Built in backup

  • I understand everybody use WordPress in their own way, with different plugins, themes and so on. You can’t please everybody, right? But there is one feature that still after all these years baffles me that it doesn’t exist as a built in feature and that is a way to make a complete backup of a WordPress installation, with SQL-database and all. Maybe even checkboxes for “database”, “files” and so on. Doesn’t all of want to make backups and that way keep our installations a bit more safe?
    I know there are quite a bit of backup plugins out there, but I still haven’t found a single one that gets updated swift and regularly when needed, and has a good track record from the users. Correct me if I’m wrong, it is quite possible that I’ve missed/overlooked the backup plugin of my dreams, but I think that a built in backup feature would be something that most users would (or should) use.
    But back to my initial question/suggestion – why isn’t there a build in backup feature in WordPress?

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

  • it is quite possible that I’ve missed/overlooked the backup plugin of my dreams

    I am still new at all of this, but I would guess all the facts and factors behind there being “no backup plugin of our dreams”, as such, would be just as challenging (if not even more-so) for the WordPress Developers as for Plugin Authors. Something that works well in my particular configuration at the server and so on might or might not work at yours and/or to your personal satisfaction.

    Thread Starter Fizzgigg

    (@fizzgigg)

    I am not a programmer in any way, but can it really be that difficult to make a simple function that makes a SQL dump of the database, makes an archive (zip, rar or whatever) of the database and all files, and saves the archive on the server? Of course it has to be more to it than that, and maybe the backup in itself is easy but the restore that is a nightmare, but it still baffles me.

    Andrew Nevins

    (@anevins)

    WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support

    Database backups are more the responsibility of hosting providers than WordPress.

    I’m with Fixxgigg … if plugin developers can make backup solutions, so could the WP developers … surely they’re at least as good at programming?
    A built-in backup & restore is needed in the WP core because there’s no way to roll back any update (however minor) … and now more than ever because of the recently introduced automatic upgrades.
    I’d be entirely happy to have automatic upgrades if WordPress automatically created a backup first … so that if there’s a problem, I can go back to where it was working.

    Thread Starter Fizzgigg

    (@fizzgigg)

    +1 on that, davidmcc3.

    Andrew Nevins

    (@anevins)

    WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support

    @fizzgigg, Automatic upgrades can be deactivated if that’s what you’re worried about.

    catacaustic

    (@catacaustic)

    I am not a programmer in any way, but can it really be that difficult to make a simple function that makes a SQL dump of the database, makes an archive (zip, rar or whatever) of the database and all files, and saves the archive on the server?

    Yes, it is. It’s very very hard to do one universal function that will work everywhere. There’s a lot of considerations that need to be thought of for even the most basic application like that. Some examples are:

    There’s a lot of different versions of PHP that are supported, and no tall of them can do the same things. On top of that things like ZIP support are extensions that are installed when PHP is, and these are optional, so not every host has them installed or even available.

    If you notice how the backup pluigns work, each one does it it’s own way, and there’s still no one backup plugin that will work on every platform out there. With that many different solutions available from so many different authors with so many different resources to draw upon, and still nothing gives universal support… that’s a very big sign that it’s really not possible.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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