Which WordPress Files Should Backup: The Complete Guide to Protecting Your Website

Introduction

Which WordPress Files Should Backup: Complete Guide – Your WordPress website represents a significant investment of time, money, and creative effort. Whether you’re running a small business blog, an e-commerce store, or a corporate platform, the thought of losing everything to a server crash, hacking incident, or accidental deletion should send chills down your spine. Yet countless website owners operate without a robust backup strategy, leaving their digital assets vulnerable to catastrophic loss.

The reality is stark: which WordPress files should backup is one of the most critical questions every site owner must answer. Many people assume that a complete backup means copying their entire WordPress installation, but the truth is far more nuanced. Not every file in your WordPress directory carries the same importance, and understanding the distinction between essential and supplementary files will shape how you approach your backup strategy.

This guide addresses a question I’ve encountered from hundreds of website owners over the years: what exactly needs to be protected, and how do you do it correctly? The answer isn’t simply “backup everything.” A strategic approach to backups focuses on the files that truly matter—your database, configuration files, custom content, and installed plugins and themes. When you understand which WordPress files should backup, you can implement a more efficient backup system that protects your site without consuming excessive storage space or creating unnecessary redundancy.

Throughout this article, I’ll share real-world scenarios, practical troubleshooting steps, and expert recommendations based on years of WordPress administration experience. Whether you’re just starting your WordPress journey or managing a mature site, understanding which WordPress files should backup will fundamentally change how you approach website maintenance and disaster recovery.

Understanding WordPress File Structure and What Matters Most

Before diving into specific backup strategies, you need to understand how WordPress organizes itself. The WordPress installation directory contains several distinct components, and each plays a different role in your site’s operation.

The Core WordPress Folder: Located in your web root, this directory contains the essential WordPress application files—the PHP code that makes WordPress function. It includes subdirectories like /wp-admin, /wp-includes, and /wp-content. Among these, /wp-content is particularly important because it holds your uploads, plugins, and themes—the customizations that make your site unique.

The Database: This is arguably the most critical component of your entire WordPress installation. Your database stores every post, page, user account, comment, setting, and piece of metadata. Losing your database means losing your content, regardless of whether your files remain intact. This is why database backup is non-negotiable.

The wp-config.php File: This configuration file contains critical information about your database connection, security keys, and other essential settings. Losing this file means your WordPress installation becomes completely non-functional.

Understanding these components clarifies why the question “which WordPress files should backup” demands a strategic answer rather than a simple “backup everything” approach. A smart backup strategy focuses resources on protecting what truly matters while maintaining the ability to restore your site completely.

Which WordPress Files Should Backup: The Essential Components

Your WordPress Database: The Heart of Your Site

The WordPress database is absolutely non-negotiable when answering the question of which WordPress files should backup. Your database is not a file in the traditional sense—it’s a structured collection of data stored in MySQL or MariaDB—but it deserves first place on your backup priority list.

Inside your database lives everything that makes your WordPress site unique: every blog post and page you’ve written, all user accounts and their roles, every comment and ping, all your plugin settings and customizations, theme options, and custom post types. If your database vanishes, your entire site essentially disappears, regardless of whether all your PHP files remain intact on the server.

The database typically comprises 60-80% of what you truly need to recover from a complete site failure. I’ve seen website owners stress about backing up every single PHP file in their WordPress installation, only to neglect the database backup that would actually allow them to restore their site. This backwards approach leaves them vulnerable to the very scenario they fear most.

When establishing which WordPress files should backup, always begin with a database backup strategy. Most hosting providers offer automated daily database backups through cPanel or their control panel. However, relying solely on your host’s backups means you’re trusting them with your only copy of critical data. A prudent approach involves both relying on host backups and maintaining your own backups stored in a separate location, such as cloud storage or your local computer.

Why this matters in practice: A WordPress database that grows to 500MB or larger can take several minutes to backup manually, but automated solutions handle this seamlessly. An e-commerce site might have a database that contains product information, order history, and customer data—losing this information could mean losing months of sales records and customer relationships.

The wp-config.php File: Your Site’s Configuration Nerve Center

Next on the priority list when determining which WordPress files should backup is your wp-config.php file. This single file contains the credentials your WordPress installation uses to communicate with its database, authentication keys that secure your logged-in sessions, and other essential configuration constants.

