Time waster. Doesn't actually backup full WP install

  • Very disappointed to see doesn’t actually backup all WP files, only content, plugins and themes. You have to pay extra to backup the full folder, despite this making bugger all difference to the developers.

    They say they exclude other folders because can re-download WP – but files may have been customised, the version may have been old (and no record kept of which), etc. It also means you can’t easily restore a clone to a new server, because backup is incomplete. It should be up to the user whether to exclude WP core.

    Rest of feature set sounds very promising, but this aspect pretty clearly points to this being a trailware plugin, not production ready. The plugin page fails to make this limitation clear.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Plugin Author David Anderson / Team Updraft

    (@davidanderson)

    but files may have been customised

    That’s a practice that the WordPress developers advise that you don’t do (https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Editing_Files) – and rightly so, in my view.

    Of course, software freedom means that you’re free to do stuff that the developers of the software you’re using recommend you don’t. The world would be a poorer place if you always had to do what the instructions say. But, making it easy to do such things, isn’t necessarily going to be something that a software developer will see as a priority.

    the version may have been old (and no record kept of which

    UpdraftPlus makes a record inside the backup of your WordPress version.

    David

    Who would be editing WordPress Core files anyway?!

    As David rightly says, it’s your choice, but honestly you should review your coding practices if you’re editing core files and not keeping WP up to date. Although I do understand that due to some environments and requirements you can’t always keep WP up to date, but it should be a priority given the many security risks.

    Good luck!

    Thread Starter neogic

    (@neogic)

    We inherited the site in question so aren’t actually certain whether core mods have been made – yes, I’d agree of course bad practice in principle.

    That doesn’t mean full backups aren’t desirable for convenience, peace of mind and significantly easier restoration. The argument that WP can be re-downloaded (and faffing around identifying and locating the correct historic version) is like saying there’s no need for full OS partition backups. Why backup your OS partition if you could restore from DVD? For convenience, ease of restoration, and avoiding missing edge case data, that’s why.

    IMO UpdraftPlus Free is being misleadingly marketed as a full backup solution, with the description making no mention of file backups being incomplete. It would be trivial to allow full backups – but this is clearly being used as an arbitrary feature cripple to channel upgrades. That’s fine – but make it clear and obvious in the description.

    Moderator Jan Dembowski

    (@jdembowski)

    Forum Moderator and Brute Squad

    IMO UpdraftPlus Free is being misleadingly marketed as a full backup solution, with the description making no mention of file backups being incomplete.

    Wait. What?

    *Drinks coffee*

    Disclaimer: I’m an Updraft customer so feel free to take my opinion with a grain of salt. My opinion is mine only and does not represent any group here that I may belong to.

    Whew, I’m glad that’s over with!

    This plugin is a a full backup solution for your WordPress data. That includes plugin, user account into, settings, database, etc. The whole works. If something goes horribly awry then you still need to setup a blank WordPress site and then restore to that.

    I had to write a step by step on using the free version and Google Drive to do just that. It wasn’t a big document and it works.

    How is the free version misleading in anyway? You need to know something about your installation to properly restore it. The restore took no time and very little effort.

    Plugin Author David Anderson / Team Updraft

    (@davidanderson)

    this is clearly being used as an arbitrary feature

    Sometimes, what seems “clear” is just plain wrong. The actual history is that the original Updraft plugin – which I took over around 4 years ago – never had such a feature, and I was happy without it (as are hundreds of thousands of other users). I added it to the paid version because some customers of the paid version – which also started life without it – later requested it. But, the suggestion that it was intentionally designed to be crippled is just completely untrue on both counts.

    Please, I understand the idea of “I want more stuff in the free version”. But, being insulting to people with stuff you’ve made-up? That’s not how we want to do things round here. I am very happy that hundreds of thousands of people happily use the free version of UD, and happy if they carry on with the free version forever.

    Best wishes,
    David

    Thread Starter neogic

    (@neogic)

    The history is welcome, thanks David. Can you appreciate that if the description fails to mention it’s a partial backup, that’s frustrating for users that go to the effort of installing and setting up the plugin, only to discover this limitation?

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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