Backing Up WordPress With Dropbox

Backing Up WordPress With Dropbox

on Sep 27th 2011 with 21 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Program: WordPress and Dropbox
  • Version (if applicable): 3.0 and higher
  • Difficulty: Beginner
  • Estimated Completion Time: 10 minutes

Many of you probably already use Dropbox for your own personal/commercial uses to keep your data safe, did you know that you can even store your WordPress data inside of your Dropbox. In this video tutorial, we’ll go over how to backup your precious WordPress installation through Dropbox.

We will be utilizing the WP Time Machine plugin to backup our files. This plugin backups both our database and our wp-content folder, including instructions on how to reinstall the backup. Additionally, you can even use this plugin to backup to your Amazon S3 Services or another FTP server. You can also set it up a cron job to do backups automatically and save them onto your server.

The Screencast

Backing Up WordPress With Dropbox

In this video we are going to take a look at backing up your WordPress installation with Dropbox. Enjoy.

 
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Fouad Matin is a PHP/MySQL/WordPress developer. He is currently playing around with node.js, django and data encryption. Follow him @heyfouad and his website http://fouadmat.in.  

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  • Anthony

    Great Plugin, I would recommend this is as standard a first installed plugin after setting up wordpress.

  • http://twitter.com/scherii scherii

    Although the plugin is really helpful(!) it broke my 3.2.1 WordPress. jQuery did not load properly after I installed it – after I deactivated the plugin everything seems to work again. Could be just me.. but maybe someone else has this problem too?

  • http://halucinated.com Steve

    Genius! Finally a super easy and convenient solution using Dropbox, thanks for the tip!

  • http://pantso.gr Pantso

    That is a great idea, but without wanting to sound like an ass, isn’t that a bit too unsecure? I mean if your DropBox account gets compromised, the intruder will have access to all your files? Or does it only store non critical data? Cause if it stores critical data no thank you. Else I don’t see the point !

    • http://www.otreva.com Otreva

      I agree that I would be against this for security reasons. DropBox just seems less secure since it is used for many purposes and could be accessed much easier than S3. I just remember when using it, I had a tray icon that I would click to see all my files. If the wrong person accessed my computer, a usb drive could copy my DropBox files in seconds.

      However this is super easy for first time users but I would still opt for S3 over DropBox.

    • http://fouadmatin.com Fouad Matin
      Author

      That is a good point, however taking precautionary steps when setting up your DropBox are pretty important. As Otreva said, “I just remember when using it, I had a tray icon that I would click to see all my files. If the wrong person accessed my computer, a usb drive could copy my DropBox files in seconds.” While this is true, you can change your dropbox settings to selective sync, this way on each install of dropbox, only sync the files you need. Thanks for the comments!

  • http://photosbyluis.net Luis Camberos

    Great tutorial but the Plugin did not work for me either with FTP or Dropbox.

    Perhaps it is a permission issue. Could you please comment?

    • http://fouadmatin.com Fouad Matin
      Author

      Hey Luis! I would be glad to help. Could you please elaborate what you mean by it’s not working? Like is it not sending the files + .sql to your account?

      • http://photosbyluis.net Luis Camberos

        Yes, Fouad.

        It is NOT sending the files + .sql to your account

        It is not transferring any files to either my dropbox or FTP account.

        This is the message that I received:

        Your archives have NOT been completed

        Unfortunately more information is not available (yet).

        Please advise!

  • http://whysodumb.com Abhimanyu

    Doesn’t work for me (dropbox). #unreliable.

  • http://quickconnect.com lincoln ne computer repair

    FTP and saving a SQL dump is all that is really needed :P and a little bit of patience as you move all the files over.

  • http://japh.com.au/ Japh

    This is a great post to draw people’s attention to DropBox being used for WordPress backup, however, I’ve been using the “WordPress Backup to Dropbox” plugin for a while now, and it’s actually better than this one.

    It uses OAuth, you you don’t need to enter your DropBox password, and it handles scheduled backups itself. Take a look: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-backup-to-dropbox/

    No code or command-line required!

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  • Axelv

    Thanks! :) Genius!

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  • http://shiptochamplain.com Shawn C

    Thanks, this may come in handy as a second backup solution.

  • http://www.69mb.co.uk/?pk_campaign=Blogs&pk_kwd=tutsplus ixape

    For anyone who hasn’t already tried the service that Dropbox is offering – you really should! The platform the service runs on is real speedy and secure. It’s powered by Amazon, so gives you peace of mind!

  • http://blog.kamarkecil.com Arif Riyanto

    Yeah, it is good idea to backup WordPress. Thank you

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  • http://kyrul.com kyrul

    awesome tutorial ! Thank you for the post okey . Is it another ways to backup my wordpress ?

  • http://wedeal.ru mike
  • http://www.sthlwebdesign.com Mike

    Great tip

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  • http://www.vileworks.com Stefan Matei

    I tried using it but it didn’t save anything to my Dropbox account.

  • http://philhoyt.com philhoyt

    Followed instructions. Never made it to my dropbox :( disappointing.