Backing up MySql database via Phpmyadmin

phpMyAdmin is a free tool written in PHP to handle the management of MySQL over web. It comes with most cPanels and has made management of database easier by providing an graphical user interface. We shall use phpMyAdmin to download WordPress site MySQL database. Follow the steps:
  • Login to your cPanel
  • Click Phpmyadmin under Databases



  • It might require you to login (login, if that’s the case)
  • Select database name associated with your site from left sidebar



  • On the next page, you will see list of tables that reside within your site database. These simply contain different type of data like comments, posts, etc. Ignore the tables and click Export located right above the tables
  • Select the export method as Custom, because we may need to modify the database being backed up
  • Upon selecting Custom, different options will appear before you and let you configure your database backup
  • First of those configurations is a tables’ box, it lets you select tables you want to backup. By default all tables are selected, but since different WordPress plugins do also create their own tables, so we may need to de-select them. Because we are only going to want to backup WordPress core tables.
  • Second option is Output. Select output to a file (if it isn’t already). Here, make sure File name template is @DATABASE@. Character set of file is utf-8 and compression is whatever format you want your backup to be in i.e. zipped, gzipped or none.
  • Third option is Format. We want our backup format to be SQL
  • Fourth option is Format-specific options. From this section, make sure following are selected:
    – Display comments
    – Structure
    – CREATE TABLE options
    - IF NOT EXISTS
    – AUTO_INCREMENT
    – Enclose tables and columns names with backquotes
  • Other checkboxes must be de-selected other than these
  • Now hit “Go”
Congratulations, friend! You successfully backed up your WordPress site  mysql database. This can be used later to restore backup.

A list of installed themes and plugins

We are going to make lists of themes and plugins that are installed on your WordPress site, not just those in activated state. Okay? The reason we are making lists and not downloading wp-content/themes and wp-content/plugins directories as whole is because any of your theme or plugin might have been corrupted. Let’s follow steps:
  • Open Notepad or any text-editor you like
  • Inside it, start enumerating plugins’ names
  • Make sure, you’re not just listing those in activated state
  • Save this file in your hard drive and name it “XYZ-plugins-list”
Now it is time we made a list of themes. Follow:
  • Ditto copy paste above steps
  • Just make sure instead of plugins, you’re listing themes’ names
  • Save file as “XYZ-themes-list”
You can later use these lists to install themes and plugins from start.

Downloading Uploads Directory

We have backed up our site database, which contains all the posts, comments and various settings of your site at the time of making backup. These included only posts, comments, etc. NOT images. So it is time we made sure we have our images in some safe place. All images that you have uploaded to your posts or site reside in wp-content/uploads directory. So we will download this directory and back it up. Follow the following steps to download wp-content/uploads:
  • First of all you will need an FTP client. If you don’t have FTP client already, download Filezilla.
  • Once downloaded and installed, open it.
  • You will need to connect to your server. For that you need: Host, username and password.
  • Username and password are same as you use to login to cPanel. Host might be different. Ask your hosting provider if you don’t know what’s yours.
  • Once logged in, locate to: root/public_html/yoursitedirectory/wp-content
  • Right-click uploads directory and click Download

  • Make sure to place it somewhere safe free from viruses or malware.
Now you have all images you’d ever uploaded to your WordPress site, it is time we moved on.

Exporting XML file

Under Tools > Export, there lies a functionality that offers you to generate and download WordPress eXtended RSS or WXR file.
XML export file is a kind that contains pretty much all the “important” stuff. Things like posts, pages, comments, categories, tags and basically the content of the site and not the settings. Settings you make in Settings menu and it’s submenus are not part of this XML file. Whereas a database backup stores not just the content or important stuff, rather settings are an integral part of it.
Something to be noted: database cannot be replaced by XML file. I mean, you MUST have database backup. You cannot afford to say, “I have got my XML file. I don’t need a backup!”
Now is the time that we will generate and download our WordPress XML export file. This is necessary because you might want to later important content into a new WordPress installation. Or simply, it’s important enough to keep. Follow the steps below to download this file:
  • Go to Tools > Export
  • XML file is highly configurable, meaning you can use provided filters to decide content you want it to contain. If you select “All content”, all the content of your site like posts, pages, comments, custom fields, terms, navigation menus and custom posts. If you don’t want all the content or want to exclude some post type from the file, you should make use of filters.
  • Once done with filtering, click “Download Export File”.


TAGS :