Frequently Asked Questions

Quick link: Go to the UpdraftPlus shop to find the Migrator add-on, or UpdraftPlus Premium.

If you have the “Migrator” add-on (or UpdraftPlus Premium, which includes all add-ons), then when you restore a site, you will be given the option to “Search and replace site location in the database”:

Migrating a database

What does this option do? If selected, then after restoring your database, it will then perform a search-and-replace operation upon it. It will first look up the address that the site was living at (i.e. the site whose database you are restoring). Then, it will replace all instances of that location in the database with your site’s new address.

This is a vital step if you are migrating a site from one location (URL) to another. For example, if you are moving a site from your development location – e.g. http://localhost/testsite to your live location – e.g. http://example.com – then after copying all the files and database, you then need to search/replace the database to reflect the new location. If you do not, then your site, though sitting at the “new” location, will contain lots of references to the “old” one. This can cause confusion and bugs. Most professional WordPress developers use the tried-and-tested “searchandreplacedb2.php” script to accomplish this task. UpdraftPlus includes the same code as its own search-and-replace engine to give you the same reliability.

So, in summary, here is how to migrate/clone a site from one location where WordPress is installed to another:

1. Make sure that the new site (destination) has UpdraftPlus and the “Migrator” add-on installed (either stand-alone, or via UpdraftPlus Premium). (You can get these products from our shop, here).
2. Create a backup on the original (old) site.
3. Import the backup into the new site, by dragging and dropping:
4. After the upload has finished, use the “Restore” button on the new site to begin a “restoration” using the backup set that you just uploaded. Make sure that you tick the “search and replace” button when doing so. That’s all!

You can see a fuller walk-through, with many more screenshots, here.

This is a common need for site developers – or anyone wanting to maintain two copies of a site (e.g. when moving web hosting).

The answer is “yes” – you just need the “Migrator” add-on from our shop; or “UpdraftPlus Premium” which includes every add-on.

With that installed, just take a look at our migration guide.

If you have shell access, then running a backup from the command-line has one big advantage over running it via your website: you shouldn’t get time-outs, so the backup will not need to automatically resume, but can run through in one go.

Furthermore, from the shell you can view the progress more easily in real-time. You can also run these as cron jobs.

To kick off a backup from the shell, run a PHP file in the directory of your WordPress installation that looks like this:

<?php

define('UPDRAFTPLUS_CONSOLELOG', true);
require_once('wp-load.php');
do_action('updraft_backup_all');

?>

If you don’t want to watch the lines being logged running past, then you can miss out the “define” line.

If you wish or want to resume an already-started job, then instead of the do_action line above, use this one – but change the 12-digit hex code to the code for your job (which you can easily spot in the log file of a started job, or from the filenames in your wp-content/updraft directory):

do_action('updraft_backup_resume', 1, 'fbb7e2919e0c');

The short answer is that UpdraftPlus cleans up (removes) all temporary files that are more than 24 hours old, so you should not need to do so manually. If you spot any temporary files that are taking up a lot of space, then they will be less than 24 hours old, and disappear by themselves later on.  More information on how UpdraftPlus temporarily uses disk space is available in this FAQ.

Quick link: Go to the UpdraftPlus shop to find the Migrator add-on, or UpdraftPlus Premium.

If you have the “Migrator” add-on (or UpdraftPlus Premium, which includes all add-ons), then when you restore a site, you will be given the option to “Search and replace site location in the database”:

Migrating a database

What does this option do? If selected, then after restoring your database, it will then perform a search-and-replace operation upon it. It will first look up the address that the site was living at (i.e. the site whose database you are restoring). Then, it will replace all instances of that location in the database with your site’s new address.

This is a vital step if you are migrating a site from one location (URL) to another. For example, if you are moving a site from your development location – e.g. http://localhost/testsite to your live location – e.g. http://example.com – then after copying all the files and database, you then need to search/replace the database to reflect the new location. If you do not, then your site, though sitting at the “new” location, will contain lots of references to the “old” one. This can cause confusion and bugs. Most professional WordPress developers use the tried-and-tested “searchandreplacedb2.php” script to accomplish this task. UpdraftPlus includes the same code as its own search-and-replace engine to give you the same reliability.

So, in summary, here is how to migrate/clone a site from one location where WordPress is installed to another:

1. Make sure that the new site (destination) has UpdraftPlus and the “Migrator” add-on installed (either stand-alone, or via UpdraftPlus Premium). (You can get these products from our shop, here).
2. Create a backup on the original (old) site.
3. Import the backup into the new site, by dragging and dropping:
4. After the upload has finished, use the “Restore” button on the new site to begin a “restoration” using the backup set that you just uploaded. Make sure that you tick the “search and replace” button when doing so. That’s all!

You can see a fuller walk-through, with many more screenshots, here.

This answer assumes that you have already created your Amazon S3 account, and have made a note of your S3 access key and secret key. If not, then go here: http://aws.amazon.com/s3/.

When you enter your Amazon S3 details in the UpdraftPlus setup, the only thing that some people find non-obvious is what to enter into the “S3 location:” field. All you have to enter is the name of the bucket that you wish to use. (If this bucket does not yet exist, then that is also fine – it will be created for you).

Amazon S3 setup

The only other question that sometimes arises is, “what permissions do I need to set on the Amazon S3 bucket (in the Amazon S3 console)?”

Firstly, if you are using your master S3 access and secret keys, then these have permission to do anything upon any bucket in your account. So you will not need to adjust any permissions to make these work. If you are not an advanced user, then you can stop reading now.

If, however, you have set up a different user with its own access and secret keys (which can be done using the Amazon AWS console’s “IAM” service), then you will need to make sure that that user has enough permissions.

Finding the Identity and Access Management (IAM) console in Amazon AWS

Exactly what user policy is right for your use-case depends upon what that use-case is. However, if you have a user “myuser” and a bucket called “mybucket”, then the following policy is sufficient to give that user all the permissions that UpdraftPlus requires to access that bucket, and only that bucket:

{
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "s3:ListBucket",
        "s3:GetBucketLocation",
        "s3:ListBucketMultipartUploads"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::mybucket",
      "Condition": {}
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "s3:AbortMultipartUpload",
        "s3:DeleteObject",
        "s3:DeleteObjectVersion",
        "s3:GetObject",
        "s3:GetObjectAcl",
        "s3:GetObjectVersion",
        "s3:GetObjectVersionAcl",
        "s3:PutObject",
        "s3:PutObjectAcl",
        "s3:PutObjectAclVersion"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::mybucket/*",
      "Condition": {}
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "s3:ListAllMyBuckets",
      "Resource": "*",
      "Condition": {}
    }
  ]
}

UpdraftPlus features a resumption feature – if you wait 5 minutes and visit a page on your site, then it should re-try not-yet-uploaded files. So, don’t assume that backing up has failed if a few minutes pass without any apparent progress. Be prepared to wait an hour and then check again.

You can also look for the log file (you can find it in wp-content/updraft, if you are using FTP). Before asking for support, you can improve your chances of a speedy answer if you can make sure that you: 1) Have started a backup, and then waited at least an hour (because UpdraftPlus will keep trying) 2) Have tried to find the log file of the failed backup.

This usually indicates a problem with the scheduler within your WordPress installation. (“Backup Now” uses the scheduler, by scheduling a backup a few seconds ahead of the current time). As such, it will affect any scheduled backup plugin that you try – as well as various other tasks that WordPress and other plugins schedule internally.

Note that this article is about problems where literally nothing happens. If you do have log messages/files for the backup run, and/or a partial backup, then something is happening, and this article is not relevant to your problem.

First: if your web hosting company gives you “shell” access and you can set up cron jobs, and if you are confident/skilled enough to use that, then that’s a great solution. Jobs run that way won’t face any time-out issues imposed by the webserver. Read more about running via the shell here.

