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How to Manually Backup Your Database the Best Way

Okay! Backing up our blog’s database is compulsory and should be done regularly, why? Because, it’s the only sure means that guarantees the safety of our blog.

How to Manually Backup Your Database the Best Way

Sometimes, our blog malfunction either because we did a new WordPress update and or due to some plugins that uses database to work.

Believe me, if you have a problem with your blog database, the only way you can get it fixed, is by doing a restore. And if you don’t have a restore file, then maybe your host might have one for you, but that might not be in your favor.

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Wait, are you using a plugin to back up your blog’s database? Then, I am sorry to tell you that you’re not safe. Using backup plugin to backup your blog is one of the most dangerous ways to do a proper backup. When using a plugin, sometimes, your backup file might not save properly or it might even corrupt.

How to Manually Backup Your Database the Best Way

WordPress blogs are getting hacked on a daily basis, so doing a full backup of your blog or your database is one sure way of being safe.

Would you like to know how to manually backup your Database the best way without ever worrying about any database error, crash or whatsoever? Then, this short tutorial is for you 🙂

My simple step of backing up my database

First login to your “Control Panel” Popularly called “C-Panel

In your C-panel, scroll down to your “Files” section and click “Backup Wizard”. See image below…

How to Manually Backup Your Database the Best Way

Have you clicked it? If yes, it will take you to a new page. Seeing the new page? Click the “Backup” button to take you to the next step…

In this step, you have two options of backing up your blog. You can either do a “Full backup” of your blog or you do a “Partial Backup”.

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The Partial backup allows you to select the particular backup to download. The three options that are in the Partial backup are: “Home Directory”, “MySQL Databases”, and “Email Forwarder and Filters”.

Now, since we are backing up our Database only, we are going to click “MySQL Databases”. See image below…

database-backup

Have you clicked the MySQL Databases? if yes, you will be directed to a page where you’ll download your Database. Now simply click the Databases you want to backup.

If you click the preferred Database you want to download, it will start the download immediately.

Note: The time of your download depends on how large your blog tables are 🙂 .

After downloading it, you can now be rest assured that the key to your blog safety is safe and sound.

Restoring your database without problem…

Incase you ever have a database trouble/ issue; you can easily restore it back to the last backup download you did. And how do you restore it?

Simply Login to your C-panel and go to the “Files” section >>> Click “Backups”.

In the backup section, scroll down to “Partial Backups” area… there, you will see something exactly like the image below.

database-backup-2

Now click the “Browse…” button to locate your database file.

Note: Your database file is in a zip format with the .gz extension

Click the upload button and you’re there…

Now you know how to manually backup and restore your databases the best way, feels sweet right…

Over to you

It looks like I have said so much about so much, now it’s time to pass the keyboard to you my friends.

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Do you backup your blog’s database? If yes, how do you do it? Please, we would like to hear from you. Do use the comment box below to drop your views. Remember that your comments, questions, and thoughts are highly welcomed and much appreciated.

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37 thoughts on “How to Manually Backup Your Database the Best Way”

  1. Simplest way to backup the data base I guess. And we can also backup database by using some plugins for wordpress I think. However this method don’t need any plugins.

    Thanks

  2. Hi babanature,
    Not to lie, I already knew about this but it will be a great post for beginners as blogs of beginners are hacked easily by hackers.
    Although its simple, I use a wordpress plugin for this purpose which automatically makes backup everyday and send it to my email.
    Good Tutorial!
    A must for all newbies.

    1. Hello Anurag,
      It’s good to know that you do know this process… Plugin do make job easier but it can not be trusted with a duty as heavy as keeping your blog safe. I wouldn’t advice people to use a plugin for your backups.

  3. Hello Babanature,
    This is indeed a nice post every new blogger should know.
    I stop using plugin to backup my blog a while ago because a backup plugin almost ruin my blog. I mean, i thought the plugin had backup my blog but little did i know that the files were corrupt. I tried to restore but know way, thank goodness my host provider came to my rescue if not, i’d have been doomed 🙂

    Your tutorial is always helpful. Loved how you explained it and for that, thanks for this (I truly need it)

    Have yourself a nice weekend ….

