by Suhas Udayakumar

The Importance of Testing WordPress Backups and How to Do It Easily

Testing WordPress backups is simply a necessary part of a good backup solution. However, testing multiple backup versions can be a technical and cumbersome. (Find out) How to best test WordPress backups?

 

When you have multiple backups, it's important to test them.
When you have multiple backups, it’s important to test them.

 

The Problem: How Do You Know If Your Backups Work?

One of the most important tenets of a backup solution is the ability to test the backups. Backups serve one main purpose– restores. When your site goes down, the worst that can happen is that, at the time of restoring your site you find out that the backup is not proper.

The one way to avoid that problem is to regularly test your backups and to definitely test your backups before you restore them. The one reason why many may not venture to do it is simply because testing backups is not always easy.

 

Backups Can Go Wrong: Testing Backups is Important

Testing backups, however, is a very important part of  having a robust backup solution. This is because, a number of things can and do go wrong with backups; and the consequence is that you cannot restore your site quickly and efficiently. What is the point of having a defunct spare tire when the tire on your car gets punctured?

Running out of storage space, leaving out necessary or important files are only some of the things which can affect your backups and eventually your site. When you use a backup solution; like a WordPress backup plugin, or the backups provided by your hosting service, you never really know if the backup contains all the files or even if the backups have happened correctly. You may say that you are getting notifications but that does is not the same as verifying that backups are occurring properly. Even when you download a backup it is generally in a .zip folder. How can you be sure that the .zip folder will function correctly once the backup is restored?

 

Restore Only After Testing WordPress Backups

Trust is a big aspect of online business. A survey says that 88% of respondents don’t trust sites that crash often; and only 12% of respondent will wait an additional 5 secs for your site to load. This means your restore must be quick and you should also be sure that your site will function correctly.

A WordPress site functions on a mixture of plugins and themes; together they form a precariously balanced ecosystem– your WordPress site. Many times, when something on your WordPress site is not functioning correctly it may not be a direct result of an update or a newly installed plugin. If it is so, then it is easy to pinpoint the problem. However, it is rarely that simple. Sometimes, the problem surfaces after a few days or even after a couple of weeks. Chances are that you have done a few changes to your site in that time.

Let us say that you have

  • Updated some plugins
  • Installed a new theme
  • Installed 2 new plugins

These changes are all spread over different versions over the last month. The challenge is to pinpoint the change which caused the issue. You can’t set up a separate environment to test all of the versions. It is simply not feasible. On the other hand if you restore without testing the probable backup versions you will end with the same problems as before.

 

The Challenge: Testing Backups is Technical & Laborious

To test backups you need an environment to which you can upload the backup and test it. This means you will need to:

  • Create a testing environment
  • Set up a new URL
  • Restore the backup to that environment

All of this is laborious and technical work. Engaging in this activity along with your everyday business is cumbersome. Even if you go through all the trouble and test your latest backup version. If that is not working as properly then you have to go down the list testing each version. This means you may not test your backups; or at least not test all the backup versions of your website. It is important to test all the backup versions because you never know which one you’ll need at the time of restoring your site. The more difficult a task gets the less we seem to engage in doing it.

Even if you’re willing to take on the task, there is one more point to consider. Once the testing is done you’ll need to find a way to get rid of this environment. Otherwise maintaining it will become another chore on your task list. This is not ideal.

 

The One-Click Solution

A backup solution must make it easy for you to test your backups instead of creating additional hassles. A solution which allows you to test backups must make it feasible to test multiple versions; and this is the marker of a good testing environment.

BlogVault offers the Test Restore functionality, an option to test any and all of your backups versions with a single click. An exact, fully functioning copy of the site is generated from the chosen backup version, and loaded to BlogVault’s test servers.

BlogVault maintains at least 30 versions of your WordPress site’s backup. You can choose any of those versions to ‘Test Restore’. Once the backup version is chosen it is loaded to Blogvault’s test servers.

In this environment you can not only test how your backup will work once it is restored but also test what happens if you make changes. After the backup is uploaded to BlogVault’s test servers, you’ll also receive the SFTP credentials to the ‘test site’. This way you can also test any updates or changes you want to make to that particular  backup version. It is completely independent of your live site, and fully functioning. In other words, ideal testing conditions for your backups.

BlogVault’s Test Restore functionality is a pain-free solution.