Your wp-config.php sits in the root directory of your WordPress installation (usually just above the /wp-content folder). It’s a relatively small file—typically just a few kilobytes—but it’s absolutely essential. Without it, WordPress cannot connect to its database, and your site becomes completely non-functional, displaying nothing but error messages.

The file contains sensitive information including your database name, database username, database password, and security salt keys. This makes wp-config.php both critically important and something you should handle with care. When backing up this file, ensure your backups are stored securely and not exposed publicly on your website.

Understanding this aspect of which WordPress files should backup reveals an important principle: sometimes the most critical files are those with the highest security and sensitivity. A lost wp-config.php file means you cannot immediately restore your site—you’d need to recreate these credentials from scratch, which requires database access and technical knowledge.

The wp-content Directory: Where Customization Lives

The /wp-content directory is arguably the most important folder within your WordPress installation when considering which WordPress files should backup. This folder contains three crucial subdirectories that deserve individual attention.

The uploads folder (/wp-content/uploads) contains all the media files you’ve added to your site through the WordPress media library. Every image, PDF, video, and document you’ve uploaded lives here. For most websites, this folder grows continuously and represents the majority of your website’s file storage. A photography portfolio site might have uploads totaling several gigabytes, while a typical business blog might have uploads totaling hundreds of megabytes.

The plugins folder (/wp-content/plugins) contains every plugin you’ve installed beyond what comes with WordPress. While you could theoretically reinstall plugins from WordPress.org or your premium plugin providers, backing up this folder ensures you have exact copies of your plugin configurations, which include all your saved settings.

The themes folder (/wp-content/themes) contains every theme installed on your site. Like plugins, custom themes or heavily modified child themes are worth backing up because reinstalling them doesn’t restore your customizations.

When you backup the entire /wp-content directory, you’re protecting the visual presentation of your site, your media library, and your installed extensions. This is essential insurance against plugin conflicts, corrupted themes, or lost media files.

The WordPress Core Files: Use with Strategic Thinking

Here’s where the “which WordPress files should backup” question becomes more nuanced. The WordPress core files—the PHP files that make WordPress function—are technically part of your installation, but they don’t need the same backup priority as your database and configuration.

The core WordPress files (/wp-admin, /wp-includes, and the root-level WordPress files like index.php, wp-load.php, etc.) can be replaced by downloading a fresh copy of WordPress at any time. These files don’t contain your custom content or configurations. A fresh WordPress installation from wordpress.org contains the exact same core files you’d restore from a backup.

However, there are scenarios where backing up core files makes sense. If you’ve modified core WordPress files directly (which is generally discouraged but sometimes happens), backing them up preserves those modifications. If you want to maintain exact version parity for troubleshooting purposes, having core files backed up can be useful.

For most websites, I recommend including core WordPress files in your backups primarily for completeness and to ensure a truly identical restoration if needed, but this isn’t the critical piece of your backup strategy. Focus your energy on database, configuration, and content backups—these provide the 95% protection you need.

Deciding What to Backup: A Strategic Framework

Now that we’ve covered the essential components, let’s address the practical question: which WordPress files should backup in your specific situation? The answer depends on your site’s nature, your technical comfort level, and your acceptable recovery time.

For Most Website Owners: The Three-Tier Approach

Tier 1: Critical (Back up always)

• WordPress database
• wp-config.php file
• .htaccess file (if you use URL rewrites)

Tier 2: Essential (Back up regularly)

• /wp-content directory (plugins, themes, uploads)
• wp-content/themes (all installed themes)
• wp-content/plugins (all installed plugins)

Tier 3: Optional (Back up occasionally)

• Core WordPress files (/wp-admin, /wp-includes)
• wp-settings.php and other root-level files

This three-tier framework simplifies the decision-making process around which WordPress files should backup. Your Tier 1 files can be backed up daily with minimal storage impact—a database backup rarely exceeds 100MB unless you have extensive content or poorly optimized tables. Tier 2 files should be backed up weekly, and Tier 3 files can be backed up monthly or even skipped entirely if storage is limited.

