Backups are important as you don’t want to lose your hard work just because of some technical glitch. The modern plugins make it easy and convenient to create backups of your database. In this article, we will discuss how to back up the WooCommerce database manually and using a plugin.
Why Should You Backup Your WooCommerce Store?
Updates: When you try to update a new feature for WooCommerce or WordPress, it shows a warning that you should create a backup for your data before proceeding further. It is a smart move if you create a regular backup beforehand and then move forward to make custom changes or update relevant tools.
Uncertain Events: A website is always at risk of being attacked by a hacker or facing a system failure. As a WooCommerce store owner, it is your responsibility to protect customer data and ensure its safety.
Overall, backups protect you from data loss and lost sales on WooCommerce due to downtime. Thanks to cloud technology you can save your backups in a directory other than your server. This provides additional security and accessibility to backup files for your database.
How to Manually Back up WooCommerce Database?
Let’s see how you can manually take backup of your WooCommerce database. This database includes your pages, posts, categories, website content, etc. For manual backup go to the database management panel from your hosting provider, navigate to the PHPMyAdmin option. Go to databases and select the database that you want to backup.
This will redirect you to the relevant data which will be displayed in a table format as displayed below. Now, scroll down and click the box corresponding to the Check all button, then use the dropdown menu, and select the Export option.
The next screen will ask you to select a format for the export database, once done you can click the Go button.
That’s it! your database backup will be downloaded on your local system.
Backup WooCommerce Database Using a Plugin
A good backup plugin will allow you to create regular backups, which generally back up your data every 24 hours. The real-time backup plan allows you to create backup points as and when a change takes place on your website, such as new orders, plugins installed, new features or products added to the WooCommerce store.
If you are an eCommerce store owner, we recommend that you use a real-time backup system to create activity log backups points. Jetpack allows both the backup plans for the WooCommerce site that we will explore in more detail in this article.
Using Jetpack To Back up your WooCommerce Database
We will use the Jetpack Backup plugin to create one-click restore points. This plugin is built keeping in mind the world-class infrastructure used in WordPress and WooCommerce. Manual backup requires coding knowledge and consumes a lot of time but Jetpack allows you to create and restore your backed-up files within minutes without any technical aspects.
Features of Jetpack backup plugin
- Create one-click restore points.
- Use the Jetpack mobile app to restore from anywhere conveniently.
- No developer or coding knowledge is required to use the plugin.
- Create your backup for the database and files within minutes.
- WooCommerce customer data and orders are safe with Jetpack backups.
- Off-site backup feature to remove the load on your existing server.
- GDPR compliant and access lost data or website changes.
- Customer support and sales support are provided by the Jetpack team.
How to Back up WooCommerce Database using Jetpack?
Go to your WordPress dashboard then Plugins > Add new, in the search bar type Jetpack, you will see a similar result as displayed above. You can go ahead and install the plugin, and then click the Activate button to use it on your WordPress site. After successful installation, it will guide you to a new window.
Here you can start your first step towards creating a backup. Click the Set up Jetpack button to log in using your email id. You will be prompted to approve and connect your website with Jetpack. Once done, you will see the price plan offered by Jetpack.
You can choose a Jetpack plan among the above three available options. Use the one which is most suitable for your business and easy on your budget.
How to create your first Backup using Jetpack?
After completing your purchase Jetpack will start automatic backup for your WooCommerce site. The first backup usually takes time and you can view the progress by accessing the WP admin panel and then going to Jetpack Backup.
You can view everything that was included in the backup once it is completed. You can access your backups later by clicking the See all your backups button.
Which data is included in the Jetpack Backup?
The Jetpack plugin includes all the unique and irreplaceable data from your WordPress store. The plugin is designed to backup the following data:
- WordPress database: Includes every table that starts with your WordPress database’s table prefix and has a unique or primary key.
- Includes themes, all the installed plugins, and uploaded directories.
- Other important files inside the wp-content directory.
Which data is not included in the backup?
- The core files for your WordPress database, that are easily downloadable from WordPress.org.
- Database that doesn’t belong to WordPress.
- Cache and also the backup directories.
- WordPress installs inside the subdirectory.
- In case you do not want to back up any file you can create a new directory named .donotbackup to exclude the data inside this file. Jetpack will not back up this file automatically.
How to restore backups?
If you plan to restore your backups to a particular time or state you can simply go to your activity log and find the exact point you would like to restore. Click on the three dots at the end of your activity log and choose the option Restore to this point. Your backup will be restored to the selected time frame.
This process can take minutes or even hours depending on the size of your WooCommerce store. Jetpack will notify you using an email when the backup restore is finished.
How to avoid data loss while restoring?
- You should temporarily halt new orders, editing product descriptions on any other similar activity on your WooCommerce store. You can use a maintenance plugin to handle this.
- Create an on-demand backup plan using Jetpack.
- Use the cloud feature to create backup points outside the server. This will ensure that your backup data is completely safe even if you face a server crash. You can even download your backup files to your local system.
- Use the analytics tools to identify the perfect time to restore your store when there are fewer or no visitors on your site.
Backup is a must for every website especially if you are running an eCommerce store. You can protect yourself from a lot of headaches and uncertainties in the future. Don’t wait for a natural disaster or technical error to create a backup for your website. You should be consistent and responsible to protect your site and customer data. Use the above steps on how to back up the WooCommerce database and restore points. If you still have doubts or suggestions you can use the comment section below to ask any questions or queries.
Further reading
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