Log in to the UpdraftPlus ‘Settings’ tabs. You’ll see two scheduling options at the top of the page:
- File backup schedule (for scheduling the backup of ‘files’)
- Database backup schedule (for scheduling the backup of ‘databases’)
In free UpdraftPlus, you can schedule backups to run:
- Every 2 hours
- Every 4 hours
- Every 8 hours
- Daily
- Weekly
- Fortnightly
- Monthly
Click the screen shot below to zoom / see the scheduler in Free UpdraftPlus.
In UpdraftPlus Premium you have the same increments available to you (i.e. you can back up every 2, 4, 8 hours etc.) AND you can:
- Choose the specific time of day from which to start you backups. This is a useful way to reduce the load on your server i.e. by backing up during periods of low traffic.
- Back up incrementally. Tell UpdraftPlus to take full backups every x hours AND THEN take an incremental backup of changes on a different schedule. Backing up incrementally rather than always taking full backups is another great way to save server resources and disk space.
- Set complex schedules and retention rules. Watch the video below to see more.
What’s the recommended backup schedule?
How often you back up depends partially on how often your site changes. One of the most common schedules is weekly backups for files and daily backups for databases.
How can I ensure that UpdraftPlus doesn’t become congested with old backups?
UpdraftPlus allows you to select the maximum number of backups you want to retain at any time. Once this limit has been reached, the oldest backup will be deleted automatically.
You can set different limits for your files and databases. With UpdraftPlus Premium, and you can create ‘additional retention rules’ which allows you to specify which backups you wish to retain for longer, and which you wish to delete when your backup limit is reached.