For E-commerce Sites: Extended Backup Priorities

E-commerce sites running WooCommerce or similar platforms have additional considerations when determining which WordPress files should backup. Beyond the standard recommendations, e-commerce sites should prioritize:

• Database backups become even more critical because they contain your entire product catalog, pricing information, tax settings, and order history
• The /wp-content/uploads folder deserves special attention because product images cannot be easily recreated
• Custom payment gateway configurations stored in your database
• Inventory tracking data and customer information

For an e-commerce operation, losing your database could mean more than just losing content—it could mean losing sales records, customer details, and the ability to fulfill existing orders. This makes e-commerce database backups worthy of daily frequency and multiple redundant copies.

How to Backup Which WordPress Files: The Implementation Methods

Understanding which WordPress files should backup is only half the battle. You also need reliable methods to actually perform those backups. Several approaches range from simple to sophisticated.

Manual Backups via FTP/SFTP

For the technically inclined, manual backups using FTP or SFTP provide complete control over exactly which WordPress files should backup. This method involves:

Step 1: Connect to your server using an FTP client like FileZilla or Cyberduck. Use SFTP (the secure version) whenever possible for better protection.

Step 2: Navigate to your WordPress installation directory and selectively download the folders you’ve identified as critical: the /wp-content folder and any other essential directories.

Step 3: Separately export your WordPress database using phpMyAdmin or a command-line tool like mysqldump.

Step 4: Store these files locally on your computer or cloud storage service.

The advantage of manual backups is complete control—you decide precisely which WordPress files should backup and can optimize for your specific situation. The disadvantage is that manual backups require discipline and consistency. It’s easy to forget, and there’s no automation to ensure regular backups.

Many WordPress owners who start with manual backups eventually realize they need automation because maintaining a consistent backup schedule manually becomes burdensome. I’ve seen sites where backups were performed religiously for three months, then skipped for six months because life got busy.

Automated Backups via Backup Plugins

Most WordPress site owners benefit enormously from backup plugins, which automate the decision about which WordPress files should backup and execute those backups on a schedule you define.

UpdraftPlus stands out as one of the most popular options. It offers straightforward configuration—you select what to backup (database, plugins, themes, uploads, etc.), set a schedule (daily, weekly, monthly), and choose a destination (your local storage, Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, etc.). The free version handles basic backup needs, while the premium version adds advanced features like incremental backups and easier restoration.

BackWPup provides similar functionality with a different interface. It’s particularly appreciated by users who prefer open-source solutions and offers extensive scheduling flexibility and multiple storage options.

Duplicator approaches backups differently, creating complete site snapshots (migration packages) that simplify not just restoration but also site migration. If you might move your site to different hosting, Duplicator’s approach has real advantages.

When using backup plugins, the plugin handles the technical details of determining which WordPress files should backup—you simply configure your preferences. Most plugins default to backing up everything, which provides maximum protection at the cost of larger backup files. You can usually configure plugins to skip certain directories, such as excluding cached files that don’t need backup.

The advantage of automation: Backups happen reliably on your schedule, typically overnight when your site receives minimal traffic. You never need to think about backup manually—the plugin manages everything.

The advantage for backup strategy: Backup plugins typically offer graduated backup retention. You might keep daily backups for the past week, weekly backups for the past month, and monthly backups for the past year. This balanced approach answers which WordPress files should backup by maintaining multiple recovery points without excessive storage consumption.

Hosting Provider Backups

Many managed hosting providers automatically backup your entire server, including your WordPress installation, database, and files. This seems like a perfect answer to which WordPress files should backup—the host does it automatically, right?

Hosting provider backups offer several important benefits. They’re typically offsite (stored on the host’s infrastructure), they’re automated, and they often include features like incremental backups that minimize storage requirements. However, relying solely on hosting backups carries risks.

Risk 1: Accessibility: If your host goes out of business or suffers a catastrophic failure affecting both live servers and backup servers, your backups might be inaccessible. While this is rare, it happens. A hosting provider’s bankruptcy or data center failure could leave you without both your live site and backup copies.

Risk 2: Recovery time: Requesting a full site restoration from your hosting provider typically requires support tickets, which might take hours or days. If you have a critical issue and need immediate restoration, waiting for support staff to restore your backup wastes valuable time.

Risk 3: Restoration limitations: Some hosts restore backups to your current location only, meaning they replace your existing files. If you need to restore specific files or restore to a previous version while keeping your current version, you might lack that flexibility.

