sucuri to protect our site. You can read about how Sucuri helped us block 450,000 WordPress attacks

You need to make sure that your WordPress site is secure. Follow the instructions in our ultimate WordPress security guide to strengthen your WordPress security

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to easily back up and restore WordPress sites with UpdraftPlus. You may also want to learn how to set up Google Analytics for your WordPress site, or check out our list of the best Instagram plugins

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.