Here’s what you can do: First, try a “debug” backup. These bypass the scheduler, by running immediately within the browser. (On larger sites, they are likely to be incomplete, because your web browser may time out before it can finish). To do this, i) open up the expert settings at the bottom of your UpdraftPlus page and ii) Scroll down and press the “Debug Full Backup” button:

Now, see if a backup begins (you can verify this by reloading the settings page after a time and looking at the “Last log message” display, or looking for new backups, or looking in your wp-content/updraft directory for new log files).

If no backup begins then you have a different problem – the useful information for you in this article stops here.

If the debug backup does work, then your WordPress scheduler is broken. It is possible for other plugins to accidentally do this – first, disable any cacheing plugins you have (e.g. W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache).

Another cause is if your entire website is password-protected at the HTTP level (e.g. via a .htaccess file). This also prevents WordPress’s scheduler from working. You should configure your webserver to allow “loop-back” connections (i.e. connections to self), otherwise you WordPress scheduler and everything that depends upon it will be broken. If you are using Apache and .htaccess, then adding these two lines to the access control section of your .htaccess should work –  after replacing a.b.c.d with your website’s IP address):

Allow from a.b.c.d
Satisfy Any

Please note: The above suggestion is just a suggestion. .htaccess configuration is a very big subject. UpdraftPlus neither “supports” nor “doesn’t support” different .htaccess configurations, because .htaccess files operate at quite a different level to WordPress plugins.  If you enter the correct instructions in your .htaccess file to permit access, then UpdraftPlus will work. But if you are not sure of the correct instructions for your particular server, then you need to consult with either your web-hosting company or your local .htaccess guru.

If the scheduler’s brokenness remains and is not caused by one of the above reasons, then the problem is almost certainly with your web hosting provider. Some web hosting providers purposefully (though for no good reason) disable the “loop-back” connects that allows WordPress to run its scheduler. In such a case, you can try this use WordPress’s alternative scheduling system – instructions here. The instructions amount to one thing: add a line to your wp-config.php file as follows:

define('ALTERNATE_WP_CRON', true);

If the alternative scheduler also fails, then you need to either contact your web hosting company for support (ask them if loopback connections work, and if not, if they can enable them); or failing that find a different web hosting company. If they confirm that loopback connections are disabled and say that it is necessary for security, then this is nonsense. (A website connecting to itself can do nothing more or less than anything else connecting to the website can). In such a case, you will need to find a new hosting company in order to use any scheduled task (including UpdraftPlus) within WordPress – we recommend Simba Hosting, who have excellent WordPress support, a 1-click installer, and will give you a 20% discount if you mention this article at sign-up time.

After you have set up UpdraftPlus, you must check that your backups are taking place successfully. WordPress is a complex piece of software that runs in many situations. Don’t wait until you need your backups before you find out that they never worked in the first place. Remember, there’s no warranty and no guarantees (exactly as with all WordPress software – UpdraftPlus is no exception).

UpdraftPlus uses what Dropbox calls an “app folder”. This means that UpdraftPlus only has access to its own files – not any other part of your Dropbox.

App folders are all stored in “apps”, with their own name. In the case of UpdraftPlus, your files are in “apps/UpdraftPlus”. Dropbox does not allow us to access anything outside of there.

If you purchase the “Dropbox folders” add-on, then you can store your backups inside sub-folders of that directory, e.g. one site in “apps/UpdraftPlus/mysite”, another in “apps/UpdraftPlus/anotherone”, etc.

If you have shell access, then running a backup from the command-line has one big advantage over running it via your website: you shouldn’t get time-outs, so the backup will not need to automatically resume, but can run through in one go.

Furthermore, from the shell you can view the progress more easily in real-time. You can also run these as cron jobs.

To kick off a backup from the shell, run a PHP file in the directory of your WordPress installation that looks like this:

<?php

define('UPDRAFTPLUS_CONSOLELOG', true);
require_once('wp-load.php');
do_action('updraft_backup_all');

?>

If you don’t want to watch the lines being logged running past, then you can miss out the “define” line.

If you wish or want to resume an already-started job, then instead of the do_action line above, use this one – but change the 12-digit hex code to the code for your job (which you can easily spot in the log file of a started job, or from the filenames in your wp-content/updraft directory):

do_action('updraft_backup_resume', 1, 'fbb7e2919e0c');

UpdraftPlus backs up your files into ordinary zip files (the same format that WordPress and its plugins and themes directories use). The database is backed up into an ordinary SQL (text) file.

Therefore you can use UpdraftPlus to restore backups, but do not have to. You do not even need WordPress installed. You can just unzip the zip files, and use your web hosting company’s control panel to import the SQL into your database.

See here for instructions.

We are committed, as a fundamental of UpdraftPlus’s design, to retain this situation. UpdraftPlus backups will always be something that you can restore with standard tools. There will be no proprietary lock-in.

SSL is a technology used to help you make sure that a) you really are communicating with the people you thought you were (authentication) and b) your communications with them cannot be eaves-dropped by others along the way (encryption).

SSL uses entities called “certificates” to enable these functions. These certificates have time limits upon them (so that if a bad guy manages to steal one, then it has a limited use).

For this to all work, it relies upon the right certificates existing in the right places. In particular, you need to be able to access a store of certificates up-to-date.

UpdraftPlus manages this by including certificates internally. However, if something goes wrong then you may see errors when UpdraftPlus tries to connect to cloud storage (e.g. Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud, Dropbox, Google Drive).

It is also possible that these errors mean that somebody really is trying to intercept and decode your communications. That’s what SSL errors are for – to alert you that something is wrong.

One step that you can take safely is to open UpdraftPlus’s “expert options” and activate the option for UpdraftPlus to use your web hosting company’s certificate store (instead of its own). Then try again. If the backup now succeeds, then you should inform us so that we can trace the problem.

If that fails, then you can also try the option to not verify the identity of remote sites. This means that you are turning off authentication. This lowers your security. It should only be done if you are comfortable with the risks (e.g. you are sure that the communications really are with Amazon S3, Dropbox, etc.).

Finally, you can also turn off SSL entirely, using another expert option. Note that this only works for certain transport methods (including Amazon S3 and FTP (for those who have the FTPS extension activate)). Some cloud storage providers (including Dropbox) require SSL, so your only solution with them is to fix your installation.

Expert options for SSL

This question is only interesting or relevant if a) you do not have an “unlimited” hosting plan and b) you are already using more than (approximately) 25% of your web hosting plan’s web space.

The very short answer is, theoretically, up to two-thirds (i.e. twice as much free space available as is already used). This answer is not something unique to UpdraftPlus, but is the case for backup plugins generally, if they are based on WordPress on a modern web hosting platform.

Here is a longer explanation to help you evaluate your particular case and give more technical details:

If you are dispatching your backups to the cloud (e.g. Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, Rackspace, FTP, WebDAV), then some space is still needed within your web hosting account to create the backup, before it is then sent off to the cloud.

Backups are created as zip archives, which are compressed. So it’s not possible to predict exactly how much will be needed (because some resources can be compressed more than others). It will never be more than your existing usage. The larger your site is, the more likely it is that most of your space is used by already-compressed resources (e.g. graphics, videos, audio), and the closer the amounts for “needed space for backup” to “spaced used by your website” will be. For small sites, with few uploaded resources, the ratios will be much less – since much of your usage will be for WordPress itself, which isn’t normally backed up (since you can get another one from wordpress.org), and which even if you are backing it up is mostly easy to compress.