Risk 4: Data privacy: Your backups stored with your hosting provider are accessible by their staff. If you handle sensitive customer data or private information, consider whether you’re comfortable with this arrangement.

For these reasons, hosting provider backups should supplement your backup strategy rather than replace it. They provide valuable redundancy, but maintaining your own offsite backups answers which WordPress files should backup with greater security and flexibility.

Best Practices for WordPress Backup Strategy

Once you’ve decided which WordPress files should backup and chosen your backup method, implementing best practices ensures your backups actually save you when disaster strikes.

Establish a Redundancy Strategy

Never rely on a single backup solution. Redundancy in backups means maintaining multiple independent copies. Consider this practical approach:

Primary backup: An automated daily backup using a plugin like UpdraftPlus, stored to cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox. This ensures your recent backups are always available and easily downloadable.

Secondary backup: Your hosting provider’s automated backups (if available) or a separate backup plugin with a different storage destination.

Tertiary backup: A monthly manual backup downloaded to your local computer and external hard drive.

This three-layered approach ensures that no single point of failure can leave you without backups. If your plugin fails, your hosting provider backups exist. If your hosting provider experiences an issue, your personal backups on external storage remain accessible.

Test Your Backups Regularly

A backup that hasn’t been tested isn’t a backup—it’s just data taking up space. Testing your backups involves periodically restoring a backup to verify that it’s actually functional.

Monthly testing routine: On a monthly basis, use your backup plugin to restore your site to a staging environment (a copy of your site not accessible to the public). Verify that:

• All pages load correctly
• Your database queries function properly
• Plugins activate without errors
• Theme customizations display correctly
• Images in the media library appear

This process typically takes 15-30 minutes and provides immense peace of mind. I’ve encountered backup files that were corrupted or incomplete but hadn’t been discovered because no one had actually tested them. The time to discover a backup problem is not when you desperately need to restore your live site.

Implement Appropriate Backup Frequency

The frequency of backups should match your site’s update rate and your tolerance for data loss.

Daily backups suit sites with frequent updates: blogs posting multiple times daily, e-commerce sites with active inventory management, or news sites with continuous content additions.

Weekly backups work for most small business and corporate sites that update less frequently but still warrant regular protection.

Monthly backups suffice only for static sites with minimal content changes.

Also consider backup retention—how long you keep old backups. Many backup plugins let you configure retention policies automatically. A reasonable approach maintains:

• 7-10 daily backups (roughly two weeks of daily backups)
• 4 weekly backups (roughly one month of weekly snapshots)
• 12 monthly backups (one year of historical snapshots)

This balances backup storage consumption against the ability to recover from issues that might not be immediately noticed. If you discover a problem that’s existed for two weeks, you’ll want a backup from before those two weeks, making older backups valuable.

Monitor Backup Success

Set up notifications from your backup plugin to alert you immediately if a backup fails. Most modern backup plugins offer email notifications—enable these and actually read them when they arrive.

Failed backups happen for various reasons: insufficient disk space, database locks, timeout issues, or storage destination problems. If your backup notifications start reporting failures, investigate immediately rather than assuming “it’ll fix itself next time.”

Common Backup Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Understanding which WordPress files should backup isn’t just about knowing what to include—it’s also about avoiding common pitfalls that undermine backup effectiveness.

Mistake 1: Backing Up Cache Files

WordPress generates cache files in various directories—page caches, object caches, and query caches. Backing up these cache files wastes storage space because they’re temporary and can be regenerated when needed.

Solution: Configure your backup plugin to exclude cache directories. For example:

• Skip WP Super Cache plugin cache directories
• Exclude W3 Total Cache directories
• Exclude any folder named cache in wp-content

These exclusions reduce backup file size significantly without sacrificing protection of what actually matters.

Mistake 2: Neglecting Database Optimization

As your WordPress site ages, your database accumulates excess data—post revisions, trashed items, spam comments, and orphaned database entries. A bloated database creates larger backup files and slower backup processes.

Before establishing your backup routine, optimize your database using a plugin like WP-Optimize. Remove unnecessary post revisions, trashed posts, unapproved comments, and other clutter. This can reduce database size by 20-40%, which translates directly to faster and smaller backups.