Having a test-copy of your site has many benefits

Streamline Testing with Backup Descriptions

If you are using the BlogVault service then you can track the changes easily. Each backup version has a description. This allows you to know not only the date and time of the backup, but also what has changed in the site since the last backup. These changes may include

  • Number of files
  • Number of tables
  • Updates to plugins, themes, WP Core
  • New plugins or themes installed, etc.

 

Having descriptions for every backup helps

 

You can possibly narrow down the backup versions to be tested. Once the shortlist is ready, you can then test them all; as mentioned, with a single click.

Learn more about Blogvault’s Test Restore and Try BlogVault for Free today.

 

by Suhas Udayakumar

What You Should Know About Making Daily WordPress Backups

Daily backups offer a balance between minimizing data loss & minimizing load on server/site. Is it, however, the most optimum WordPress backup frequency for your WordPress site? Here’s what you need to know about the different methods; and the pros and cons of each of them.

 

Daily backups are the most practical backup frequency for a majority of WordPress sites that have scheduled updates every day.

 

Daily WordPress Backups

Who is it for?

Daily backups are a good option for sites which make numerous changes in a month. These may be blogs that predominantly have content additions everyday, or news/magazine sites which have scheduled daily updates.

Even if daily changes are not made to your site, daily backups may be worth considering. WordPress sites depend on plugins, and themes. As you well know updates to plugins and themes, along with updates to WordPress Core are very important for the sake of your site’s security, and functionality.

Updates are not released at the same time and different plugins and themes have to be updated regularly. While these updates are important, they are part of a complex mix of softwares that together form your WordPress site. If you make an update and the site crashes then it is easy to pinpoint the problem. Often this is not the case. Problems only surface days; maybe weeks after a handful of changes are made. In such cases identifying the issue is a laborious matter.

Performing daily backups ensures that such updates are also saved. You can then restore your site with minimal or no data loss, and figure out any issue affecting your website, later. When you restore your site, fewer of those updates have to be made to harden your site’s security. Otherwise, without those updates, even if you restore your site it may have many vulnerabilities putting you at constant risk.

 

Advantages of Daily Backups

Good backup solutions optimize between resources consumed and efficiency. Daily backups bring the following advantages:

  • Reduces data loss
  • Provides the option of multiple backup versions to test and restore
  • Requires least tinkering once restored – updates made to plugins and themes can be retained.

 

Methods for Making Daily Backups

You can make daily backups in a few different ways. While all the methods used to make daily backups will offer the above mentioned advantages, each method also brings its own challenges. Let us explore them one by one.

Manual Backups

Making manual backups of your WordPress site is an additional, laborious job to add to  your everyday business task list. Remembering to make backups or taking out the time for it may not always be possible.

Securely storing backups is another issue that you are solely responsible for while making manual backups. HDDs or external HDDs or USB drives have been known to fail. Local storage devices, and the data stored in them can also become infected with malware.

Testing backups before restoring/migrating them can become a challenge when you are making manual backups and storing them locally.

Web Hosting Service

While many web hosting services offer backups and it is a seemingly convenient option, it is important to note that not all hosting services offer daily backups. Most of the time, premium web hosts like Flywheel, and WP Engine that do offer daily backups come at a premium price. Sometimes web hosts offer other backups solutions as add-ons and these come with additional costs.

A premium price tag may not be the only drawback when you choose your hosting service as your WordPress backup service. Backups with web hosts don’t have backup descriptions, which makes identifying and restoring the right version a very tedious process. Also, if your backups are stored by your web hosts then they might not be completely independent of your site. It means that your backups may be exposed to all the risks to which your site is exposed. For example, if your hosting service is hacked or the infrastructure is affected by a natural disaster, then chances are that along with your website, your backups are also lost. This is not an ideal way to store backups.

WordPress Backup Plugin

Some backup plugins are free and allow you to schedule your WordPress backups. While these plugins will help you perform daily backups, storage may be an added issue for you to consider. This is because not all plugins offer independent storage options. You can link your cloud storage account (for example, your Dropbox account) to these plugins. Doing so, however, usually means that the plugins store an API key of these accounts on your WordPress site. API keys are how the backup plugins communicate with your backup destination. However, it exposes backups to similar risks as your site. This may allow for your backups to be compromised when your site is hacked.

Backup plugins have to be installed on your site. If you lose access to your site for some reason then using the plugin to restore your site is not possible.