However, there is another factor involved. UpdraftPlus, being written in the PHP programming language (as is WordPress itself), uses PHP’s facilities for creating zip files. When creating a zip file, PHP can internally create a temporary zip file, which can be as large as the resulting zip itself. As a result, it’s mathematically possible, if you back up everything, to need at least two-thirds / 67% free space in your web hosting account in order to produce a backup. (One third is used by your site; another third is used temporarily by PHP in producing the zip file that UpdraftPlus requests of it; and another third is used by the zip file itself).

If your web hosting setup lacks resources, then it is furthermore possible for some of these temporary files to be left behind. If your web hosting server, in order to manage resources, kills off the PHP process before it finishes, then the temporary file will remain until is cleared up manually by UpdraftPlus, once the archive is completely created, or if that happens then usually 12 hours later. This can really boost the amount of disk space you need for things to complete successfully, especially if it happens multiple times. If you have a resource-limited web hosting provider, plus a small disk space allowance, then that’s an unpleasant combination. Unfortunately the PHP engine does not advise its users (in this case, UpdraftPlus) as to where it put its temporary files, so UpdraftPlus just has to do its best to clear up what it can find, after the event.

If you are not dispatching your backups to the cloud (why not? Are you expecting any hackers to be so kind as to not touch your backups, or your hosting company never to go bust or have an accident?), or if you are leaving backups behind on the server (i.e. if you changed the Expert Option for this), then you will of course need further resources, for each backup set that remains on the server.

This is symptomatic of your web hosting account being full. i.e. Your have reached the disk space usage limit on your web hosting package.

See also this FAQ for more information about disk space usage within UpdraftPlus.

LiteSpeed appears to have problems with all WordPress scheduled tasks that last more than a very short time – including all backup plugins. Adding this in an early position in the .htaccess file in your WordPress root folder may fix the problem:

RewriteRule ^$ - [E=noabort:1]

Adding the above line will make the LiteSpeed warning on UpdraftPlus’s settings page go away – this does not mean that the problem is definitely fixed; you will only know that via testing. If the above does not help, then you can try this: use WordPress’s alternative scheduling system – instructions here. The instructions amount to one thing: add a line to your wp-config.php file as follows:

define('ALTERNATE_WP_CRON', true);

If that does not help you, then you’ll need the help of your web hosting company to see why WordPress’s scheduler isn’t working on their setup, or is terminating it prematurely. Or failing that, you’ll need a different web hosting company. This problem is a generic one affecting all backup plugins on WordPress that run via the scheduler (which is all of them, as far as we know).

No. Microsoft forbid the use of SkyDrive by backup utilities – see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/live/hh826521.aspx (“Here are some examples of nonconforming apps: Apps that automatically back up files or folders to SkyDrive.”).

When you enter a password and it is starred, in fact this only prevents “shoulder-surfers” (people looking over your shoulder) from seeing the password. It provides no extra protection from other users who can sit at the keyboard, or access the same WordPress admin panel.

Three quick, different ways that people who have access to the settings page can access stored passwords are: 1) Press “View Source” in their web browser, and read it out of there. 2) Download a backup of the site’s database and read it out of there. 3) Install an extension in their web browser to un-star all passwords (e.g. this one).

If you do not trust your users to do bad things with your passwords, then you should not make them admins on your WordPress site. Starring out the password only protects against people who are a) malicious enough to misuse your password, but b) too technically incompetent to press “View Source”. Do you really want such people to have admin-level access to your website?

Displaying the passwords makes trouble-shooting one step more awkward, so we chose to not star them out.

UpdraftPlus uses what Dropbox calls an “app folder”. This means that UpdraftPlus only has access to its own files – not any other part of your Dropbox.

App folders are all stored in “apps”, with their own name. In the case of UpdraftPlus, your files are in “apps/UpdraftPlus”. Dropbox does not allow us to access anything outside of there.

If you purchase the “Dropbox folders” add-on, then you can store your backups inside sub-folders of that directory, e.g. one site in “apps/UpdraftPlus/mysite”, another in “apps/UpdraftPlus/anotherone”, etc.

Without the SFTP/FTPS add-on, UpdraftPlus supports plain, unencrypted FTP. However, if you are backing up business or other sensitive data, then you may wish to use have your communications with your FTP/SFTP server encrypted.

FTP and SFTP are different protocols, but often confused. SFTP is an always-encrypted protocol, so there’s nothing more to say about that – if you have the add-on, then you have SFTP, which is always encrypted.

With encrypted FTP, both kinds of encryption – i.e. both implicit and explicit encryption – are supported.

“Explicit” encryption happens when you connect to an FTP server without encryption, and then immediately request to upgrade your connection to an encrypted one (the requestor “explicitly” request it). This is the most common kind of FTP encryption. UpdraftPlus’s SFTP/FTPS add-on will attempt this kind of encryption by default.

“Implicit” encryption is when you connect to an FTP server on a port which requires an immediate SSL negotiation – i.e. no non-encrypted communication can take place (encryption is “implicit” in the use of that port). Such FTP servers run on port 990. To use this form of encryption, simply add “:990″ to the server name in UpdraftPlus’s configuration:

SFTP – implicit encryption

UpdraftPlus has had over 115,000 downloads, and been tested by users on a very wide variety of WordPress installations. It ranks in the top 0.5% of most-installed plugins at rankwp.com. No software is perfect, but if you’re looking for reliability, then UpdraftPlus can compete with the best. The original “Updraft” plugin began backing up WordPress installations in February 2010. There’s a lot of experience and testing behind today’s UpdraftPlus.

Remember, though, that every WordPress install is different. You should always test your backup system after deploying it. UpdraftPlus, like all WordPress software, comes with no warranty. UpdraftPlus will do everything it can to help, but you are the one finally responsible to make sure that backups are taking place successfully.

UpdraftPlus’s architecture imposes no limits upon the size of backups. As long as your server has the disk space available to create a backup, and as long as your web hosting company does not apply any other artificial limits (e.g. does not give you enough outgoing bandwidth to allow your backups to reach their destination in the cloud), then UpdraftPlus can back up anything. It is known to be successfully backing up websites of a gigabyte and a half (1500 megabytes), and we’re not aware of any website that won’t back up because of being too big.

For life – as long as we supply updates, all users who have purchased the relevant product will be entitled to updates.

The base UpdraftPlus plugin is free, and fully functional (it is not “crippleware” that ham-strings you unless you pay). If you want extra features, then you have two choices. Firstly, you can buy “UpdraftPlus Premium”, which includes all of our add-ons, plus upgrades for life, and a year’s support. Alternatively, if you prefer to buy “a la carte”, then individual features are available to purchase separately. Whichever you choose, you can get it all conveniently and easily in our shop.

The free edition of UpdraftPlus can be installed anywhere and everywhere you like.

When you purchase UpdraftPlus Premium (our version with all extra features, upgrades and 1-year support), then you can choose whether you want a 2-site, 10-site or unlimited site licence.

When you purchase add-ons individually, they are purchased for one site.

The above entitlements are used to grant access to support and access to your UpdraftPlus.Com account for downloading software and obtaining upgrades. UpdraftPlus itself is under the GNU GPL, the same licence as WordPress itself, which grants you many and various further rights.

Essentially, everything – it backups up your database and all WordPress content – which means your uploads, plugins, themes, and additional files created by plugins. The free version does not backup up WordPress itself, since you can always obtain this again from WordPress.Org. UpdraftPlus Premium has an option to include this too, for convenience – plus any files anywhere else on your server (i.e. non-WordPress) that you want to back up for good measure, too.

You are very welcome to send us your question, here.

Yes. If you have a WordPress Multisite install (and you’ll know if you do – it’s fiddly to set up), then you need our multisite add-on, and then you are ready to go. If a backup plugin has not been particular written for WordPress Network usage, then it will be insecure – it will allow every blog admin on the network to backup and restore the entire network – including changing code and settings (e.g. passwords, or changing plugins) along the way.

