I got an email from Poonam last month “Tell me how should I take backup of my wordpress blog, in case wordpress blocks my blog or something?” she asked.
Yes, what if something happens to your blog ? You need a backup right ? Okay, just three steps, let us generate and download a backup of your wordpress.com blog.
1 On you dashboard, click “Tools”
2 Now, “Export”
3 Now, “Download Export file”
You will get an xml file. You can save it on your computer or attach it to an email and keep it on your email account …. hmmm what is your choice ? Remember: Always keep more than one copy.
Now, How to Restore your Blog from Backup
Remember one thing before you do this. You can not restore individual posts this way ( unless you have downloaded author specific files, – ie, if you have more than one author for the blog ). Now, read on
1: Click “Tools”
2: Now, “Import”
3: Select “WordPress:
4: Click “Browse” and locate the backup file
5: Now, “Upload file and Import”
Done !!
Now, what if you need a back up of a post that you accidentally deleted ?
Hmm there is a way to do get a backup copy. Simply subscribe to your own rss feed on your rss reader. When you need to restore a particular post which is missing or deleted, browse through your feed entries and get it … and yes, make sure that “For each article in a feed, show” is set to “full text” here … Settings > Reading
Is this tough ?
55 comments ↓
The problem is that we cannot backup other files like images using this method.
@ Niyaz
That’s right … I always keep my images on flickr or some other location, and then link here … I learned this lesson when I changed my domain first.. all my images were gone .. now, whatever happens, I get images back
cool, there was somesite which will convert our blog into pdf. Any idea which one?
http://www.expresspdf.com/ConvertHtmlToPdf.aspx
lol thanks for the info…backing up now
actually i used to use the show all post option when i was in blogger and copy everything …but i didn’t how to do it in WP 
@ Vishesh
Cool
Well, useful for newbies.. well written
@ Joel
Thanks
I wrote it for newbies 
not for techies like u buddy 
Hey! Damn cool!! Thanks for sharing!! Will do it right away!!
@ Priya
Glad to know that you liked it
Thanks ,
very useful for a newbie like me.
P.S. Blogrolled u.
thanks buddy, i needed this.
@ Rahul
Thanks + Welcome
@ Philip
np
I like the font in this new theme. This is good one, stick to it. And yes, I too think it is important to subscribe to your own feeds, just in case.
@ Poonam
Thanks .. and yes, I am going to stick with this one and may be I will move to an upgraded version of this theme …. not sure ..
wow …so i can actually have an back up..
thats great thanks…
@ Arvind
np
I might be wrong since I am not that technically sound….
hmm….yes, I was wrong…
Sorry…
@ Anshul
Is it about the rss feed comment I left on your blog ?
Naah…I have fixed that, there was a typo in the feed url. This was something related to this post only….then I realized that what I was thinking was also wrong
or somewhat impossible.
Also, I forgot to thank you for reporting that feed thingy + I also forgot to put some smiley in the first comment…
@ Anshul
Cool
and yea special thanks for the 
s
and u r welcome buddy
Yeah…
, you are welcome too…
Good for newbies, but I think when I read WP FAQ first, they ha warned us that its not the way to backup everything and it puts too much load on server if people start using it madly. But still its useful
@ Suda
Can you send me the link ?
I always use this way to backup and I could restore it easily .. hmmm is there any other way to backup on wordpress.com ?
http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2005/12/19/backing-up-your-wordpresscom-blog/ Read this too
I found a way to backup and import *blogroll* from one blog to another or just backup. May be you already know this.
go to http://yourblog.wordpress.com/wp-links-opml.php where *yourblog* is your own blog URL.
For example in dinu’s case, his blogroll can be exported as OPML file using link http://www.offlineblog.net/wp-links-opml.php
P.S> Dinu, if you think this is a useful tip and people are gonna miss this comment being on old post, you can add it in your TIPS as usual, all people eagerly read them
This is the FAQ entry I was talking about. Sorry for late reply, I am using Airtel GPRS and you can imagine the speed.
I am using HTTRACK Website Copier from ages and its really effective. I think I will write a post/tutorial for it soon. It won’t help in moving data to new site but its the best way we can backup a website i.e. downloading it as it is to local machine.
Also that PDF conversion site is superb, it converts page with all images included. Not the page as it looks though, it takes just content in PDF but its worth the trouble.
See ya. I will come back later in evening to check your reply, now going, bye.
@ Suda
Sure .. will do
@ Suda
I read the FAQ .. they are asking you not to do this because of 2 reasons.
1: It uses a lot of server resources … hmm think about a few guys on the same server doing this process at the server time and crashing the server with other hundreds of blogs on it ..
2: They have their own backups …
[...] for your feedback on my previous post, about backing up your wordpress blog. Most of them, were extra tips. Here they [...]
Hey,
Thanks for the info! I’m going to do it right now.. =]
@ Anjali
Use wordpress automatic upgrade http://techie-buzz.com/wordpress-plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade-12-release.html
Good one for newbies who are worried about upgrading wordpress. Can be used for back up as well.
@ Shoban
I don’t believe in auto upload .. I use the option in the control panel to upgrade, or do manual upgrade… hmm yea, good for laZy bugs
Great Thanks
@ Chirax
ha !! so bringing this post to homepage makes difference
u r welcome my friend
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I do the HTTRACK Website Copier too for backing up my blogs. Will look into the PDF link you have given.
@ Apar
will try that
thanks for the info
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Dinu,
Hosting Images in Other sites, i think not good, I think such images not indexed in Google. Am i correct ?.
@ Anish K.S
not sure … but still, SEO wise, its not so good ..
Some times i am using pages.googles.com for image hosting.
Wouldn’t it be great to backup a wordpress.com blog in three steps automatically?
Of, course it would
I wrote a small perl script to do it. Here is the post: http://unixwayoflife.wordpress.com/2008/11/08/automated-wordpress-com-backup/
[...] Backup your WP blog [...]
thank you so much dinu! u r a life saver! am new to blogging n was worring about just this thing n here i find a solution at ur blog!
thankoo!!!
got here from ur comment on my blog
Crafty Shines’s last blog post..Blogging at snail’s pace
welcome Crafty !! and glad that it was helpful !
This is one of my fav posts from your blog. THis was helpful.
Btw are you on a republishing spree?
Poonam’s last blog post..Win Prizes at The MovieManiax Awards
hi, thanks Poonam …
no, I did not republish it… just made it “sticky post”
Hmmm no updates?
Joel’s last blog post..Life’s Hectic But It’s More Exciting!!!
Busy with Easter and Holyweek …
but this one is a sticky post
Simple but effective
kinclong2’s last blog post..Forgiving yourself
thnx for the information
I did try using the Import and Export feature but the request times out while in the process (the timeout is also a problem during upgrades).
For a backup and restore, I typically get a copy of the MySQL database and the content files from WordPress. Works every time!
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