How to backup your website before updating WordPress, plugins and themes. Print

Important information to know before you get started updating your WordPress, Plugins and Themes

Updating WordPress may seem easy to do considering the links that appear in your admin area however, you should be careful to make backups before you decide to update WordPress on your own. If you're not comfortable doing it on your own, we offer a service where we will do the updates for you for only $49 each update.

WordPress might be making it seem too easy

As you can see with the image below, there are options to update WordPress almost everywhere temping you to just go for it. The orange number next to show the total number of updates (Updates) and the number of plugin updates available (Plugins)

Make a backup of your files and database BEFORE you attempt to updates your website yourself

As a precaution, make a backup of your entire website which includes the files and database. This way, if your update changes the way your website looks and functions or a plugin stops working after the update (often we see the blog disappear) then you can restore your files and have our team take care of it for you.

Step 1: Login to your account manager at http://inyerfacedesigns.com

Step 2: Once logged in, click SERVICES from the dashboard

Step 3: Select the service you want to backup by clicking on "Active"

Step 4: Start by selecting "File Manager"

Step 5: Follow the steps in the image once file manager is open

1. Your files are located in the Public_html directory. Make sure you are there.
2. Click on "Select All" to select all of your website files
3. Click on "Compress"
4. Select GZipped Tar Archive (higher compression will save you on disc space usage)
5. Click "Compress File(s)"
6. Finally, your backup will be created and you are one step away from a complete backup

NOTE: If you happen to run into issues during the update process, you can restore your files by selecting "backup.tar.gz" (noted in the Final step below) and clicking on "Extract" in the top menu

Step 6: Return to your account manager and select "Backup"

Final Step: Click the name of your database to start the download. Notice the restore option on the right in case something happens with your update.

You are now ready to update your WordPress version and Plugins!

Our client put their trust in our team for the simple reason that we get it right the first time. For on $49, we will update your entire website and if we run into any issues while updating, we will make sure we resolve everything so that your are in fact updated and ready for the next one. WordPress is a very secure platform and you can expect frequent updates.