Mistake 3: Storing Backups Only on Server

Some backup solutions store backups on the same server as your WordPress installation. This provides almost no protection because a server failure, hacking incident, or data center outage could destroy both your live site and your backups.

Solution: Always store backups remotely, separate from your web server. Options include:

• Cloud storage services (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Amazon S3)
• External hard drives kept physically separate from your office
• Dedicated backup services like Backblaze or Crashplan

Remote backup storage ensures that a server problem doesn’t eliminate both your live site and your ability to recover.

Mistake 4: Ignoring Backup Size Growth

Monitor your backup file size over time. Backups that grow too large become cumbersome to download and restore. Unusual growth often signals database bloat or accumulation of unnecessary files.

If backups grow from 500MB to 2GB over six months, investigate why. Usually you’ll find:

• Unoptimized images in the media library (compress or delete unused images)
• Plugin activity logs accumulating in the database (check plugin settings)
• Spam or trashed content not being purged
• Video or file uploads dramatically increasing storage needs

Address the underlying cause rather than just accepting ever-growing backup sizes.

Mistake 5: Not Documenting Restoration Procedures

When disaster strikes and you need to restore, you won’t want to figure out the process under stress. Document your specific restoration steps beforehand.

Create a simple document including:

• Exact steps for accessing your backup files
• Your hosting provider’s restoration procedures
• URL patterns and domain configuration
• Administrative passwords and access methods (stored securely)
• Contact information for hosting support if you need assistance

This documentation becomes invaluable when restoring under pressure.

Advanced Backup Strategies for Complex Environments

For larger sites or specialized situations, standard backup approaches may need enhancement.

Incremental Backups for Large Sites

Sites with massive media libraries or extensive databases benefit from incremental backup strategies. Instead of backing up every file daily, incremental backups only copy files that have changed since the last backup.

Plugins like UpdraftPlus Premium and BackWPup support incremental backups. Your first backup is a complete copy, then subsequent backups only include changed files. This dramatically reduces backup size and backup time for large sites.

For example, a site with a 5GB media library might create a 1GB full backup, then 50-100MB incremental backups daily. Over a week, this uses roughly 1.5GB storage instead of 7GB.

Database Replication for Mission-Critical Sites

If your site’s uptime and data integrity are essential for business operations, consider database replication in addition to traditional backups. Database replication maintains a real-time copy of your database on a separate server.

This goes beyond typical “which WordPress files should backup” strategy into high-availability infrastructure. Database replication combined with load balancing provides both redundancy and improved performance.

Multi-Region Backup Storage

For global audiences and maximum resilience, distribute backup copies across multiple geographic regions. Amazon S3 with cross-region replication, for example, maintains your backups in multiple AWS regions automatically.

This protects against regional outages—if one data center experiences catastrophic failure, your backups in other regions remain accessible.

Backing Up Specific Plugin Data and Configurations

Certain plugins maintain critical data that deserves special backup consideration beyond the standard database backup.

WooCommerce Backup Strategy

WooCommerce stores product information, customer data, and settings primarily in the database, so regular database backups protect your store. However, also backup:

• Product images in /wp-content/uploads/
• Any custom WooCommerce-related files added to your theme
• Export your products regularly as CSV for additional safeguards

Membership Plugin Protection

If using plugins like MemberPress or Restrict Content Pro:

• Database backups capture membership levels and restrictions
• Backup any custom membership-related code
• Maintain records of member information separately if needed for compliance

Custom Post Type Safeguards

Sites using custom post types through plugins like Advanced Custom Fields or Custom Post Type UI depend on database backups to protect post type definitions and custom field data. Regular database backups ensure this information survives server issues.

Restoration: Turning Backups into Reality

Understanding which WordPress files should backup only matters if you can actually restore them when needed. Each backup method has specific restoration procedures.

Restoring from Backup Plugins

Most backup plugins include built-in restoration interfaces. UpdraftPlus, for example, provides a simple “Restore” button in the WordPress admin dashboard. Clicking this button:

1. Prompts you to select which backup point to restore
2. Allows you to choose which components to restore (database, plugins, themes, uploads, etc.)
3. Executes the restoration automatically
4. Displays completion status and any warnings

For restoration from cloud storage, the process is equally straightforward—the plugin downloads your backup files from storage and reinstalls them.

