Site backing up 3-4 times every day, can’t make it stop

Hello @pinecones –

Thanks for the question, I can see how these constant backups taking down your server are a big problem.

It sounds like there’s two major issues to tackle- first, that the backups are happening all the time off-schedule, and second that they are still happening even after you’ve deleted the plugin.

For the second problem, it shouldn’t be possible at all for the plugin to continue making backups if you’ve already deactivated and deleted it. Are there any other websites on your server that might still be running the plugin? Perhaps a staging or development site?

I can imagine a situation where you’ve deleted the plugin, but the system’s Cron jobs weren’t deleted. Your web host may have a tool to configure Cron jobs, or you can use the crontab -e command using SSH to double-check. Even then, however, the plugin couldn’t possibly make backups if it had been deactivated, much less so if it was actually deleted.

For the issue of the unexpected backups, the most common cause of that is having the plugin configured to automatically back up the website before plugin and theme updates.

We have a troubleshooting article that goes over finding out what triggered an unexpected backup and how to configure backups before automatic updates.

Of course, neither of those help until we find out how the backups are still happening with the plugin deactivated. The only possibility I can think of for that is that there is another website on the server that’s still running the plugin.

Thanks for the quick reply. I only have 1 WP site. It’s just a small, simple personal business site with a shop. Nothing fancy. I own a second domain, but it exists only as a redirect to my new website and is not a WP website. It has no coding or files, just an automated redirect feature I set up in my cPanel.

My plugin page no longer shows Total Upkeep as a plugin. My WP Dashboard menu bar no longer shows Total Upkeep. As far as I can tell I deleted it successfully.

My cPanel does have a cron job tool. Frankly I’ve never heard of it though and don’t know how to use it.

Hi @pinecones

Thanks for the additional info!

It’s good to know that you have cPanel, that should help us to troubleshoot.

Using the cPanel File Manager, double-check that the plugin files are actually deleted by looking in wp-content/plugins/ for the folder boldgrid-backup. That folder should not exist if it was deleted successfully.

Using the Cron Jobs tool, look for any jobs that have boldgrid_backup in them, and if you see those go ahead and delete them.

Finally, double check the Domains and Sub-Domains menus to make sure that there’s not another WordPress site there.

Hi @pinecones

It’s been a little over a week since we heard back from you, so I’m marking this thread as resolved.

Please let us know if you’re still having trouble, we’re happy to help.