Tooltip TextWhen updating your WordPress core, plugin or theme, at some point you probably thought, “will these new updates break my site?”
The answer to this question is maybe. Confused? It largely depends on the plugins and themes that you currently have installed. If they are compatible with the latest version of WordPress, then updating them should not break your site. But if a core, plugin or theme is not compatible; post update, the chances of a broken site increase. As such, it is always best to always take a backup before updating.
You could choose to take your backups manually. However, this is not recommended as it is all too easy to simply forget to take regular backups or to mistakenly skip a step in the process. Instead we recommend making your backups automatic, so you are always up to date. When trying to update something on your site like a plugin or the WordPress core, you should first take a backup of the current plugins/core on your WordPress site before executing the update. UpdraftPlus has been designed to have a system that does just that – we call it ‘Automatic Backups.’
If you do decide to turn on automatic updates, then all your updates will run in the background and will no longer require permission. The Automatic Backups feature of UpdraftPlus Premium gives you additional peace of mind as It will take a backup before your updates automatically install.
Backups should be an essential part of a WordPress site as the site can be quickly restored if an updates causes unexpected errors. Should you ever need to restore your site, we highly recommend keeping your backup in a remote storage location. This has the additional benefit of saving you from any server crash or hosting issues. In the worst case scenario, this will enable you to quickly get your backups from the cloud and restore your site.
Automatic backup before an update using UpdraftPlus Premium
Once you have a copy of UpdraftPlus Premium installed on your WordPress site, you can start the automatic backup directly. There is no configuration setup needed for this feature.
Head over to your plugins page and select the plugin that you wish to update. For this example, we will update the Contact Form 7 plugin.
As soon as you hit the ‘update now’ link, you will see a pop-up. Keep the default options as they are and press the ‘Proceed with the update’ button.
UpdraftPlus will now start the process of carrying out an automatic backup. In this scenario, UpdraftPlus will first take a backup of all plugins before the Contact Form 7 plugin is updated. Similarly, when you update the WordPress core, UpdraftPlus first takes a backup of the existing WordPress core files and themes to ensure there is a secure backup should you need it. With every type of update a database backup is included, as this is an essential process.
While the backup is processing the WordPress update schedule will go on hold, but once the backup is complete, the update schedule will continue. In the next step, you will see your plugin updated to the latest version upon the completion of the process.
In the UpdraftPlus settings page, you will now see this new backup listed under the ‘Existing Backups’ list.
To differentiate this kind of backup from other regular backups, UpdraftPlus have added an ‘Automatic backup before update’ label below the backup date.
The overall idea is simple, take an update automatically before you update plugins, WordPress core or theme.
We hope this explains the importance of the Automatic Backup feature in UpdraftPlus Premium. Try it today and let us know your feedback in the comment section below.
