It is important to back up WordPress site regularly periodically and it needs to be backed up, especially before applying any major changes to it. Backing up the site ensures the safety of the design and contents of your site.
Configuring backup is one of the must-have initial setups required after installation of WordPress. If something goes wrong while making major changes, you can simply restore the old one.
It is easy to back up WordPress site on Google Drive or any storage you want. The simplest method to backup a plugin is simply by downloading the WordPress files and the database from the server (cPanel). But it can still be a hard thing for non-tech users and those who do not have access to the files and database.
It is not always possible to take a manual backup of your WordPress site, therefore you may want to make it happen automatically on your cloud storage. Therefore, here we have prepared a step-by-step guide on how to back up WordPress site on Google Drive.
Yes, you can back up a WordPress site on Google Drive easily using WordPress plugins. Many plugins offer backup to remote storage.
Some of them are not free, some do not support the restoration, and some of them do not offer scheduled and real-time backup. Therefore, here is a plugin called UpdraftPlus which is available for free offering real-time as well as schedules to backup WordPress sites on Google Drive.
Step by Step Guide on How to Back up WordPress Site on Google Drive
Plugins have made it easier to back up WordPress sites easily anywhere you want. UpdraftPlus is one of these plugins that offers the best backup service for free.
It has over 2 million installations and has managed to get an average of 5-star ratings from 4000+ reviews. With UpdraftPlus, you will be able to back up the WordPress site on Google Drive including the database in real time or any time you want to schedule it.
Install and Activate the UpdraftPlus WordPress Plugin
The plugin we are going to use is UpdraftPlus which can be installed easily from the WordPress repository. To install this plugin, go to Dashboard >> Plugins >> Add New and search for UpdraftPlus. You will find the plugin named UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin in the search result.
Plugin Needed:
Click on the Install Now button and wait until the plugin gets downloaded on your server. When it gets downloaded, you will see the Activate button. Click on the activate button to activate the plugin.
Open the UpdraftPlus Setting Page
The next step is running the plugin for the initial one-time setup. When you click on the activate button, UpdrafrPlus will redirect to the plugin page and plugin setup page through its popup initial wizard messages.
If you missed this or skipped the message, you can simply go to the installed plugins section find the UpdraftPlus plugin, and open the setup page by clicking on the setting.
This will direct you to the plugins dashboard where you will find various options to back up the WordPress site.
Configure Schedule to Back up WordPress Site on Google Drive
After reaching the plugins dashboard, you will again find the settings tab. Click on the settings tab and configure the schedule for files and database.
You can choose whether you want to backup hourly, every 2 hours, every 4 hours, or any schedule you want. The recommended time is at least once a day to a maximum of every 4 hours.
However, it depends on how dynamic the site is and the capacity of your server. If the site is a business website that is not required to change frequently, you may schedule a backup for one day or more.
If the size of your site is high and you are on a shared plan, it will not be suitable to back it up every hour as the backup process consumes the resources of the server which causes the site to load very slowly.
Lastly, keep the backup rotation for at least 2 days (only recommended, it depends upon the size and nature of size). That means if you schedule daily backup, at least 2 backup sets are recommended and if you set the same for every 8 hours, then at least 6 rotations is recommended.
Choose the Remote Storage
You can select Google Drive as Google provides more space and is easy to use. Also backing up to Google Drive is the only option available in the free plan of UpdraftPlus.
If you want to back up your site on Microsoft One Drive, Amazon S3, FTP, Azure, or any other storage, you will have to pay at least 15 dollars a month.
These options are useful when the size of the WordPress site is very large. For example, if the website has 8 GB of files, you will not be able to backup to Google Drive which has just 15 GB of storage.
Decide the Files You Want to Backup WordPress Site on Google Drive
You can choose whether you want to back up a WordPress site with plugins, themes, and uploads and exclude any particular files from them.
By default, the exclusion rule excludes all the backup files created on your server storage by any plugins.
If you are using another backup plugin, you may need to exclude that path so that the server will be able to back up the WordPress site with low server resources.
After doing these, you can enable a basic email report whenever the backup completes or fails to upload on Google Drive. Then save the settings.
Connecting and Authorizing Google Account
When you save the settings, a popup will appear with a message to connect with the Google account.
If you are not sure about it, again go to the settings tab (UpdraftPlus Dashboard) and find the Google Drive option as shown in the following image.
When you save the settings, a popup will appear with a message to connect with the Google account.
If you are not sure about it, again go to the settings tab (UpdraftPlus Dashboard) and find the Google Drive option as shown in the following image.
Click on the authorization link and it will redirect you to your Google Accounts page. Select or login to the Google account you are willing to back up the WordPress site on Google Drive.
Give authorization and allow required access to the drive. The backup setup process is now completed.
Backup WordPress site on Google Drive For the First Time
After completion of the Installation, the backup process should automatically start. If it is not started already, you can do it by clicking on the Backup Now button.
The backup process takes some time depending upon the size of the site and the type of hosting server.
Conclusion – Backup WordPress Site on Google Drive
It is easy to back up a WordPress site on Google Drive for free. UpdraftPlus is the best free option to handle the backup process automatically or make the schedule.
If you have any questions regarding backing up the WordPress site on Google Drive, please let us know in the comments section below.
