How to back up a WordPress site with BackupScope

A WordPress site is two things: files (WordPress itself, your themes, plugins and uploads) and a database (posts, pages, settings, users, orders). A backup you can rely on needs both, taken at the same time, and checked before you trust it.

What BackupScope backs up

• Database: every table of your WordPress database.
• WordPress core & config: wp-admin, wp-includes, wp-config.php and the other root WordPress files.
• Plugins, Themes and Uploads (your Media Library files).
• Other wp-content folders, for example folders created by plugins.
• Other files in the site root that are not part of WordPress.

A Full backup includes all of these. A Custom backup lets you untick any area, or any single folder inside it, before the backup starts.

Create your first backup

1. Install and activate BackupScope, then open BackupScope → Backup now in your WordPress dashboard.
2. Choose Full backup, or Custom and pick the areas you need.
3. BackupScope scans your site first. You see the folders with their file count and estimated size, and you can untick anything you do not want in this backup. The estimate updates as you change the selection.
4. Click Create backup. Progress, size and elapsed time are shown while it runs.
5. When it finishes, the backup is verified. Only a backup that passes is kept as your latest backup. Then click Download.

What is excluded automatically

Some folders never belong in a backup, so they are skipped and listed in the scan with the reason:

• BackupScope's own storage folder (a backup never contains older backups).
• Archive folders of other backup plugins, such as updraft, ai1wm-backups, backups-dup-lite and wpvividbackups.
• Cache folders: wp-content/cache, et-cache, litespeed. Caches are rebuilt automatically.
• Temporary update folders: wp-content/upgrade and upgrade-temp-backup.
• Version-control and build folders anywhere: .git, .svn, .hg, node_modules.
• Server verification files in .well-known, and temporary files ending in .tmp, .temp, .swp or ~.

What is in the backup file

Each backup is one standard ZIP file with your files, a database/database.sql export and a manifest.json that records what was included, what was excluded, the site address and the table prefix. The Restore Guide explains the layout in detail.

How the backup is checked

After the archive is written, BackupScope reads it back: every entry is re-read and its CRC-32 checksum compared, and the manifest.json and database export must be present. If anything is wrong, the backup is discarded and your previous backup stays in place.

How many backups are kept

BackupScope Free keeps your latest backup. The previous one is deleted only after the new backup has been created and verified, so there is always one good backup. BackupScope Pro keeps a history with retention rules (the last N backups, or the last N days), and you can lock a backup so it is never removed automatically.

Keep your backups safe

• Backups are stored in wp-content/uploads/backupscope/, a folder protected from web access (deny-all rules and index files), with unguessable file names. Only a logged-in administrator can download them.
• A backup contains wp-config.php and your database, which include passwords and personal data. Store downloaded copies somewhere private.
• A backup on the same server does not protect you if the server fails. Download a copy regularly, or send copies off-site automatically with BackupScope Pro (S3-compatible storage).
• To use your own storage folder outside the website, add define( 'BACKUPSCOPE_STORAGE_DIR', '/path/outside/your/site' ); to wp-config.php.

Known limits

• WordPress Multisite is not supported in this version.
• The backup needs free disk space on your server for the archive. The scan shows the estimated size before you start.

Running a large site? Read the Large Site Guide.