Backup will not complete

Hey there –

Sorry about the delay in getting back with you – was hit with a nasty Spring cold ??

@jimmydotorg – this sounds like there might be a file upload or file limit somewhere that’s interceding in the zipped file creation. If you wanted to connect to our support desk directly I might be able to see more server and site information that would help us in troubleshooting this for you?

You can follow this guide on how to do so: https://bwp.hmn.md/knowledge-base/how-to-enable-support/

Just be sure to click on the ‘support’ button again after enabling to send us a message. When you do that just remind me of your issue (or just link to this post) and I’ll be happy to help you troubleshoot.

Thanks and sorry for the trouble you’re having,
Kat

Can you direct me to a guide or two that I can use to troubleshoot this issue?

Hey there @jimmydotorg –

The Knowledge Base link I included above will help with some of this, but the Knowledge Base will be a good first step for you anyway. https://bwp.hmn.md/knowledge-base/

Kat

I have not found any information about this issue at the two links provided. One is how to push a button on the website and the other is your entire knowledgebase. Surely I’m not the first person with this issue. How did you resolve this for others?

Same problem here. Excluding wp-content/uploads helped. But still, this should be possible to backup too, and it’s unclear what the problem is.

I did run excludes that limited the backup to under 400MB and it did work. They have added audio files and that quickly pushed the site to over 400. Excluding content, however, is the opposite of why I back up. I can always clean install WordPress, but it’s the daily content that would be impossible to replace. Kind of defeats the purpose of BackUpWordPress.

If backups are completing after you’ve excluded your uploads, and/or other large directories, this is usually an indication that your server is struggling to complete the backup.

This means that your server begins the backup process but gets killed before the backup can complete. This can be due to timeouts on your server, such as the PHP max_execution_time, but also some hosts enforce max CPU timeouts. When the backup script hits these limits the script is killed.

It’s not a permanent solution to have your uploads excluded from the backup as they’re typically important parts of your site.

You have a couple different paths to correct this issue and hopefully get those backups completing.

Increase your server limits

In your php.ini (If you’re not sure how to make changes to your php.ini, your host may have more information to help you.) try making sure the following values are set to at least these minimums. If you have a large site think of increasing them further. (Contact your host to find out if they enforce PHP or CPU max timeouts).

• memory_limit = 256M
• max_execution_time = 120
• max_input_time = 120

Check on Unix Zip Command
If you’re hosted on a Linux machine, check with your host that the Unix ZIP Command is installed on the server as this is the most performant method of creating backups. Ensure that it is available for the plugin to use and not blocked in some way.

Split your backups to reduce server load

You can split your backup into two (or more) different schedules. Click here for more details.

Additionally, consider the following:

Store any of your sites files that are non-essential at a third party location, and exclude them from the backup. You can take this as far as storing old uploads directories, for example, storing your uploads from 2014 & older on a third party location, and then excluding them from future backups.

Let me know if the above info helped you get any successful backup going or if I might need to go in and take a look to try and help troubleshoot further, okay?

Thanks!
Kat