If you deploy Google Drive, Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud Files, FTP or Dropbox as your cloud backup method, then in theory UpdraftPlus has no limits. At whatever point your web hosting provider cuts UpdraftPlus off, it can resume again later. With FTP, it needs to be able at least to upload one whole batch (plugins, themes, uploads or “others”) of files in one run. With email backups, you will likely find that your email provider limits the size allowed for incoming emails.

Go here.

UpdraftPlus backs up your files into ordinary zip files (the same format that WordPress and its plugins and themes directories use). The database is backed up into an ordinary SQL (text) file.

Therefore you can use UpdraftPlus to restore backups, but do not have to. You do not even need WordPress installed. You can just unzip the zip files, and use your web hosting company’s control panel to import the SQL into your database.

See here for instructions.

We are committed, as a fundamental of UpdraftPlus’s design, to retain this situation. UpdraftPlus backups will always be something that you can restore with standard tools. There will be no proprietary lock-in.

This is a common need for site developers – or anyone wanting to maintain two copies of a site (e.g. when moving web hosting).

The answer is “yes” – you just need the “Migrator” add-on from our shop; or “UpdraftPlus Premium” which includes every add-on.

With that installed, just take a look at our migration guide.

Software: There are no refunds for digitally-deliverable/non-tangible goods. This is standard practice in these industries, because such goods cannot be returned (unlike physical goods). It is your responsibility to read the product descriptions, verify that it meets your needs (i.e. it provides a workable backup solution for you) and is suitable for your product environment (e.g. that you are not planning to use it on resource-starved hosting).

For separately-purchased support services (i.e. not those bundled with software), for which you purchase support for a specific issue, if your support need turns out to be caused by an UpdraftPlus defect, then we will refund you 100% of your purchase price for the support purchase.

No refunds are available for unused support purchases, or for any part of the price of a bundled software+support package (for refund purposes, those are treated as 100% software packages).

These restrictions do not affect your consumer rights. For example, if UpdraftPlus’s product description states that it has a feature which in fact it does not, then you can invoke your consumer rights.

Finally, we reserve the right to, without notice or refund, terminate any ongoing services (including support agreements or update feeds) to customers who abuse our facilities or staff.

See here.

It means that you wrongly copied across the URL shown in your admin console to Google Drive at the relevant step. Please return to the relevant step of the instructions and try again.

Google recently (first half of 2013) changed their permissions setup. Specifically, the permission which UpdraftPlus was using to download backups (and thence to restore them) no longer enables it to do so.

To fix this, you need to:

1) Update to UpdraftPlus version 1.6.1 or later.

2) Click on the link to “Authenticate with Google”, down in the “Google Drive” settings section.

Authenticate with Google

You will then be able to re-authenticate with Google, gaining the new permissions needed to download your backup files within UpdraftPlus.

Granting Permissions to UpdraftPlus to use Google Drive

(That looks like a few more permissions that a backup program should need, right? We agree – our Google Drive support carries some legacy cruft in the code that will be pruned – but we are waiting for Google Drive to settle down, and for the available toolkits to mature, before we dive in, rather than overhauling it now and then having to do it again in the near future. Since UpdraftPlus is written in PHP, anyone can read the code to verify that UpdraftPlus does nothing more with Google Drive than upload and download its own backup files).

If you want to first test out UpdraftPlus (free), then go here.

If you want to get UpdraftPlus Premium, or buy add-ons to enhance your free edition, then go to our shop.

WordPress 3.2 and later are officially supported. We have not tried on earlier versions. We know that before 3.0 is definitely broken.

Other than that, we try to support everything that WordPress itself supports – whether Windows, Linux or something else, all PHP versions supported by WordPress 3.2, etc.

Go here.

No. Some users also de-install and re-install and don’t want to have to re-enter their settings. If you want to remove all UpdraftPlus’s settings, then there’s a button down at the bottom of the settings page, which is activated when you click the link to show ‘expert settings’.

If you have any support requests then you should update first, to see if your problem has already been fixed. Otherwise, you don’t need to fix what is not broken.

The free edition of UpdraftPlus can be installed anywhere and everywhere you like.

When you purchase UpdraftPlus Premium (our version with all extra features, upgrades and 1-year support), then you can choose whether you want a 2-site, 10-site or unlimited site licence.

When you purchase add-ons individually, they are purchased for one site.

The above entitlements are used to grant access to support and access to your UpdraftPlus.Com account for downloading software and obtaining upgrades. UpdraftPlus itself is under the GNU GPL, the same licence as WordPress itself, which grants you many and various further rights.

The same licence as WordPress itself, the GNU GPL.

Quick link: Go to the UpdraftPlus shop to find the Migrator add-on, or UpdraftPlus Premium.

If you have the “Migrator” add-on (or UpdraftPlus Premium, which includes all add-ons), then when you restore a site, you will be given the option to “Search and replace site location in the database”:

Migrating a database

What does this option do? If selected, then after restoring your database, it will then perform a search-and-replace operation upon it. It will first look up the address that the site was living at (i.e. the site whose database you are restoring). Then, it will replace all instances of that location in the database with your site’s new address.

This is a vital step if you are migrating a site from one location (URL) to another. For example, if you are moving a site from your development location – e.g. http://localhost/testsite to your live location – e.g. http://example.com – then after copying all the files and database, you then need to search/replace the database to reflect the new location. If you do not, then your site, though sitting at the “new” location, will contain lots of references to the “old” one. This can cause confusion and bugs. Most professional WordPress developers use the tried-and-tested “searchandreplacedb2.php” script to accomplish this task. UpdraftPlus includes the same code as its own search-and-replace engine to give you the same reliability.

So, in summary, here is how to migrate/clone a site from one location where WordPress is installed to another:

1. Make sure that the new site (destination) has UpdraftPlus and the “Migrator” add-on installed (either stand-alone, or via UpdraftPlus Premium). (You can get these products from our shop, here).
2. Create a backup on the original (old) site.
3. Import the backup into the new site, by dragging and dropping:
4. After the upload has finished, use the “Restore” button on the new site to begin a “restoration” using the backup set that you just uploaded. Make sure that you tick the “search and replace” button when doing so. That’s all!

You can see a fuller walk-through, with many more screenshots, here.

This question is about cloning or migrating your site to a different URL, using UpdraftPlus’s “migrator” add-on (which is part of UpdraftPlus Premium). It is not about restoring your site into the same webspace it was in before. Migrating is especially useful if you want to clone a site for testing, or move to new hosting and test before you make the new version live, and many other similar scenarios.

In the example below, we are migrating into a completely empty WordPress site. However, you can migrate into an existing site – for example, if you are updating a development/test version of your website with a new upload. If you’re doing that, then you’ll be able to skip a few of the steps below.

We also assume that you have created a backup of your old site, and have got the backup files at hand. Got that? Then let’s go!

By the way – before you begin, try to turn off any proxies that are between you and your site, such as Cloudflare, GoDaddy’s “Preview DNS” proxy, or Opera Turbo/Road mode. These can all get in the way. Also, cacheing and minifying plugins are a common cause of migration problems (whatever method you use). Disable all of those before you create your backup – or alternatively, just be ready to turn them off if the migration stumbles.

1. Starting with an empty WordPress install which we’ve just made:

Starting with an empty WordPress install

Here’s the front end of the site – just what you always see on a fresh WordPress 3.5 install:

An empty WordPress install

Note: If you are using a WordPress Network/Multisite install (you’ll know if you do – the setup instructions are not easy), then  you’ll need to first set up the second site as a network – this is not done for you. The Migrator is designed to migrate between equivalent sites (i.e. normal install to normal install, or network to network), but not from one type to another.

2. Install/Activate UpdraftPlus and the Migrator

The next step is to install and activate UpdraftPlus, of course. If you don’t remember how to do that, then go here.