Tip: If you decide to use a WordPress backup plugin it may become important for you to track your WordPress site’s traffic. Backups can be resource intensive and making a backup when most visitors come to your site might slow the site and spoil the user experience.

WordPress Backup Service

A WordPress backup service offers a more complete  backups solution. Backup services perform incremental backups and automatically upload backups to completely independent storage.

Incremental backups mean that only those parts of the site which have changed since the last backup are stored. This means that you do not have to worry about large sites not getting backed up, or about forgetting to perform backups.

Backup storage comes as part of the service and you do not have risk using your personal accounts. Backup services also offer simplified processes for restoring and migrating your site. BlogVault offers you a one-click, test restore option which allows you test your sites on an automatically generated staging environment, before restoring them.

 

Choosing a WordPress backup frequency and solution for your site depends on a few factors– budget, frequency of changes to the site, time available, and the size of the site. There is a case to be made for daily backups as the most optimum frequency for most sites, barring sites with a high frequency of changes like e-commerce or news sites, (which might need solutions providing real-time backups instead). Knowing the advantages and challenges with making daily backups can help you make an informed decision.

 

by Suhas Udayakumar

Are There Downsides to Frequent WordPress Backups?

Frequent WordPress backups can minimize data loss and thereby greatly help your business. However, they can be resource-intensive and affect your WordPress site performance, if not done right.  

Frequent backups present some obvious advantages which are particularly important for WordPress (WP) sites. Content creation takes some planning, effort and resources. Losing such content may become a major setback for your website. Daily backups minimize data loss in such cases.

Finding secure storage solutions is a real challenge with frequent WordPress backups.
Finding secure storage solutions is a real challenge with frequent WordPress backups.

WordPress sites are dependent on many third party plugins and themes. WordPress site owners are always running the risk of installing software that is not compatible with other plugins or themes on the site or installing those which may have some vulnerabilities. The risk of losing data from frequent updates and third-party software vulnerabilities is mitigated to a degree by having up-to-date backups.

 

Advantages of Frequent Backups

  • Minimize data loss
  • Reduce downtime
  • Retain updates & functionalities on WP sites

 

What are Frequent Backup Options?

Of course real-time backups is the best solution to achieve the goals stated above. Hourly/Daily backups may be the most frequent options apart from that.

 

Challenges with Frequent Backups

Higher frequency of performing backups brings its own complications. Backing up sites not only makes demands on your server resources but also brings up the issue of secure storage of the backups made. To add to the list of issues to consider, tracking whether backups have happened correctly and what has been backed up is not always easy.

 

Backups are Complicated

We have been in the business of premium WordPress backup service for over five years now. A number of things can, and do go wrong with backups. Sometimes when someone opts to backup their site manually, it is as simple as forgetting to perform frequent backups.

Often, WordPress site owners don’t know if backups are happening according to plan. Sometimes not all files are backed up.

In cases where site owners may have backups, restoring sites may not be easy. At other times, site owners who are relying on backups by web hosting services may not be fully aware of backup & storage policies. As a result, there have been times when WordPress site owners find out that there may not be any backups when they need it the most.

 

Resource Intensive

Increased load on your server resources could lead to an increased  site load time or pages crashing. Otherwise, the user experience of visitors to your site may be spoiled because certain elements in the site may not function as intended.

 

Large Sites Offer Their Own Problems

 

Backing up larger sites takes more time & more resources. In such cases it is possible that certain sites may not get backed up at all. This is because hosting services; especially on shared hosting, have policies about the time, and the server-resources that a particular task can take. In such cases although you may have employed a backup solution, your site may have not been backed up at all, or may have been backed up incompletely. In both cases, restoring the site is not possible.

 

Storage Space & Security

Frequent backups lead to multiple copies. Storing these copies securely can be a challenge. Storing backups on your own Dropbox accounts or local storage devices like your PC’s hard drive (HDD) or USB drive is not recommended.

Backups stored locally can become infected with malware as you are constantly browsing and downloading files. Also, HDDS or USB drives have been known to crash. This doesn’t even account for the risks associated with accidents and natural disasters.

Storage may drive up the cost of storing backups as you may have to invest in independent storage solutions.
In all the above cases the real risk is that eventually when you need to restore your site you may not have backups, have incomplete or infected backup files. This is not the optimal scenario for your business. Probably a good way to evaluate a backup solution is to list some scenarios in which you would need to rely on backups, and see if the backup solution in question will give you access to backups and allow you to restore your WordPress site.

