Correct way to BACKUP the database?

Both are correct. I personally use the 2nd link.

hmm, what’s the difference between the two then?

The second link has an illustrated guide for executing backups under several hosting provider control panels, but the screenshots may be outdated depending on your hosting provider.

The first link lacks control panel backup instructions, but offers a few additional methods not available under the second link.

ERROR
Please upload a valid WXR (WordPress eXtended RSS) export file.
ERROR

I followed the instructions in the above link for backing up my WP DB… I keep getting the above error when I try to import the DB.

If the MyPHPSQL exports an .SQL file how do I make this compatible with WordPress?

The plugins ( I have tried several) for backing up the DB also export to a .SQL format and when I try to import the file to a new WordPress installation I still get the above error…

help

An SQL file is not a WXR export file. To restore an SQL file, you’d use something like phpMyAdmin or something else with direct access to the database.

Otto and others, I always backup database with phpmyadmin, and ever func, the method to repair or restore WP using SQL is:

1. Having a valid and tested database SQL drop the database tables
2. The database is empty now, run the phpmyadmin SQL mode and “paste” the complete text downloaded in SQL format and clic continue…
3. Test the WP

I just assumed that the DB backup within WordPress was the same as an “EXPORT”

Now when I try to EXPORT the WP files I get “insufficient priviledges” when I am the only administrator… and I can’t get to USERS to change this as USERS is missing from my menu??

confusing….

If you have access to cPanel, and your web host has NOT disabled the Backup functions, the cPanel database backup is, in my experience, the best available. It even allows the cPanel database restore to create the database for you. All you have to do is add the database ID and password, and link the ID to the database.

But the biggest thing it offers is a line at the bottom of the database backup file that it creates that lists the time and date, and indicates that the backup is complete. Because that is the biggest problem I’ve experienced with backups: they don’t complete and you never know until you try to restore them. Now, all I have to do is check the last line.

What an adventure !

I started out noticing that my “USERS” menu item was missing.

Then I tried to export my .WXR (really a .xml) so that I could upload my data to a new installation if needed thinking this would replace the missing “USERS” menu item. I kept getting “You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page.”

.htaccess manipulations and deactivating all my plugins (including changing the directory names) had no affect on admin getting permissions. Neither did “switching to the default WordPress theme” no go… didn’t work. Even creating a new “administrator” user did not help. I also tried setting all my directory permissions to 777, no go. The “force-upgrade.php” script mentioned in several posts did not work either. There was also nothing in the wp-config.php file that helped including blanking or deleting the “secret” access keys.

I even reloaded all the WP files for 3.0.3 and did the “manual” upgrade instructions and still NADA.

I checked the SQL tables for “admin” (or your adminstrator name)and made sure the wp_user_level is set to “10” in the wp_metauser and that the wp_capabilities is set to
” a:1:{s:13:”administrator”;s:1:”1″;} ” (no quotes) (wp_ is the default prefix and if you named your DB files with something else in your wp-config.php then that is where you need to go look , like wpx_ or wp2_ or wordpress_ etc.)

I finally got the permissions for admin to work by changing the version number in my SQL table to “8204” (it was something like 15032) Make sure you know there is more than one page in the SQL editing and table area…mine had 8 pages and it was on the 2nd page). You have to have access and know how to edit your SQL database files… (scary, I know) and then go to your WordPress directory and “upgrade.php” -voila- Permissions restored. And the “USER” menu item appeared as well!

Now I got permissions to work, BUT every single post and link on my blog got a “404 error” message! I thought I had royally messed up. All the data was there in the DB and in the “posts” when you logged into admin, but none of the links to each “post” would work.

Finally, I had a plugin called “WP DataBase Manager” that has an option to “REPAIR” database. I ran it as a last ditch effort and it worked. It DID! and everything is working perfectly!

Sure hope this saves all you people the 6 hours+ of hunting and digging that I went through.