Are you tired of manual backups or constantly worrying about the safety of your WordPress site? It’s time to say goodbye to those headaches and hello to the power of automated backups with Dropbox.
Backing up your WordPress site to Dropbox is a smart and easy thing to do. In case of any unexpected issues, you can restore your whole website in no time. And the best part? The process can be fully automated and cost you nothing.
With the help of a WordPress backup plugin, you can simply connect your WordPress website with Dropbox and schedule a backup at your desired times. Trust us; it’s worth it.
In three easy steps, we’ll show you how to back up a WordPress website to Dropbox.
Why choose Dropbox as a WordPress backup solution?
You must be thinking, why Dropbox over other storage options for your WordPress site backups? Well, first of all, cloud storage is a reliable choice for backups because it allows you to store your data remotely and access it from anywhere at any time.
Moreover, unlike WordPress backup solutions offered by most hosting providers, where the same site’s server is used to store backups, Dropbox offers a safer option. With a copy of your site stored on a distinct, remote server, you don’t have to worry about losing access if your site gets hacked or your server goes down.
This is not all; here’re a few more reasons that make DropBox a great choice for your backup storage:
- Easy Access: with Dropbox, you can access your backups from any device with an internet connection. Whether you’re using a computer, tablet, or smartphone, you can easily access your site data.
- Multiple Version Support: Dropbox stores multiple versions of your backups so that you can revert to a previous version of your site if needed.
- Collaboration: With Dropbox, you can share your backups with team members or clients and collaborate on real-time changes.
- Integration: Dropbox integrates seamlessly with other tools and applications you may be using, making it easy to manage your site backups alongside your other work.
- Cost-Effective: Dropbox offers a free option with 2GB of storage space which suffices for a smaller website. Paid options are also quite affordable and offer enough storage to back up many large and small websites.
Importance of Regular Backups
Keeping the most recent copy of the website is most important as a backup of outdated content, WordPress themes, or plugins will require a lot of work to bring your site back up to a fully functioning state.
Therefore, it’s best to create a backup schedule to create a new copy at regular intervals. How often you require a new backup depends upon how frequently changes are made on your website. For dynamic, large websites, it’s essential to make a backup daily or even more frequently. On the other hand, smaller, static sites may only need to be backed up once a month. The frequency at which you need to perform this task depends on your website’s size and dynamic nature.
Fortunately, there are several reliable WordPress backup plugins that can automate the backup process to DropBox. No more relying on manual backups or paying someone to monitor the process for you.
How to Backup a WordPress website to Dropbox: Step-by-step guide
Alright, let’s see how to back up your WordPress website to DropBox in three easy steps. Before you start, make sure you have an active Dropbox account. If you don’t have one yet you can create it for free here.
Step 1: Choose Your Backup Plugin
When it comes to WordPress backup plugins, you have plenty of options. Some popular options include UpdraftPlus, BackupBuddy, and BlogVault. While each of these plugins has its own set of features and benefits, UpdraftPlus is handy for beginners because of its user-friendly interface, and the automatic backup option is included in its free version.
UpdraftPlus is a trusted and widely used WordPress plugin for quick and easy backup storage of your WordPress files and databases. You can schedule backups at intervals that work best for you. This plugin is also compatible with many cloud storage solutions, including Dropbox. In the premium version of UpdraftPlus, you’ll find some additional features, such as website cloning as well as expanded storage options including OneDrive, Azure, BlackBlaze, and UpdraftPlus’ own storage.
Here are a few reasons why we have selected the UpdraftPlus backup plugin for this tutorial;
- UpdraftPlus is user-friendly and intuitive, making it simple for you to create and manage backups, even if you’re not technically savvy.
- UpdraftPlus offers automatic backup even in its free version.
- UpdraftPlus can store your backups in various locations, such as on your server, or on cloud storage services like Google Drive or Dropbox. It’s fully compatible with Dropbox.
- You can set up automatic backups to run at regular intervals, so you never have to worry about forgetting to make a backup.
- In the event of data loss, UpdraftPlus makes it simple to restore your site with just a few clicks.
In the next section, we’ll show you how to connect UpdraftPlus with Dropbox to back up your WordPress data.
Step 2: Configure UpdraftPlus with Dropbox
First, you need to install the UpdraftPlus plugin. Follow these steps to download and configure UpdraftPlus with Dropbox;
- Go to WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > search UpdraftPlus
- Click on Install and then Activate
- Now Go to the Settings section on your dashboard.
- From there, select the option for UpdraftPlus backups.
- Click on the Settings tab in the UpdarftPlus setting area.
- You will see different options to backup your WordPress website, select Dropbox.
Once you’ve selected your desired remote location, you’ll land on a prompt to choose which files you want to include in your backups. Take some time to consider which files you want to keep and which you want to exclude. You can even set rules to leave specific files out of the backup. Just keep in mind that UpdraftPlus will automatically select all the files and folders of your WordPress site, so make sure to set any exclusion rules before proceeding.
Next, you’ll be asked to authenticate your Dropbox account. Follow the link in the popup window, and you’ll be taken to the login page.
Once you’re done, click the login link, and you’re all set!
After completing the authentication process, Dropbox will have permission to store your data, and you will be taken back to the WordPress site.
Step 3: Save a full backup of your website to Dropbox
Now, you have successfully connected Dropbox with Updraftplus, and it’s time to create your first full WordPress website backup and save it to DropBox. Here’s what to do:
- Navigate to the Settings section in your WordPress dashboard.
- Select UpdraftPlus Backups.
- Go to Backup/Restore.
- Click on the Backup Now button.
- Wait for the backup process to complete. This may take a few minutes to longer, depending on the size of your website’s data.
- Once the backup process is complete, you can find a copy of your most recent backup file under Existing Backups.
How to automate the Backup process?
Well, creating a backup manually wasn’t hard, but it’s easy to forget to do it on a regular basis. It’s way more convenient to automate your WordPress backups and don’t have to think about it. Here’s how:
- Go to the UpdraftPlus settings page.
- Look for the File Backup Schedule option and select the interval you prefer.
- Repeat this process for the Database Backup Schedule.
- There’s also an option to limit the number of backup copies if you’re worried about running out of space. Just be sure to keep a few of the most recent copies so you have them on hand if you need them.
And that’s it! Your WordPress site will now be backed up on the schedule you set, making sure you always have a recent copy of your data on hand.
Summary
Although almost every hosting nowadays offers backups as a part of the hosting package, having an additional backup on another server is good to have in case your whole server gets compromised.
Using UpdraftPlus and Dropbox is an economical option for your backup storage. If you’re running a smaller WordPress website it can be completely free as its 2GB of free storage is sufficient. On the other hand, if you go with a paid Dropbox account, you can easily use it to back up many small and large WordPress websites.
If you are looking for additional features like website staging, incremental backups, website monitoring, and additional security features then a dedicated backup service like BlogVault could be a good choice to consider. It comes at an affordable price and is extremely easy to use. In the end, no matter which option you choose make sure to have your website backed up.