WP-DB Backup 1.6 feed icon

I'm pleased to announce the immediate availability of WP-DB-Backup 1.6!

This version has received a major overhaul, courtesy of Owen:

a screenshot of WP-DB Backup in action

As you can see from the screenshot above, there's a progress meter now, telling you how far along in the backup process you are. Each table is still backed up individually, but now each table is also backed up just a few rows at a time, to better support tables with huge numbers of rows (as might be found from stats or anti-spam plugins).

WP-DB Backup should now handle databases of all sizes! Indeed, it's been tested successfully on two large databases -- one nearly 10 megs, and one over 32 megs -- as well as several small ones.

WP-DB Backup now also automatically detects gzip support. If available, your backup will be compressed on the fly; if not available, no compression will occur (obviously).

Now that huge databases can be backed up reliably, I have added support for optional tables to be included in the scheduled backups. Remember, though, that most email servers block attachments larger than about 5 megabytes. If you have an enormous database, the scheduled backup email delivery may fail.

French translation available -- thanks Ozh!


  • dr Dave
    As I pointed out in my entries on the matter of automated backups, these go very well with gMail: just create a dedicated gMail account and send a full backup to its mailbox every day or so, and you are set for a year without having to worry about storage or anything.
  • skippy
    I agree, GMail makes for a nice hands-free, off-site backup repository! How big of an attachment does GMail allow, anyway?
  • August 9th, 2005
  • Frank Bueltge
    Very nice Update - 1.6. Here is the german version of your language-file, with .mo,.po,readme in german: http://www.bueltge.de/wp-content/download/wp/wp-db-backup-DE.zip with best regards
  • indi
    This is probably just me (1.5, Textdrive), but when I backup by email/download/server I get a SQL file which reads, in it entirity, # WordPress MySQL database backup # # Generated: Tuesday 9. August 2005 06:25 GMT # Hostname: localhost #
  • Ozh
    \o/ (afaik Gmail attachment max size is 10 MB)
  • arno
    I tried to create dutch languagefiles and named them wp-db-backup-nl_NL.po and .mo and put them in the plugins folder but I don't know where to select the dutch language after placing those files there. Am I doing something wrong? Of course I will be happy to share the dutch files with all of you after I get this to work.
  • skippy
    indi: are you 100% sure that you're not doing any of the forbidden activities while executing the backup? Did previous versions of the plugin work correctly? What browser are you using?
  • skippy
    Frank: Thanks! I've added the German translation to the repository. arno: Are you using Dutch for your main WordPress langauge? If not, please read Installing WordPress in Your Language. Plugins currently need to have their translation files stored in /wp-content/plugins/ regardless of whether you store the actual plugin in a sub-directory. So make sure you place the .po and .mo files there, configure WordPress to use Dutch, and then everything should just work.
  • arno
    Thanks for helping me out, everything now works fine. The dutch language files are here: click
  • August 11th, 2005
  • arno
    Is it possible to use a normal Cron job for sending the backup by email in stead of WP-cron? If so, what script should be called and which pararmeters have to be passed on?
  • skippy
    arno: if you want to use a regular cron job, then you don't need to use my plugin at all. The following bash script will work just as well -- if not better -- than this plugin: #!/bin/sh DATE=`date +%Y%m%d`; mysqldump --opt -uuser -p'password' database > /home/user/database.$DATE.sql; gzip /home/user/database.$DATE.sql; done; echo "MySQL backup complete."
  • Glenn Serkez
    Haven't been able to get 1.6 to work. Backups seem to get made - and downloaded. Actual file created in /backup is only index.html - which just has headers and the like. The downloaded file is edit.php, which has only the following line: File not found: found_test1_wp1_20050812_704.sql.gz Any ideas? Also, there's no option to restore, I take it this isn't an error, but that this is now done just through phpMyadmin or sql, etc.?
  • Glenn Serkez
    Oops. The index.html was in /backup as a security dummy as suggested in v.1.5.
  • skippy
    Glenn: If you select "Leave file on server" when backing up, can you then download the file? As soon as the download is complete, the plugin will delete the file. This is a security precaution. Is there anything interesting being reported in your webserver error log?