 

The Answer?: Backup Service as a Solution

A WordPress backup service like BlogVault will not only take care of storage space and security but make incremental backups. This intelligent approach ensures that even large sites on shared hosting can be completely backed up. Apart from this backups services may also eliminate cache and log files from backups, thereby reducing problems at the time of restores. All of this is done automatically, thereby eliminating the human errors so that you can go about your business without worry.

 

With a WordPress backup service restoring your site is always the goal. When the time comes you will have multiple backups versions; securely stored, from which you can choose. You can also automatically restore your site with a single-click. Of, course a backup service comes with a more premium price tag but with the price you’ll have backups with best practices at your disposal.

 

by Ruby Paulson

The Pros and Cons of Automating Updates on WordPress

Updating WordPress is something that every site owner has to do, at least for WordPress’ security updates. Automating updates seems like the easy way out, but how do you know if your WordPress site is compatible with, and needs any other updates?

 

Atuotmatically updating your site might seem like an easy way out, but there's more to it than meets the eye.

 

Every new WordPress site owner faces a conundrum when it comes to updating their WordPress site. Even if you only have to click on ‘update’ to update the sites, there are so many updates happening so frequently that simply updating might seem like a gargantuan task. This is why automating the process might seem like an easier route to take.

 

What Does it Mean to ‘automate’ WordPress Updates?

Ever since version 3.7, WordPress has allowed security and translation updates to happen in the background of every default installation, but this doesn’t include major and add-on updates… Which means a huge chunk of updates are still not performed. This is why choosing to perform automated updates on your WordPress site is a tempting choice. Moreover, it’s an option that can be carried out in a number of ways. It means every update on your site would happen automatically. You wouldn’t be shown notifications, wouldn’t need to click on ‘update’ everywhere, and you can stay at peace.

 

Making this decision isn’t as easy as it sounds though, simple because of the consequences it might have on your site. This is why we’re going to break it down for you.

 

The Pros of Automating WordPress Updates

It reduces your workload

Automating updates for both WordPress Core and add-ons on your WordPress site isn’t recommended, since any of these updates could contain changes that might cause your site to crash. But even just automating WordPress’ major core updates would reduce the amount of work for you as a WordPress site owner, since you would only have to worry about the add-ons.

It makes your WordPress site better in every way

WordPress updates allow the addition of new features and security patches for known vulnerabilities, thus making WordPress sites more functional, and secure. Automating your site to update, therefore, would help your site be more functional for your site’s visitors and users, as well as more secure for everyone.

 

The Cons of Automating WordPress Updates

There are a number of downsides to automating updates on your WordPress site, but the extent to which this might affect your site negatively, depends on what you choose to update, and how you choose to do it.

Your WordPress site could crash

Depending on the functions, and the scale of the changes in the updates made (whether to WordPress Core or to add-ons), your WordPress site could crash.

If you automate WordPress Core updates, there is a possibility of the old add-ons on your site not being compatible with the Core changes. As a result, your site could crash.

Automating add-ons is not recommended. This is because there are thousands of different plugins and themes, and although they’re coded to be compatible with WordPress, they’re not all coded with each other in mind. This means your site could crash with the update of any one plugin or theme.

The aftermath of WordPress crashing takes time to fix

If you choose to configure your WordPress site to automatically update via code, and not a plugin or a service, you’ll have to make changes to your site’s wp-config file. This can be daunting, and can take time for a novice.

Moreover, no matter why your WordPress site crashes, you will have to restore it to a recent backup, and figure out which update caused your site to crash… which again will take time.

Automated updates with Managed WordPress Services have consequences too

Using managed WordPress services (those that update your WordPress site for you as a part of maintenance or hosting services) might seem like an easy option, but it also has a number of consequences.

  1. If you have chosen to enable automatic updates with a managed WordPress service, they will email you with the update schedule. In this case, you will have to check all the elements on your site for compatibility before approving the update.
  2. If an element on your WordPress site is not compatible with an update, you will have to ask your WordPress manager to postpone the update until you fix the issue.
  3. It is added trouble for you as a WordPress site owner, if you can not fix the issue causing incompatibilities by the time managed WordPress services force updates on your site. This would mean that your site would break, and you would have to restore it to a previous backup that is recent enough. If you own an e-commerce WordPress site, this isn’t an option, because of the constant input of data on your site.

