Backup Codex on database is not complete

The Codex is a wealth of information but I suppose it can be a little intimidating and confusing to newcomers. Mark has extremely easy-to-follow instructions complete with screenshots here.

https://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/backup/

I make regular database backups and save them to my HD. Takes less than a minute.

Len, thank you so much for replying. I do understand some of Codex, but thanks for pointing out this on Tamba! Tamba is great!

But even for Tamba, my checkboxes do not match theirs. I didn’t think to cut and paste my check boxes before, but here they are, and you can see they are different from those on Codex and Tamba:

Structure only
Structure and data
Data only
Export to XML format
LaTeX
Select All / Unselect All
Add ‘drop table’
Complete inserts
Extended inserts
Enclose table and field names with backquotes
Save as file ( “zipped” “gzipped” )
Documentation

I’m not sure which to tick off!

Does anyone know how to backup this version of phpMyAdmin? I don’t know what the words above mean, so I don’t know which ones to tick off. Should I just tick off all the boxes? (not the documentation box, which is at the bottom.)
Thank you.

1) Log in phpMyadmin

2) Select your DB

3) At the top, click the “export” tab

4) Do not choose anything… (Normally, you should have, in the left column a radio button in MYSQL by default and, in the right column “structure” and “data” already checked…)

5) At the bottom, check “save as file”, compression set to “none” (already checked by default)

6) Click the GO button.

7) You will be prompt to save a file with .sql extension somewhere on your disc… So save it… ??

You’re done, the file you saved is a backup…

S.

Dear Simon,
Thank you so much for taking the time to write that all out!

I don’t know how to include a screen shot here, but let me make the choices above clearer:
Right column:
Structure only
Structure and data
Data only
Export to XML format
LaTeX
Select All / Unselect All

By default, Structure Only is checked. Do you think I should check structure and data?

Right column:
Add ‘drop table’
Complete inserts
Extended inserts
Enclose table and field names with backquotes
Save as file ( “zipped” “gzipped” )
I understand there should be a button marked MYSQL, but there is not. There is no compression box, but it does say plain file, which I assume is unzipped.

When I hit go, it saves it as a sql. When I open up the sql, of course it is a mess, and about HALF of it is not my blog posts, it’s all this info about WordPress, tons of stuff like development, how WordPress works, many many pages that aren’t in my blog. Is this how it’s supposed to be?

If you want to backup a database, let’s safely assume that you want DATA with that backup…

Don’t over-complicate it ?? Check the “data” box.

By default, Structure Only is checked. Do you think I should check structure and data?

Lol… As HandySolo wrote above, you obviously need the data… :-))

My favorite option for a backup is to check : “Structure and data”. Then, you can import the file in a blank database and everything will be restored.

That’s it. This is really all you need to choose there… Then save your file.

For the stuff in your DB, well, I really don’t know what you have for content, comments, etc…

Also, maybe you have other CMS/blogs/wathever in your DB… WordPress use only the tables with the WP_ prefix, or any prefix you choosed in your wp-config…

If you want to be sure, just create a blank new DB, import your file, and change your wp-config to call this new DB.. If everything works fine, then your backup is all right…

S.

HandySolo and SimonJ,
Thanks both very much. You’re right, structure box alone wasn’t enough, but I didn’t want to lose my style page, either! My server said I could save both separately, too.

I’m not ready to change my wp-config yet, Simon, but I’ve bookmarked this when I have the courage to do it…
Thanks again.

Drawer wrote : Thanks both very much. You’re right, structure box alone wasn’t enough, but I didn’t want to lose my style page, either!.

Hello Drawer.

Just to be clear : The fact that you saved the database structure doesn’t mean in any way that you saved your style page and the layout of your site…

Database structure means database structure… The tables of the database, the way it’s built. When you save the structure and the data of the database, you save the tables, in column and rows, the cells where the data is saved… It’s not the structure of your site…

To save the style of your website, you must download via ftp the /wp-content directory of wordpress. In this directory, you have your “theme”, the template files and the css stylesheet, the files you uploaded if you uploded somes, the plugins you use…

A real backup of your site consist in two things :

1) the files in your wordpress directory.
2) the structure and the data of the database.

S.