Manual Restoration Process

If you’re restoring from manually downloaded files:

Step 1: Access your hosting control panel and use phpMyAdmin to drop your current database and import your backup SQL file.

Step 2: Via FTP, upload your backed-up files to your web root, overwriting existing files.

Step 3: Verify WordPress loads correctly and all content appears intact.

Step 4: Check plugin functionality and theme display.

Step 5: Verify media files display correctly.

This manual process takes longer but provides complete control over exactly which components you restore.

Understanding Backup Storage: Where Your Protection Lives

When you answer which WordPress files should backup, part of your answer involves where those backups actually reside.

Local Storage

Storing backups on your local computer or external hard drive provides maximum privacy and direct control. You can access backups without relying on third-party services. However, local storage requires discipline—you must physically manage external drives and ensure they’re kept safely separate from your office.

Best for: Privacy-conscious site owners, developers managing multiple sites, or anyone with unreliable internet connectivity affecting cloud uploads.

Cloud Storage

Storing backups in cloud services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3 provides convenience and redundancy. These services maintain backups in geographically distributed data centers, protecting against localized outages.

Best for: Most website owners who want automated, transparent backup management without physical storage equipment.

Hybrid Approach

Maintaining both cloud and local backups provides maximum flexibility. Automated cloud backups happen daily, ensuring you always have recent backups. Monthly downloads to external hard drives provide an offline copy protected against compromised cloud accounts or cloud service outages.

Expert Tips for WordPress Backup Success

Implement automated daily backups: Manual backups fail because people forget. Automation eliminates this failure point entirely.

Exclude unnecessary files: Configure backups to skip cache directories, wp-super-cache folders, and other temporary data that consumes space without value.

Test restoration quarterly: At least four times per year, restore a backup to a staging environment and verify complete functionality.

Document your backup system: Write down exactly which plugin you use, where backups are stored, backup frequency, and basic restoration steps.

Monitor backup notifications: Enable email alerts for backup failures and actually review them when they arrive.

Compress old backups: For long-term archival backups, compression can reduce storage requirements by 40-60%.

Keep backup credentials secure: If backups are stored in cloud services, treat authentication credentials with the same security as database passwords.

Review backup retention policies: Ensure your retention settings maintain enough historical backups to recover from issues that might not be immediately detected.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: How often should I backup my WordPress site?

Daily backups are recommended for most sites, especially those with frequent updates or e-commerce functionality. Weekly backups suffice for low-traffic sites with minimal content changes. The frequency should match your site’s update rate and your tolerance for data loss.

Q2: Do I really need to backup WordPress core files?

Core WordPress files can be redownloaded from wordpress.org, so backing them up isn’t strictly necessary. However, if you’ve customized core files (not recommended but sometimes done), backing them up preserves those modifications. For most sites, focus backup effort on database, configuration, and content files.

Q3: How large should my WordPress backup files be?

A typical WordPress site backup is 500MB to 2GB, depending on media library size and content volume. E-commerce sites often have larger backups. Monitor backup growth over time—unusual increases often signal database bloat or excessive media uploads.

Q4: Can I restore just my database without restoring files?

Yes, most backup plugins allow selective restoration. You can restore just the database, just uploaded files, just plugins, or any combination. This flexibility prevents overwriting recent changes while restoring specific corrupted components.

Q5: What’s the difference between full backup and incremental backup?

Full backups copy everything, while incremental backups only copy files that changed since the last backup. Incremental backups are faster and consume less storage for large sites, but they’re more complex to restore. Full backups are simpler and better for small to medium sites.

Q6: Is my hosting provider’s backup sufficient?

Hosting provider backups are valuable but shouldn’t be your only backup. They provide redundancy but might lack accessibility, flexibility, or protection against provider-level outages. Maintain at least one independent backup system in addition to host backups.

Q7: How do I backup my WordPress site if I don’t have FTP access?

Backup plugins don’t require FTP access—they use WordPress’s built-in functions to backup your site. Most hosting control panels (cPanel) also include backup functionality. You have multiple options without FTP.

Q8: Can I backup my site to external hard drives automatically?

Some backup plugins can save to external drives connected to your server, but cloud storage is more reliable for automated backups. External drives are better for manual periodic backups or as secondary storage for important archives.