    1. Hello Bello,
      Long time no see buddy 🙂 . . .
      Wow!!! backing up our blog is compulsory and its what guarantee the safety of our blog. you learn not to backup your blog using plugin through the hard way and that’s bad.
      Atleast now you know how to backup your blog without problems…
      Thanks for stopping by and do have a wonderful weekend

  4. Hi Babanature,

    It’s a great tutorial (again) from you. 🙂
    Yes, I agree with you. Data backup is so we need as a blog owner. Well, there is no guarantee that tomorrow is no accident that will make us lose the data from our blog.

    I know this is a good tips because this is the first time I knew about it. Thanks for this tutorial Babanature!
    My knowledge Increased after reading your article as well. 🙂

    Hoping you have a splendid weekend.

    Nanda

    1. Hello Nanda,
      Glad you learned something new here today. Backing up our blog on a regular bases should come first because as i said earlier, it is the only thing that guarantee the safety of our blog.

      Thanks for your lovely comment.. i am have a great weekend and i hope you’re doing too 🙂

  5. Hello B Nature !!
    I love your post as I would that It is always recommended you do a blog back up because you never can tell when the unfortunate would come at you with full force. It is one thing a lot of bloggers are ignorant about… On the other way I think people with Google Blogger are always secured from hackers especially if they have two way access activated….. It is a nice tutorial you have here !! I would like to include a back up system for bloggers.. located here ..

    This tutorial also help people using blogger to know how to back up their blog.. Please note that it is very important one backs up his or her blog for security reasons….

    Regards,
    DOK Simon.

    1. Hello Simon,
      It is good to backup our blogs whether you are using the wordpress or the blogger platform. Because we never know when something bad will happen to our account, right?

      Thanks for stopping by and dropping your comment, do have a wonderful weekend

  6. nice post and well explained. I’m using a WordPress plugin for this but we must know how to backup our blog manually because plugins start doing mistakes some times. I use to take a manual backup on monthly basis and use my plugin for daily backups.

    Thanks Gaurav

    1. Hello Gaurav,
      You are indeed taking a nice precaution towards your blog safety.
      I love your method, it shows you are in control of everything 🙂
      Thanks for the comment and do have a beautiful weekend…

  7. Hi Babanature,
    This post is just on top at least for newbies like me.The tutorials will help me backup my blog.

    1. Hello Stella,
      Indeed the post is meant for bloggers who are not aware of the importance of backing up their blogs. The one thing that destroys most blogs is the lack of backing up.
      Now that you know how to backup, your blog is now safe and sound. and if you do run into difficulty, don hesitate to holla at me 🙂
      Thanks for stopping by and do have a wonderful weekend

  8. Losing a date can be a nightmare especially for bloggers. Thanks for sharing this post my friend, I now know easy way to backup my data.

    Wish you have a great week

  9. Hey Babanature,

    I use the “Backup” and the “File Manager” sections to back up my stuff. I do the full backup once a month but I backup my database and my blog/files daily. I’m one of these better safe than sorry people.

    I’ve never had to load the files back myself, my hosting service has done that for me. I’m sure it’s just as easy as backing it up as reinstalling it all.

    Thanks for sharing this because I think a lot of people are just scared to do something they aren’t comfortable with doing. So many people still don’t even go into their cPanel. The way you showed us is simple.

    I’ll be sure to share this as well.

    ~Adrienne

    1. Hello Adrienne,
      I learned to back up my blog regularly the hard way, after almost loosing my blogs files 🙂 . I routine backup is healthy for a blog. Backing up our blog is the one thing that truly guarantee the safety of our blog :

      You are right, there are many bloggers who find it hard to access their blog c-panel because they are afraid not to get their blog files destroyed 🙂

      Thank you for saying that dear friend. And i hope your network would love it as well 🙂
      Thanks for stopping by and dropping your wonderful comments as always. do have yourself a sound weekend

  10. Hi Babanature,

    Great tutorial!!

    Glad I read it!! Although I am not a beginner but I never knew that I can only back up the database. I used to do a full backup every time.

    I just did a full backup and a database backup. Thanks for the reminder.

    Thanks Babanature for sharing!! Have a great rest of the week.