You’ll also want to install UpdraftPlus Premium, or the stand-alone “Migrator” add-on (depending on which you bought) – instructions for that are here.

Install UpdraftPlus

3. Upload your backup files into UpdraftPlus

Next you’ll need to upload your backup files into UpdraftPlus. To do this, go to the settings page, click on “Restore” and then click on “upload backups files”.

Begin to upload your backup files

Then, you can drag-and-drop your backup files in:

Drag and drop your backup files in

You should then see them each upload:

Uploading your backup set

Alternatively, you can manually copy (e.g. via FTP) your backup files into the directory wp-content/updraft in the WordPress install, and click on “Rescan folder for new backup sets”.

4. Press “Restore”

When the upload has finished, you will be able to press the “Restore” button for the backup set which you just uploaded:

5. Select all the components to restore, and press “Restore”

If you are restoring from nothing, then you will want to check all the boxes, to restore every part of your site. Then press “Restore”.

Important: Since this is a migration, you will want to also check the “Search and replace site location in the database” option. This option is what will instruct UpdraftPlus to fix everything in your database for your new location (URL).

Selecting the components to restore

Are you curious as to why UpdraftPlus does not ask you to type in any old or new site URLs for the search & replace? That’s easy – it already knows the new site URL (because it knows what site you’re visiting the dashboard for), and it can get the old site URL out of your database backup.

6. Watch the restoration succeed!

UpdraftPlus will then run the restoration and migration. You can watch the progress:

Restoration in progress

After restoring the database, it will then go through it to perform the search-and-replace of your old and new site URLs:

Database migration progress

At the bottom of the screen, hopefully you’ll get the “Restore successful!” message, and the option to return to the main UpdraftPlus page:

All successful!

If you do return to the WordPress dashboard, then don’t be surprised if you have to log in again – having replaced your site database, WordPress may need you to re-identify yourself:

Logging in again

Success!

Now, we visit the front end of the site, and it’s all migrated – what a beautiful website!

Everything is migrated!

Didn’t work?

If something went wrong, then don’t panic – it may be easy to fix. Even if it’s not, then there’s still nothing to worry about – the UpdraftPlus backup files are just standard zip and SQL files which can be used to restore your site another way. However, before you give up, do try looking in your web server’s error logs, and turn on WP_DEBUG in wp-config.php. Also, cacheing and minifying plugins are a common cause of migration failures – so disable any of those and see if that helps (either through the dashboard, or via renaming their directories inside wp-content/plugins).

Migrations not working first time is not a sign of something hugely wrong. WordPress is a big, complex beast. The above procedure works 95% of the time. If you find out a way that we can make a failed migration work for you, then please just let us know.

This is a common need for site developers – or anyone wanting to maintain two copies of a site (e.g. when moving web hosting).

The answer is “yes” – you just need the “Migrator” add-on from our shop; or “UpdraftPlus Premium” which includes every add-on.

With that installed, just take a look at our migration guide.

Many! There’s…

• WordPress-capable hosting from Simba Hosting – including 1-click installer
• Maintenance – let us keep your WordPress up-to-date and safe from hackers
• New websites designed from scratch
• Modifications and fixes for your existing website
• General WordPress coding (e.g. bespoke plugins) and all-round expertise
• WordShell – the premiere tool for command-line WordPress administration. For CLI users, this saves huge amounts of time.
• Some other free plugins in the WordPress.Org directory

That’s very good of you to ask! You are looking for WordShell, http://wordshell.net.

When you upload larger files to Rackspace Cloud Files, an object (file) appears in your Cloud Files container (which you can view online – https://mycloud.rackspace.com) for each separate “chunk” (portion) of that file. That is part of the design of Cloud Files. The final file actually occupies zero extra space (for your billing purposes); it is a special file that knows that it is composed of the separate chunks. So, do not delete any of those chunks – because if you do then the final file will be having its parts removed and become unusable. Leave it to UpdraftPlus to manage – when it deletes the backup file itself, it will delete the chunks too.

In UpdraftPlus, because it needs to work on even the most resource-starved of WordPress installations, “larger file” means anything more than 5 megabytes.

Conversely, if you are seeking to download your backups from Rackspace Cloud Files, then you can ignore all the chunk files – you just want the main file. The “chunk” files have names ending in an underscore followed by a number, e.g. _1, _2, _3 (etc.). Those are the ones you can ignore – you just want those ending in .zip (for file backups) or .gz (for databases – or .gz.crypt for encrypted databases).

A WordPress installation is made up of two things: firstly, the files which are on disk, and secondly the database (MySQL database). To transfer a site from one place to another, there are just two things to do: 1) Copy the files and 2) Copy the database.  Restoring a backup is exactly the same in principle – restore the files and restore the database. Read on!

(Note – if you are migrating a site to a different location (URL) – i.e. not restoring at the same website address, then there is also a third step: 3) search and replace the database. You can do that via a database search-replace tool such as searchreplacedb2.php, or for convenience use our Migrator add-on (which is also part of UpdraftPlus Premium).

First: Is your website behind a reverse proxy, such as CloudFlare, or GoDaddy’s “Preview DNS” proxy? You will want to not access your WordPress dashboard this way to do the restoration, because such proxies usually impose a low time-out. If you cannot disable the proxy, then  you will need to restore manually instead unless you know your backup is small.

If your site is still basically intact (in particular, the database), and if you backed up using a cloud method (e.g. Amazon S3, Google Drive, FTP), then on the UpdraftPlus settings page, there is a nice shiny ‘Restore’ button. Press it, and it will show you all of the backups it currently knows about. There is a further “Restore” button on each row, allowing you to choose the particular backup you wish to restore. Once you press that, it will allow you to choose which parts of that backup you wish to restore. Then it will over-write your present data with that contained in the indicated backup set. Note: if your website backups are large, then your web hosting company may impose a time limit which may be too small. This may result in a partially-restored site. The lowest risk way to restore (but which requires more skills) is manually – see here. Another way to lower the risk is to restore one component (uploads, plugins, themes, etc.) at a time – but be aware that this also has risks (e.g. if your files and database are not in sync). Generally if you are restoring many things, the safest procedure is to first restore the “uploads”, then secondly the themes, then finally the plugins, others and database together.

If, however, you have a set of backup files that UpdraftPlus does not yet know about, then there is one extra step. (This situation happens if you make a new WordPress install and install UpdraftPlus). To make UpdraftPlus to know about your backup, you need to 1) Copy the backup zip files from your backup set into UpdraftPlus’s folder by FTP (by default this folder, relative to your WordPress installation, is wp-content/updraft). 2) Click on the ‘rescan folder for new backup sets’ link. Then you can proceed as before.

An alternative method is as follows: if you backed up using a cloud method, then on UpdraftPlus’s settings page, there should be a clickable link next to “Download Backups”. Click on that link, and it will give you a set of further buttons, allowing you to download zip files of the various backed-up components. You can download those to your computer, and then unpack them, and copy them into your web space.

If you want to restore the database, then you do exactly the same again – but tick the box for “Database” when asked to. Alternatively, if you want to do it manually, then you need to use your web hosting company’s control panel. (Or if you are an expert user, use MySQL from the shell). Look for “database administration” or “phpMyAdmin”. You should be able to find the “Import” function and upload your UpdraftPlus database backup file directly into there. (You will need to remove the encryption first, if you chose an encrypted backup – this is done for you automatically if you download the database from your site’s UpdraftPlus settings page; or you can use the drag-and-drop decrypter on the setting page).

If you have the encryption key (which you entered in your settings) and you are restoring from the settings interface, then it will automatically decrypt. i.e. If you’ve changed your encryption key setting in the mean-time since you backed up, then you should change it back.