Q9: How long should I keep old backups?

Maintain daily backups for at least two weeks, weekly backups for a month, and monthly backups for a year. This provides recovery options for issues discovered weeks or months later while managing storage consumption.

Q10: What should I do if my backup file is corrupted?

Corruption sometimes occurs with large backups. If a backup fails to restore, attempt restoration from an earlier backup point. Consider implementing backup verification—many plugins can test backup integrity before you actually need restoration.

Q11: Do I need to backup my WordPress settings?

WordPress settings are stored in the database, so regular database backups protect your settings automatically. You don’t need to backup settings separately—the database backup includes theme options, plugin settings, and all WordPress configurations.

Q12: Can I backup WordPress to my email?

Sending large backup files via email is impractical and most email services reject attachments larger than 25MB. Use cloud storage services or backup plugins designed for backup storage instead.

Q13: How do I know if my backup is working?

Enable notifications from your backup plugin and check for success messages. Periodically test restoration to ensure backups are actually functional. Monitor backup logs for errors or warnings that might indicate problems.

Q14: Should I backup my staging site separately?

Staging sites typically don’t need independent backups—they’re copies of your production site. Keep your production site backups separate and use staging for testing before applying changes to production.

Q15: What’s the best free backup solution for WordPress?

UpdraftPlus Free, BackWPup, and WordPress Backup by BudgetPress are popular free options offering solid protection. Free versions have limitations like backup size restrictions or fewer storage options, but they provide reliable core backup functionality.

Conclusion

The question “which WordPress files should backup” carries profound importance for website security and peace of mind. Through this comprehensive guide, you’ve learned that effective backup strategy isn’t about backing up everything indiscriminately—it’s about strategically protecting what matters most while maintaining an efficient, manageable backup system.

Your WordPress database represents your site’s most critical asset. Every post, page, comment, user account, and configuration lives in this database. Without it, no amount of file backups can restore your site to functionality. Therefore, understanding which WordPress files should backup begins with an absolute commitment to reliable, frequent database backups.

Beyond the database, your wp-config.php file, wp-content directory, and any customized files deserve protection. Your WordPress core files provide important redundancy but can be redownloaded if needed, so while including them in backups offers completeness, they’re not your backup system’s critical component.

The implementation method matters profoundly. Automated backup plugins eliminate the human failures that sabotage manual backup systems. Setting a backup plugin to run daily and storing backups in cloud storage transforms what could be a stressful, complex process into a reliable system requiring minimal ongoing attention.

Redundancy—maintaining multiple independent backup copies—ensures that no single failure point eliminates your protection. Your hosting provider’s backups, a backup plugin to cloud storage, and periodic offline archives to external drives create layered protection that survives virtually any scenario.

Finally, none of this matters if you don’t actually test your backups. Discovering that a backup is corrupted, incomplete, or incompatible with your restoration method is a nightmare when you desperately need that backup. Monthly restoration testing transforms backups from theoretical protection into verified safeguards.

Your WordPress website is too valuable to leave to chance. Implement a backup strategy today. Choose a reliable backup plugin, configure it for daily backups to cloud storage, test it monthly, and document your restoration procedures. The small amount of time invested in this setup saves you from potential catastrophic loss—the investment in backup infrastructure is one of the most valuable decisions you can make for your WordPress site’s future.

Call to Action

Don’t wait for disaster to strike. If you haven’t implemented a robust backup system yet, start today:

1. Choose your backup tool: Select UpdraftPlus, BackWPup, or another trusted plugin based on your site’s needs.
2. Configure backup settings: Set daily or weekly backups, select your backup storage destination (Google Drive, Dropbox, or similar), and activate automatic scheduling.
3. Test your setup: Run your first backup immediately and verify it completed successfully. Then download and inspect the backup file to confirm it contains what you expect.
4. Set up notifications: Enable email alerts for backup success and failure so you’re immediately informed if something goes wrong.
5. Document your process: Write down which backup plugin you use, where backups are stored, and basic restoration steps for future reference.
6. Schedule monthly testing: Mark your calendar to perform restoration testing each month, ensuring your backups remain functional.

Your future self will thank you when you can restore from a clean backup after a security incident, plugin conflict, or accidental deletion. Backup strategy is the cheapest insurance you can buy for your WordPress site.