    Be Blessed,

    Neamat

    1. Hello Neamat,
      Yeah, it is good to do a full back and it is also a brilliant idea to do a partial backup, why? Because the full backup can only be restored by your host providers while the partial backup can be restored by you. So you see why it is good to always do a partial backup 🙂
      Thanks for stopping by and dropping your comment. Do have a wonderful weekend

  11. Hi Baba,
    Here you have posed a helpful and informative article!!! 🙂
    Sounding like easiest and best way to back up our data manually, Honestly I’m totally unaware from this but after reading your post i learned lot of new things.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Keep posting.

    1. Hello Addison,
      It is good you stop by my blog to learn something important as this one. The reason we need to always backup our blog database, is simply because we need to secure the core of our blog 🙂

      Thanks for stopping by and do have a wonderful weekend

  12. That’s a really great post Babanature.
    Losing data from your blog is the worst thing that can happen to a blogger and you have shown a simple way to prevent that by taking regular backups.
    Frankly speaking, I have take backups directly using the Import/Export option in the WordPress dashboard as it is easier for me.
    What do you say about that? Is there any problem with my method?

    1. Hello Arbaz,
      I only take blogs data from the “import/export” option when i am migrating a blog from one url to another but haven’t thought about using it as an internal backup. You have come up with a good strategy of backing up our blog the easiest way.

      Thanks for stopping by and dropping your wonderful contribution. Do have a wonderful weekend

      1. Hey Babanature,
        I know this is a very late reply but recently I found out that my strategy of taking an Internal backup with the Import/Export feature might not be the best one because when you take backup from within your WordPress dashboard and restore it to the other URL or to the blog on a new host, then you will have to do all the settings again from the scratch.

        Instead it is better to take backup of the database as you have shown in your post and to take the the backup of all the files for your site on the server and then restore it and upload it to the new server.

        I hope that you found the reply useful!

  13. Good stuff for beginners bro
    cPanel is on my fingers. I do this often. However, this is quite useful for anyone finding difficulty with it.

    Thanks for helping your readers 😉

  14. Superb tutorial Babanature.

    I wanted to point out because I see you’ve used Incase” instead of “in case”, as per context “in case” should be used not “Incase”.
    Correct me if I’m wrong. We’re people we do mistakes all the time! Sorry for late visit, I’m overwhelmed for more than a month, hope to get back in track at the beginning of september.

  15. Hi there! When we make a partial backup at godaddy, the download is corrupt.

    We have tested this. Just download the .gz use 7zip to unzip and you get the .tar file. Try to unzip and you see it is corrupt.

  16. Hi babanature,

    I heard from somewhere that for website backup, Plugin is a great way. but after reading this post, we can not take risk of it. Manually backup is great.

    Thanks babanature for sharing such great tips.

    Areesha Noor!

  17. Hi,
    Babanature ,
    Before this i am not aware of this manual backup,after reading your post i am very mush satisfied that there is no need of using plugin ,and u have right to save your data manually . i just did my blogs back manually .it is a worst thing if your blog vanishes out . thank you sir . take care and have wonderful weekend

  18. That is a truly incredible post Babanature.

    Losing information from your blog is the most noticeably awful thing that can happen to a blogger and you have demonstrated a straightforward approach to keep that by taking normal reinforcements.

    To be perfectly honest speaking, I have take reinforcements specifically utilizing the Import/Export choice in the WordPress dashboard as it is less demanding for me.

  19. Thanks a lot for this post Babanature, I am looking to migrate my wordpress site to another server. This is only about backup up database. Can you please help me in that. I would be very helpful. Thanks

    1. Hello Shashank,

      You can use updraftplus to do a full backup of your blog and transfer the backup to your next host. It works beautifully and you won’t loose a thing (including your search ranks)

  20. hey,
    Is there any other way of backup….
    I tried this method but its not working in my case….if there is then do suggests me…
    thnx

  21. pleasant post and all around clarified. I’m utilizing a WordPress module for this however we should know how to reinforcement our blog physically in light of the fact that modules begin doing botches a few times. I use to take a manual reinforcement on month to month premise and utilize my module for every day reinforcements.

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