Database backups are an important part of keeping your blog safe. Many new users probably don’t even know what a database or MySQL is, but will quickly learn that a botched upgrade or even a hack attempt can ruin all your hard work. Scheduled backups should be done always, no questions asked.

Now, if you’re advanced user and have complete access to your database and server, you can use our handy little backup script to keep everything running smoothly. But for everyone else, you’ll want to install the WordPress Database Backup plugin. Here’s a quick review of how to obtain and configure it so you can sleep easy at night:

1 – In your WordPress admin dashboard, open the Plugins section and click “Add New”

2 – Run a search for “database backup”

3 – The one with the “WP-DB-Backup” title is what you want

4 – To the right, you’ll see the corresponding “install” button, click it to start the automatic installation. Follow any instructions (usually you just click the “Install Now” button within the new window)

5 – Once installation is complete, go to the Tools section and click “Backup” to open the plugin’s options

6 – It’s best to exclude spam and revisions (you don’t really need that to be backed up), however you may wish to include all the tables on the right (this will hold the data for all your various plugins)

7 – Choose the backup to email option. This is important as it gives you a safe place to hold the backup database copies. One trick that works is you set up a free Gmail account specifically to store them. The only issue with this is Google has a 20mb limit to the attachments from email (which is how you will receive the backup). If your database is larger or approaching that size, you will need to find another email that accepts larger attachments or make other arrangements to store the backups. We can help you with that.

8 – Now we will schedule the backups. Make sure you type in the email address correct, choose your tables on the right (best is all of them), then set the schedule. Weekly is the bare minimum, however if you make changes very frequently you may wish to do daily. Be sure to pick an appropriate time (early morning 2am or so is typically a good time)

Just remember to check your backup email account that the databases are being sent to once in a while to make sure you’re still receiving them. Sleep well knowing your data is safe!