If you have a file which you with to decrypt and download (without doing anything else with it), then you can use the drag-and-drop facility built into UpdraftPlus (versions 1.5.10 and upwards):

Otherwise, if you really like doing things by hand (or wish to decrypt from the command-line), then use the file example-decrypt.php found in the plugin directory; that will need very (very) minor PHP knowledge to use; find your local PHP guru, or buy support from our shop.

Nothing, probably. That’s the point of an encryption key – people who don’t have it can’t get the data. Hire an encryption expert to build a very large computer to try to break the encryption by brute force, at a price.

So, remember to keep your encryption key stored safely so that you won’t have this problem.

Don’t panic. If you have access to your backed files (i.e. you have the emailed copies, or have obtained the backed up copies directly from Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, FTP or whatever store you were using), then you simply need to unzip them into the right places. These are all basic operations and not difficult – if you don’t have anyone who can help at hand or if you just want a quick solution, then you can buy a support package from our shop.

Note: There are a tiny minority of users, inexperienced with WordPress backups, who decide to go the do-it-yourself route to save themselves a few dollars, but they make beginners’ mistakes (which is understandable) and then decide to send us nasty-o-grams about it – which is less understandable. Trust us, the procedure below is tried-and-tested; we have  done it over a hundred times. We’re sure that you are not one of those users. But if you meet one, then please just ask them not to.

Just do this:

1. Unpack a fresh copy of WordPress.

Unless you purchased the “more files” add-on, UpdraftPlus does not back up the WordPress core – you can just get a fresh copy of that from www.wordpress.org. So, if you are starting from nothing, then first download and unzip a WordPress zip from wordpress.org/download. (If you did purchase the add-on, then you can skip from here to step 2., and just make sure you unpack the wpcore zip first at that stage).

You will also need to set up a new wp-config.php file, by editing and renaming the wp-config-sample.php file that is included in WordPress, so that it contains your proper database details. Don’t access WordPress itself in your browser until you’ve finished this entire procedure, though – edit wp-config.php in a text editor.

If your site is moving location (i.e. changing URL), then you may also want to add WP_HOME and WP_SITEURL parameters to the wp-config.php file. See here and here.

2. Unpack the plugins / uploads / etc.

After doing that, then unzip the backed-up zip files (i.e. the archives that UpdraftPlus created and stored) for your uploads, themes, plugins and other files back into the wp-content directory. If your access to your website is via FTP, then that means you would do this for each of the .zip files you have from UpdraftPlus:

1. Unzip the zip file on your computer.
2. Log in via FTP to your website’s hosting space, and move into the wp-content directory.
3. Copy the contents of the zip file via FTP into wp-content. If done correctly, then for the “plugins” backup, you will be copying over a folder called “plugins” into wp-content, so its final name is wp-content/plugins. (The “others” archive will not follow this pattern – it can have anything in it)

If you had the “more files” add-on, and have a “wpcore” zip, then unzip that one first. That is the zip that contains the “wp-content” directory that you’ll then be extracting the other zips into.

3. Import your database

Finally re-install the database. Your web hosting provider will almost certainly provide you with access to a database manager – often phpMyAdmin.

If your database was not stored with encryption, then you can simply click on the ‘Import’ function in your database manager, and upload the database file (the file which ends in db.gz). Then you are finished!

If your database needs decrypting (if the file name ends in gz.crypt) then you need to decrypt it before doing the above step. See this question here.

UpdraftPlus backs up your files into ordinary zip files (the same format that WordPress and its plugins and themes directories use). The database is backed up into an ordinary SQL (text) file.

Therefore you can use UpdraftPlus to restore backups, but do not have to. You do not even need WordPress installed. You can just unzip the zip files, and use your web hosting company’s control panel to import the SQL into your database.

See here for instructions.

We are committed, as a fundamental of UpdraftPlus’s design, to retain this situation. UpdraftPlus backups will always be something that you can restore with standard tools. There will be no proprietary lock-in.

SSL is a technology used to help you make sure that a) you really are communicating with the people you thought you were (authentication) and b) your communications with them cannot be eaves-dropped by others along the way (encryption).

SSL uses entities called “certificates” to enable these functions. These certificates have time limits upon them (so that if a bad guy manages to steal one, then it has a limited use).

For this to all work, it relies upon the right certificates existing in the right places. In particular, you need to be able to access a store of certificates up-to-date.

UpdraftPlus manages this by including certificates internally. However, if something goes wrong then you may see errors when UpdraftPlus tries to connect to cloud storage (e.g. Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud, Dropbox, Google Drive).

It is also possible that these errors mean that somebody really is trying to intercept and decode your communications. That’s what SSL errors are for – to alert you that something is wrong.

One step that you can take safely is to open UpdraftPlus’s “expert options” and activate the option for UpdraftPlus to use your web hosting company’s certificate store (instead of its own). Then try again. If the backup now succeeds, then you should inform us so that we can trace the problem.

If that fails, then you can also try the option to not verify the identity of remote sites. This means that you are turning off authentication. This lowers your security. It should only be done if you are comfortable with the risks (e.g. you are sure that the communications really are with Amazon S3, Dropbox, etc.).

Finally, you can also turn off SSL entirely, using another expert option. Note that this only works for certain transport methods (including Amazon S3 and FTP (for those who have the FTPS extension activate)). Some cloud storage providers (including Dropbox) require SSL, so your only solution with them is to fix your installation.

Expert options for SSL

Restoring parts of WordPress from inside WordPress always carries risks. Our aim is to reduce them as much as possible. If you are in doubt about anything, then remember that we sell a hands-on “we’ll do it for you” product in our shop, in the “Support” section. Remember: though we want UpdraftPlus to work as reliably as possible (that’s how we get customers), ultimately it is a do-it-yourself tool, that you are finally responsible for the use of. If you want to hold another person responsible, then first hire that person to do the job for you.

Anything to worry about?

Firstly, if your website and its backups are not large (measured in the tens of megabytes instead of the hundreds), and if you can directly access it (i.e. it is not walled behind a proxy service such as CloudFlare or GoDaddy’s “DNS Preview”), then it is likely that you can stop reading now (although if you are restoring a site to a different address (URL), then see the note below). Even the most resource-starved of web hosting companies will be giving you enough resources so that you have nothing to worry about. If your website is under 200 megabytes, then you should still be fine as long as you have not economised with cheap, under-resourced web hosting (or been conned by high-priced hosts who sell you the same product with nicer branding!). You can also stop reading. Otherwise, read on.

Experts will do best by doing it manually

The safest and quickest way to restore WordPress is manually, from the shell (or via FTP if no shell is available). Why is it safer and quicker? Mainly because it is not subject to the time-outs that come when running inside a web browser, and also can run quicker. However, the manual way also requires the most technical skills. If you do have the skills, then there are no technical advantages to doing it inside UpdraftPlus instead of manually – only convenience. The instructions for manual restoration are here.

Mostly, there’s nothing to worry about

Don’t let the above paragraph worry you unduly. All restorations of plugins, themes, uploads and (where relevant – on WordPress Multisite) additional blogs and must-use plugins are done atomically. This means that it’s all or nothing – either the restoration will be entire/complete, or nothing will be restored. UpdraftPlus does this by unpacking the download, and then moving the entire folder into place at once. So, there’s almost no risk of anything going wrong with restoration of those entities. If you have the “more files” add-on, in order to back-up and restore WordPress core, then this restoration cannot be done completely atomically. The atomicity is per-directory within your WordPress root. i.e. Inside the directory that has WordPress in it, UpdraftPlus moves in one directory/file at a time. This is still very low risk; moving things is only done once the entire archive is unpacked (into temporary storage), and the consequent moving around is almost instantaneous.

Maximise your chances

To maximise the amount of time that WordPress is allowed to spend on any one operation, you should access your website directly if you can. If your website is on Cloudflare or another proxy service (e.g. GoDaddy’s “DNS Preview” service), then temporarily disable it. Many proxy services impose a time-out that is lower than your web hosting company’s own time-out.

