April 16, 2007
Have you backed up your blog?
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It occurred to me that I have invested many many hours into this blog over the last fourteen months. And it contains a lot of material that I don’t hold anywhere else. I suspect many of you are in the same boat. I don’t have copies of the posts I’ve written and many of the photos, such as those for my collections, I haven’t kept anywhere else.
Now one of the reasons that I moved my blog to Wordpress is that it has a very reliable reputation. But what if the server did fry it’s brains? What if Wordpress couldn’t recover my precious words and pictures and links? They’d be able to recover my blog, but I don’t believe they back-up all the individual data. So how would I feel if I lost it all.
In a word: DEVASTATED!
How about you? Can you live with the possibility of losing all the history you have built into your blog?
Fortunately on Wordpress backing up your data is supremely simple and quick and I urge all you Wordpress bloggers to do it immediately you have finished reading this.
Just go into your Dashboard and select Manage from the menu bar across the top. Then click on Export in the sub-menu bar. You will get a screen containing a button labelled Download Export File. Click and it will create a XML file containing all your blog data which you save to your computer. In the event of technical disaster, just repeat the above steps, selecting Import instead of Export and your backed-up data will be restored to blogland. And this just takes 2 seconds. No hanging around whilst files transfer. Instant.
I don’t know how (or if) this works on other blog engines. I tried to find out how to do it on Blogger and I couldn’t find any directions for backing up. If any of you Blogger people know how they facilitate back-ups please leave a comment for other Blogger folk in case they don’t know.
But for all you Wordpress people…Do it!
Do it now!!!
Stumble it!
21 Responses to “Have you backed up your blog?”
You have officially scared me into doing this!! I’m off to do it RIGHT NOW! Thanks
By Hannah on Apr 16, 2007
yes have to say if that happened I would be a tad upset. I do have copies of my photos in a few places so that wouldnt worry me too much. I do tend to use a few posts as layouts. But still it would be upsetting.
By Janine on Apr 16, 2007
Good on you for sharing this information. I am at work right now, so I’ll do mine later when I get home. Wouldn’t want my blog backup on my office PC! Keep your fingers crossed that nothing happens between now and later this evening when I can do the backup
By Addie on Apr 16, 2007
i knew about this feature of wordpress…but never thought i cld use it as a backup…thanks a lot…
also for making me realize the need of backup…
By Pareen on Apr 16, 2007
Done it and it was really easy. Now i’ve just got to remember to keep doing backups regularly. While I have copies of all my photos, its the words i’d be most upset about losing. Thanks Karen.
By kitkat on Apr 16, 2007
Thanks for the timely tip Karen….. PC hard drive did itself in over Easter and I thought I’d lost lots of pics. Thankfully a whole bunch were already on CDs, and even luckier I know a geek who was only too happy to work miracles and rescue almost everything. The blog though….. only been doing it a bit, but there are LOTS of scrapping stuff there…. devastated is surely an understatment!!! So yes, will include this in our new found back-up regeime too.
By scrappydo on Apr 16, 2007
PS - we use the term *geek* in the most sincerest form of flattery …. he really rocked when he rescued our bits!
By scrappydo on Apr 16, 2007
Karen - thanks for the tip! I have done it now. I never really thought about wordpress pooping out! But now I have it saved
How often would you recommend saving?
By Christi on Apr 17, 2007
Like all back ups Christi, the frequency depends on your level of paranoia and the amount of fresh material you put up. If you can live with a restore that might be a month old then that’s your freqency. But, since it’s such a painless thing to do, it’s probably a good idea to do it once a week.
By Karen on Apr 17, 2007
I would love to know of any way to back-up blogger, so hoping you receive a comment from someone who knows if it’s possible. I will have to investigate myself too.
By Heather on Apr 18, 2007
Thank you so much for posting this, Karen. I just backed mine up!
By Dianne on Apr 20, 2007
Awesome info. Thanks for the tip. I need to do that.
By Maggie on Apr 21, 2007
Thanks for the great tip.. i never knew that, and think i better go do it now!
By fuzzynale on Apr 24, 2007
Thanks for the warning Karen. I won’t procrastinate this!
By andilynn on Apr 25, 2007
I didn’t procrastinate–you’re right it was painless-LOL!
By andilynn on Apr 25, 2007
Oh my… I hadn’t even given it a thought before now…
Off to do it now! Thanks for info!
By Tania on Apr 30, 2007
I’ve never thought about this! I will do this as soon as I get home. Thanks!!
By leslie on May 3, 2007
Great tip Karen!
By LawrenBC on May 9, 2007