Having backup is always recommended in case you accidentally delete all your files or something else happens to your website. In this article you will learn how to backup your website with cPanel backup option.
Why should I keep Backup of my website?
Your database and website files in File Manager are what makes your website. If any of these files lost, your website will not function properly. If you are hosting a WordPress, Joomla or any application then database is the most important part of your backup. Database contains all of your posts, comments and links. If something happens to your website, you should have complete recent backup of your website so that you can restore it easily.
How many backups should I keep?
As a good practice it is recommended that you keep at least three most recent backups of your website. Keep these backup files in safe place. How often you should backup depends on how often you make changes to your website for example daily, weekly or monthly.
How to Backup your Website with cPanel?
1. Login to your cPanel
2. In the “Files” section, go to “Backup Wizard“.
3. This is a three step process. In the first step wizard will ask you to whether you want to Backup or Restore. Click on the Backup button.
4. Second step will ask you whether you want to do Full backup or Partial backup. Full backup will generate a single backup file containing all files and data of your cPanel account. You should choose the partial backup so that you can get different file for every data like MySQL Database, Home Directory and Email. Click on the “Home Directory”. On the next page, you will have option of Download all your Home Directory files in a zip file. Click on the “Home Directory” button again on the third step.
Upon clicking the Home Directory button, your download will start.
5. Now as you have download Home Directory files, now you should also backup the database. Go back to second step and click on the “MySQL Databases” button.
6. On the next page, you will see a list of MySQL database which you have created in your cPanel. Select the database you want to backup and click on it. Your downloading will start.
7. After downloading database, now you should follow the same steps for Email Forwarders & Filters to download the backup.
Make sure to keep these backups in safe place and try to upload these backups in multiple locations like in your email account, dropbox account, save them in CD/DVD or Flash Drives. In this way you can make sure that if one backup file goes corrupt, you will have other files to restore.