The database

The main risk is when restoring a database upon under-powered cheap web hosting. The risk is larger the larger your site is. This cannot be done atomically. If it aborts mid-way (e.g. due to a time-out), then you will be left with a database which partially contains the old data and partially contains of the new. However, if you are restoring a database, then presumably either your old and new databases are very similar, or the site you are restoring to is not live (we can’t imagine how someone would be replacing a very different database on a live site). In order to maximise the amount of time you have available to complete a restoration, you can and should:

• Download all the objects to be restored (plugins, themes, database, etc.) before performing the restoration. Do this by clicking the relevant buttons in the “Restore” panel. A future version of UpdraftPlus is planned to do this automatically.
• If any of the entities you are restoring are particularly large, then do them separately. i.e. First restore the plugins, then do a separate restoration of the themes, then of uploads, etc. If you do this, then don’t be surprised to see various errors on your site in the intermediate stages, when only some things and not others have been restored. Wait until everything is restored before looking at them – and (this is important) – restore the database last. (And when you restore your plugins, we expect that your backup also had UpdraftPlus in it – but if it did not, then don’t be surprised if UpdraftPlus disappears immediately upon restoring plugins;  just install it again after doing so).

Restoring from scratch?

If you are restoring from scratch, and do not have the “More Files” add-on, then remember to set up the parameters in your wp-config.php file.

Restoring to a different address?

If you are restoring your WordPress site to a different address (URL), then UpdraftPlus will all you to do so. (e.g. if you use the built-in importer to drag in files from another WordPress installation). However, remember that the WordPress database contains various references to the site’s own address, and you will experience breakage unless you update these. In future UpdraftPlus will have an add-on for this – and all buyers of UpdraftPlus Premiun will automatically receive it when it is released. But for now, there’s http://interconnectit.com/products/search-and-replace-for-wordpress-databases. Use at your own risk, of course, as with all software!

Quick link: Go to the UpdraftPlus shop to find the Migrator add-on, or UpdraftPlus Premium.

If you have the “Migrator” add-on (or UpdraftPlus Premium, which includes all add-ons), then when you restore a site, you will be given the option to “Search and replace site location in the database”:

Migrating a database

What does this option do? If selected, then after restoring your database, it will then perform a search-and-replace operation upon it. It will first look up the address that the site was living at (i.e. the site whose database you are restoring). Then, it will replace all instances of that location in the database with your site’s new address.

This is a vital step if you are migrating a site from one location (URL) to another. For example, if you are moving a site from your development location – e.g. http://localhost/testsite to your live location – e.g. http://example.com – then after copying all the files and database, you then need to search/replace the database to reflect the new location. If you do not, then your site, though sitting at the “new” location, will contain lots of references to the “old” one. This can cause confusion and bugs. Most professional WordPress developers use the tried-and-tested “searchandreplacedb2.php” script to accomplish this task. UpdraftPlus includes the same code as its own search-and-replace engine to give you the same reliability.

So, in summary, here is how to migrate/clone a site from one location where WordPress is installed to another:

1. Make sure that the new site (destination) has UpdraftPlus and the “Migrator” add-on installed (either stand-alone, or via UpdraftPlus Premium). (You can get these products from our shop, here).
2. Create a backup on the original (old) site.
3. Import the backup into the new site, by dragging and dropping:
4. After the upload has finished, use the “Restore” button on the new site to begin a “restoration” using the backup set that you just uploaded. Make sure that you tick the “search and replace” button when doing so. That’s all!

You can see a fuller walk-through, with many more screenshots, here.

This question is about cloning or migrating your site to a different URL, using UpdraftPlus’s “migrator” add-on (which is part of UpdraftPlus Premium). It is not about restoring your site into the same webspace it was in before. Migrating is especially useful if you want to clone a site for testing, or move to new hosting and test before you make the new version live, and many other similar scenarios.

In the example below, we are migrating into a completely empty WordPress site. However, you can migrate into an existing site – for example, if you are updating a development/test version of your website with a new upload. If you’re doing that, then you’ll be able to skip a few of the steps below.

We also assume that you have created a backup of your old site, and have got the backup files at hand. Got that? Then let’s go!

By the way – before you begin, try to turn off any proxies that are between you and your site, such as Cloudflare, GoDaddy’s “Preview DNS” proxy, or Opera Turbo/Road mode. These can all get in the way. Also, cacheing and minifying plugins are a common cause of migration problems (whatever method you use). Disable all of those before you create your backup – or alternatively, just be ready to turn them off if the migration stumbles.

1. Starting with an empty WordPress install which we’ve just made:

Starting with an empty WordPress install

Here’s the front end of the site – just what you always see on a fresh WordPress 3.5 install:

An empty WordPress install

Note: If you are using a WordPress Network/Multisite install (you’ll know if you do – the setup instructions are not easy), then  you’ll need to first set up the second site as a network – this is not done for you. The Migrator is designed to migrate between equivalent sites (i.e. normal install to normal install, or network to network), but not from one type to another.

2. Install/Activate UpdraftPlus and the Migrator

The next step is to install and activate UpdraftPlus, of course. If you don’t remember how to do that, then go here.

You’ll also want to install UpdraftPlus Premium, or the stand-alone “Migrator” add-on (depending on which you bought) – instructions for that are here.

Install UpdraftPlus

3. Upload your backup files into UpdraftPlus

Next you’ll need to upload your backup files into UpdraftPlus. To do this, go to the settings page, click on “Restore” and then click on “upload backups files”.

Begin to upload your backup files

Then, you can drag-and-drop your backup files in:

Drag and drop your backup files in

You should then see them each upload:

Uploading your backup set

Alternatively, you can manually copy (e.g. via FTP) your backup files into the directory wp-content/updraft in the WordPress install, and click on “Rescan folder for new backup sets”.

4. Press “Restore”

When the upload has finished, you will be able to press the “Restore” button for the backup set which you just uploaded:

5. Select all the components to restore, and press “Restore”

If you are restoring from nothing, then you will want to check all the boxes, to restore every part of your site. Then press “Restore”.

Important: Since this is a migration, you will want to also check the “Search and replace site location in the database” option. This option is what will instruct UpdraftPlus to fix everything in your database for your new location (URL).

Selecting the components to restore

Are you curious as to why UpdraftPlus does not ask you to type in any old or new site URLs for the search & replace? That’s easy – it already knows the new site URL (because it knows what site you’re visiting the dashboard for), and it can get the old site URL out of your database backup.

6. Watch the restoration succeed!

UpdraftPlus will then run the restoration and migration. You can watch the progress:

Restoration in progress

After restoring the database, it will then go through it to perform the search-and-replace of your old and new site URLs:

Database migration progress

At the bottom of the screen, hopefully you’ll get the “Restore successful!” message, and the option to return to the main UpdraftPlus page:

All successful!

If you do return to the WordPress dashboard, then don’t be surprised if you have to log in again – having replaced your site database, WordPress may need you to re-identify yourself:

Logging in again

Success!

Now, we visit the front end of the site, and it’s all migrated – what a beautiful website!

Everything is migrated!

Didn’t work?

If something went wrong, then don’t panic – it may be easy to fix. Even if it’s not, then there’s still nothing to worry about – the UpdraftPlus backup files are just standard zip and SQL files which can be used to restore your site another way. However, before you give up, do try looking in your web server’s error logs, and turn on WP_DEBUG in wp-config.php. Also, cacheing and minifying plugins are a common cause of migration failures – so disable any of those and see if that helps (either through the dashboard, or via renaming their directories inside wp-content/plugins).

