Create a Back UpYesterday Jeffrey Morgan very kindly wrote a guest post detailing how to back up our WordPress sites, without the need of plugins.

Backing Up WordPress Quickly

Jeffrey saw that some people were a little concerned about going into technical areas of their websites that they’re not familiar with so has kindly written an additional post detailing how the back up process can be completed using Filezilla.

In this post Jeffrey takes you through the process of downloading, installing and configuring Filezilla. He then explains how to create and download your back up files.

 

Over to you Jeffrey:

Yesterday Barry was kind enough to allow me to post on the subject of backing-up WordPress. WordPress has become so easy to work with that most of the time you can work with image up-loads or file downloads directly with your hosting FTP. But there can be times that you will need to use FileZilla. We will take a look at this fabulous FTP.

When working with files of any sort, or when working with any sort of FTP Client, you should always work with your files in a zipped format. This will prevent any type of corruption when you transfer your files. As a point of interest, most E-Mail systems now, will not let you transfer large files without being zipped.

CAUTION: Never download or upload any file to your server without zipping it first. It is safer and much quicker, allowing less time for a “DSL / ISP” failure which will cause a transfer failure resulting in you’re starting your transfer over again. FileZilla will not remotely zip or extract your files. These actions must be done server side. If you must transfer without zipping, you will need to transfer in “binary” form.

Lets start by downloading FileZilla to your desktop by clicking on this link: FileZilla Link. We are interested in downloading the “Download FileZilla Client / All platforms”. If you are looking to download FileZilla for Windows you want to chose this link: “FileZilla_3.3.4.1_win32-setup.exe”(recommended).

While we are at it, let’s look at zipping utilities. I personally use “File Roller” for my Linux OS. It’s absolutely killer, period. If you use Windows the king of this utility is “WinZip” however the cost if $30.00. If you do not have a zipping utility and are cash conscious, you can download one for FREE here: OlderVersion.com. WinZip 10.0 is the version you should download here. I doubt if you will find a whole lot of difference between the WinZip versions.

If you have the FillZilla Client download to your desktop, go ahead and install the program now to your computer hard drive. It’s pretty straight forward.

Let’s configure the software to work with your server’s host, by launching the client. At the top of your browser’s window you will notice a “Menu Bar”, under that you will notice a “tool bar” and under that you will see the “Quickconnect bar” for Filezilla. To configure this bar we will need four pieces of information.

  • Host:
  • Username:
  • Password:
  • Port:

Lets look at each one.

1. Host: This is your hosting “Dedicated I.P. Address”, it will look something like this 185.152.90.7. If you can’t find this number, contact your hosting provider for assistance. You can place your Blogs URL in the Box if you prefer. Just remember instead of http://myblogsname.com you will need to provide this instead: ftp://myblogsname.com.

2. Username: This is the Username that you use to access your hosting control panel, such as C-Panel.

3. Password: This is the Password that you use to access your hosting control panel, such as C-Panel.

4. Port: This is your server port for FTP’s and should be set to “21″.

Once you have entered this information all you need to do is click “Quickconnect”.

If you desire to use FileZilla on a daily basis, or you have more than one hosting account, you can set-up all of your accounts by clicking of the first button on the tool bar which is the “Site Manager”. All of your information is stored here for easy retrieval by clicking on the “control menu button” to the right of “Quickconnect”

OK, let’s look at the default screen settings to see what we have. This may take you a few days to get use to if you have never used FileZilla.

The first area of the screen is the “Connection” screen where the server response commands are logged. This will run by pretty quickly when you attempt to connect to your Server and you don’t really need to be concerned about this. You will need to make sure that you see: “Status: Directory listing successful”. This means you’re in business.

The screen area just below the “Connection” screen is the “Local Site” screen. This is where you will be choosing a location or file for downloading of your WordPress Files from your server to your computer hard drive. This is also the location for choosing a location to upload any files you want to upload from your computer hard drive to your server. This area of the screen is much like your Windows Directory Tree. Below this screen you will see where the this tree can be expanded.

Across from the “Local Site” area of the screen, you will find the “Remote site” area. Here you will type “/public_html” in the box provide next to the words “Remote site”. In the screen area directly below you will now see all of your Blogs files, along with any sub-domains you might have.

You can drag and drop files one at a time if you like, however this post deals with the transferring of your entire Blog. It is strongly advised that you zip your files first, however if this is not possible, go to the menu bar and click on “Transfer” > “Transfer type” > and check “binary”.

Now return to the “Remote site” area of your screen and choose the files or sub-domain blog that you wish to download. Left click once to highlight the files or file folder and then right click once to bring up the “Download” dialogue box. Simply click “Download” and you are on your way. Make sure you have a folder location picked-out for your download in the “Local site:” screen.

Please Note: I have followed Jeffreys detailed yet simple instructions and have backed up my complete blog using Filezilla. It took a maximum of 35 minutes, including reading time and was very straight forward to complete. I recommend that you print out the instructions and highlight the action areas, it really is very simple to follow.

Jeffrey: I know you’re extremely busy at the moment so on behalf of myself and my readers I would like to “thank you” for taking time out to write the two posts for us.

Readers: Please read both of Jeffrey’s posts prior to choosing which method is best for you, please remember it is vital that you make back ups of everything before disaster strikes. Please show Jeffrey your appreciation and pay him a visit at Bloggers Market as you can he is extremely good at what he does and very very helpful, he also has a live support desk and is willing to offer support on this and many other topics.

Thanks again Jeffrey, you’re a star.

As always I welcome your comments below and will reply to them all.

Until next time, take care

Looking For Some Simple Traffic Solutions?
Free Mindmap, Worksheets and eBook when hit the BANNER below

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Filed under: WordPress

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!