  • Buzzdee
    Hm, I installed everything, made that backup directory, and when I want to backup he makes ... nothing. No progress bar is rising up, nothing is saved in the backup directory. What dos that mean in your readme "$ chgrp www-data backup". I only have FTP and I only can change chmode the dir to 777.
  • skippy
    Buzzdee: setting the mode for your backup directory to 777 should suffice. Do you have access to your webserver's error log? If so, is there anything of interest being reported there?
  • PJ Brunet
    I'm assuming we restore these backups as per the codex... It would be nice if there was a one-click restore.
  • Buzzdee
    No, unfortunately I don't have that access :-(
  • Sir Findo Gask
    I have the same problem as Buzzdee. No progress bar nothing in the dir...
  • Sir Findo Gask
    Sorted. Ran the backup a second time and it flew through it. Excellent plugin :)
  • skippy
    PJ: A one-click restore would be very nice. I don't have the time to commit to such a task right now, but it's something I've been pondering.
  • Ptath
    Buzzdee, I had same problem, but after setting "backup" exactly to 777 (not 766 or smth.) all works fine.
  • Buzzdee
    No, still not working. Checked everything twice (dir-name, attributes). still no backup :-(
  • August 15th, 2005
  • Trevor
    Is it possible to have the wp-cron functionality save a backup to whatever local folder you define? It looks like you can only email it...?
  • skippy
    Trevor: I'm not keen on scheduling backups that stay on the server. You're free to hack the script to do this, if you really want it, but it's not something I plan to add as an official feature. (You could get really fancy and email the backup to an alias on your server that stores the backup file somewhere. You're on your own if you do this.)
  • Crow
    You consistently rock.
  • Battra
    Nice! No more warning for empty array now. Thank's for the update!
  • August 18th, 2005
  • August 18th, 2005
  • Andy
    Is there a debug log to see whats going on? My email to gmail never arrives so i suspect it could be something to do with antirelaying or something? Email to an address on the same domain the server is hosted on works fine as does the download. Incidentally the link to Owen's website is wrong.
  • Andy
    ok, on my server you can't use form of username+tag@gmail.com - it objects (silently) to the + in the email address (which is a problem I've had with other mail systems *cough* yahoogroups *cough*
  • September 5th, 2005
  • Bertil Gralvik
    Wonderful Skippy & al! It worked immedately after activating: Extract - copy to plugins - create /wp-content/backup Set permissions over FTP 774 Go Manage/Backup - select "Email backup to" radio button. Click "Backup" button. The gzipped SQL for recreating and populating the wp tables was delivered to my admin email address in a few secs. Thanks - very fine work there!
  • Raphael
    Hello, I like this plugin. As I don't have permissions to access my db from outside, I use it to backup my blog. However, my PC is always up and I would like to use a cron task to backup each night. The progress meter mess up wit the avaibalitiy of retrieveing the backup with a simple "HTTP get". Is there a URL that would work ? Something like : http://user:pass@www.lalala.fr/blog/.../?action=dobackup It would allow to get the backup file with "curl" or "wget" Any idea ? thanks in advance
  • Matthias Heil
    A "select all" button for the non-WP tables would be a lovely addition for me.
  • Marc
    Ok so I have a database backed up from one server (thecreationof.com/qlou) and I would like to restore it to another service (kccquarterlifeou.com). I don't know where to start with restoring it or if copying it somehow from one to the other. I don't know where to start with phpmyadmin including even installing it. thanks guys. marc
  • skippy
    Marc, see Restoring your database from backup on the WordPress Codex.
  • Ivo Silvestro
    I've noticed a bug in the plugin: the backup is incorrect if there are a NULL value. The backup made with phpmyadmin contain the correct instruction INSERT INTO `wp_Counterize_Pages` VALUES (2, 'blablabla', 2, NULL); But with wp-db backup I obtain: INSERT INTO `wp_Counterize_Pages` VALUES (2, 'blablabla', 2,); and I have an error if I try to restore the database. The table is created by the counterize II plugin Send my an email if you don't understand the problem: i'm not a mysql expert! Sorry for my awful english ;-)

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