Migrations not working first time is not a sign of something hugely wrong. WordPress is a big, complex beast. The above procedure works 95% of the time. If you find out a way that we can make a failed migration work for you, then please just let us know.

This question is only relevant if you have the “More Files” add-on (or UpdraftPlus Premium, which includes all add-ons).

If you are restoring a site, and restoring WordPress core as part of that restoration, then you will be asked if you wish to include wp-config.php in your restoration:

Option to restore wp-config.php

What is wp-config.php? It is the WordPress configuration file. You can read about it in the official WordPress documentation, here.

It tells WordPress how to find its database. As such, it is a critical file. It can also contain various other settings that control WordPress’s behaviour, e.g. your language setting if you are not using the default language.

Should you include it in your restoration? It is always safe not to - if you do not select this option, then UpdraftPlus will leave wp-config.php alone, but restore the backup as wp-config-frombackup.php. You can then look at the differences (if any) between the two by hand, and tweak them at your leisure.

However, i you are using the same database as was being used when you backed-up, then generally, yes, it is safe. wp-config.php may contain settings placed there by other plugins that you will want to retain. However, if you are using a different database (e.g. this is a new installation, or you had to create a new one for some other reason), then restoring wp-config.php will break your site – because, after restoration, WordPress will be looking in the wrong place for its database.

The rule of thumb is: if in doubt, then don’t; especially if you are not confident about editing wp-config.php yourself if you make a mistake. All you are likely to lose is a few settings which you can easily restore. However, if something does go wrong then don’t panic – editing wp-config.php is actually very easy, and if you’re not confident yourself then you should easily be able to find someone to do it for you.

Go here.

It means that you wrongly copied across the URL shown in your admin console to Google Drive at the relevant step. Please return to the relevant step of the instructions and try again.

SSL is a technology used to help you make sure that a) you really are communicating with the people you thought you were (authentication) and b) your communications with them cannot be eaves-dropped by others along the way (encryption).

SSL uses entities called “certificates” to enable these functions. These certificates have time limits upon them (so that if a bad guy manages to steal one, then it has a limited use).

For this to all work, it relies upon the right certificates existing in the right places. In particular, you need to be able to access a store of certificates up-to-date.

UpdraftPlus manages this by including certificates internally. However, if something goes wrong then you may see errors when UpdraftPlus tries to connect to cloud storage (e.g. Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud, Dropbox, Google Drive).

It is also possible that these errors mean that somebody really is trying to intercept and decode your communications. That’s what SSL errors are for – to alert you that something is wrong.

One step that you can take safely is to open UpdraftPlus’s “expert options” and activate the option for UpdraftPlus to use your web hosting company’s certificate store (instead of its own). Then try again. If the backup now succeeds, then you should inform us so that we can trace the problem.

If that fails, then you can also try the option to not verify the identity of remote sites. This means that you are turning off authentication. This lowers your security. It should only be done if you are comfortable with the risks (e.g. you are sure that the communications really are with Amazon S3, Dropbox, etc.).

Finally, you can also turn off SSL entirely, using another expert option. Note that this only works for certain transport methods (including Amazon S3 and FTP (for those who have the FTPS extension activate)). Some cloud storage providers (including Dropbox) require SSL, so your only solution with them is to fix your installation.

Expert options for SSL

This question is only interesting or relevant if a) you do not have an “unlimited” hosting plan and b) you are already using more than (approximately) 25% of your web hosting plan’s web space.

The very short answer is, theoretically, up to two-thirds (i.e. twice as much free space available as is already used). This answer is not something unique to UpdraftPlus, but is the case for backup plugins generally, if they are based on WordPress on a modern web hosting platform.

Here is a longer explanation to help you evaluate your particular case and give more technical details:

If you are dispatching your backups to the cloud (e.g. Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, Rackspace, FTP, WebDAV), then some space is still needed within your web hosting account to create the backup, before it is then sent off to the cloud.

Backups are created as zip archives, which are compressed. So it’s not possible to predict exactly how much will be needed (because some resources can be compressed more than others). It will never be more than your existing usage. The larger your site is, the more likely it is that most of your space is used by already-compressed resources (e.g. graphics, videos, audio), and the closer the amounts for “needed space for backup” to “spaced used by your website” will be. For small sites, with few uploaded resources, the ratios will be much less – since much of your usage will be for WordPress itself, which isn’t normally backed up (since you can get another one from wordpress.org), and which even if you are backing it up is mostly easy to compress.

However, there is another factor involved. UpdraftPlus, being written in the PHP programming language (as is WordPress itself), uses PHP’s facilities for creating zip files. When creating a zip file, PHP can internally create a temporary zip file, which can be as large as the resulting zip itself. As a result, it’s mathematically possible, if you back up everything, to need at least two-thirds / 67% free space in your web hosting account in order to produce a backup. (One third is used by your site; another third is used temporarily by PHP in producing the zip file that UpdraftPlus requests of it; and another third is used by the zip file itself).

If your web hosting setup lacks resources, then it is furthermore possible for some of these temporary files to be left behind. If your web hosting server, in order to manage resources, kills off the PHP process before it finishes, then the temporary file will remain until is cleared up manually by UpdraftPlus, once the archive is completely created, or if that happens then usually 12 hours later. This can really boost the amount of disk space you need for things to complete successfully, especially if it happens multiple times. If you have a resource-limited web hosting provider, plus a small disk space allowance, then that’s an unpleasant combination. Unfortunately the PHP engine does not advise its users (in this case, UpdraftPlus) as to where it put its temporary files, so UpdraftPlus just has to do its best to clear up what it can find, after the event.

If you are not dispatching your backups to the cloud (why not? Are you expecting any hackers to be so kind as to not touch your backups, or your hosting company never to go bust or have an accident?), or if you are leaving backups behind on the server (i.e. if you changed the Expert Option for this), then you will of course need further resources, for each backup set that remains on the server.

This is symptomatic of your web hosting account being full. i.e. Your have reached the disk space usage limit on your web hosting package.

See also this FAQ for more information about disk space usage within UpdraftPlus.

LiteSpeed appears to have problems with all WordPress scheduled tasks that last more than a very short time – including all backup plugins. Adding this in an early position in the .htaccess file in your WordPress root folder may fix the problem:

RewriteRule ^$ - [E=noabort:1]

Adding the above line will make the LiteSpeed warning on UpdraftPlus’s settings page go away – this does not mean that the problem is definitely fixed; you will only know that via testing. If the above does not help, then you can try this: use WordPress’s alternative scheduling system – instructions here. The instructions amount to one thing: add a line to your wp-config.php file as follows:

define('ALTERNATE_WP_CRON', true);

If that does not help you, then you’ll need the help of your web hosting company to see why WordPress’s scheduler isn’t working on their setup, or is terminating it prematurely. Or failing that, you’ll need a different web hosting company. This problem is a generic one affecting all backup plugins on WordPress that run via the scheduler (which is all of them, as far as we know).

Google recently (first half of 2013) changed their permissions setup. Specifically, the permission which UpdraftPlus was using to download backups (and thence to restore them) no longer enables it to do so.

To fix this, you need to:

1) Update to UpdraftPlus version 1.6.1 or later.

2) Click on the link to “Authenticate with Google”, down in the “Google Drive” settings section.

Authenticate with Google

You will then be able to re-authenticate with Google, gaining the new permissions needed to download your backup files within UpdraftPlus.

Granting Permissions to UpdraftPlus to use Google Drive

(That looks like a few more permissions that a backup program should need, right? We agree – our Google Drive support carries some legacy cruft in the code that will be pruned – but we are waiting for Google Drive to settle down, and for the available toolkits to mature, before we dive in, rather than overhauling it now and then having to do it again in the near future. Since UpdraftPlus is written in PHP, anyone can read the code to verify that UpdraftPlus does nothing more with Google Drive than upload and download its own backup files).