 

Deciding to automate the updates to be made to your WordPress site isn’t an easy decision, especially if you don’t know your WordPress site inside-out. However, it’s something that every WordPress site owner has to do, a least for WordPress’ security updates. Learning whether your WordPress site needs any other updates to be updates is a time-taking experiment, but it’s one that will pay off in the end. The only way to make sure that your site is safe, is to rely on an intelligent, secure backup solution to create backups before you perform any update or make any changes to your WordPress site.

by Ruby Paulson

Introducing BlogVault’s New Dashboard!

Over the past few months, we’ve been working on a number of changes at BlogVault. Not only do we have an improved UI, we’ve also got a bunch of new features that are bound to make managing your WordPress site a lot easier, and secure.  

BlogVault has got a new dashboard that is better in every way, from allowing users to access our features for intuitively, to providing more than just backups.

Let’s take a look at a few of the changes, shall we?

Your BlogVault dashboard now has two major areas:

  1. Site Listing
  2. Site Details

Each area has specific functions, and together provide:

Ease of Use

BlogVault’s new site listing feature helps you see all the sites you’ve added to your BlogVault dashboard. From this part of the dashboard, you can filter sites based on their status:

 

The BlogVault dashboard's Site listing page

 

‘Active’ sites are those that have the BlogVault plugin installed on them, and use the plugin regularly.

‘No Plugin’ sites are those added to your dashboard but haven’t got the BlogVault plugin installed. (This could also be because of a problem during installation.)

Sites that are ‘Unreachable’ are those that have the plugin installed, but our servers are unable to reach, due to a connectivity error, or probably due to firewall or network settings.

‘Hacked’ sites are those that the BlogVault plugin has detected malicious files on.

We built in this categorization of sites to help you see exactly what’s going on with your sites at a glance. Moreover, the Site Listing page also allows you to find a particular site, based on tags that they might have (more on this later).

 

Easier Account Control

With our revamp, we’ve also changed your account and billing settings so they’re easier for you to manage.

 

The 'My Account' drawer opens up all the details related to your dashboard and subscription, easily.

 

Everything related to your BlogVault account is easily accessible, and easily changeable too from the ‘My Account’ drop-down. You can change anything about your account, from your email address to the BlogVault subscription plan you’re on.

Your profile on the BlogVault dashboard
Your profile on the BlogVault dashboard gives you important details at a glance.

 

Optimized for Teams

This brings us to our other new addition: the option to add team members to your BlogVault account. Our new Account settings allows you to manage a team that can handle every aspect of backup, management and security of the sites linked to the BlogVault account.

 

BlogVault's new dashboard is optimized so you and your team can manage and secure sites.
BlogVault’s new dashboard is optimized so you and your team can manage and secure sites.

New, Improved Features

BlogVault now comes as a comprehensive package that allows our customers to backup, manage and secure their websites in every way. All you have to do, is to click on any one active site from your Site Listing page.

 

The BlogVault dashboard gives you a plethora of options to help you manage and secure your site too!

 

As you can see, we offer you WordPress backups, but also management and security settings that help you manage and secure your WordPress site. While the old UI allowed you to see all the features on the right in a sidebar, we’ve revamped BlogVault to let you to see it all under each option (Backup/Management/Security).

Backup features

Our backup features have always been functional enough to rely on completely, but with our new UI, they’re more accessible, and easier to use.

 

Backup features on the new BlogVault dashboard
Backup features on the new BlogVault dashboard

History

The History tab has been given a full revamp, and allows you to see the last 30 backups made of your site more clearly. You can see exactly what happened with each backup, and add notes more easily as well.

 

backup_2_history_

 

 

Again, as you can see, you can select any backup version you have and choose to migrate, test restore, or automatically restore from it. You can also upload any version to Dropbox, or add a notes to help you differentiate versions.

Download Backup / Upload Backup

Both ‘Download Backup’ and ‘Upload to Dropbox’ options are very different functions, but have a single form, that requires the following:

  1. The backup version you would like to download (or upload from)
  2. Your site’s database credentials
  3. Your hosting server’s credentials (which come under Advanced Options, along with the next option)
  4. A choice of whether you’d like to store either tables and files, only tables, or only files from your WordPress site

There is also a section that requires your HTTP Authentication credentials, which are your WordPress site’s credentials.

 

Both 'Upload to Dropbox' and 'Download backup' functions use the same form
Both ‘Upload to Dropbox’ and ‘Download backup’ functions use the same form

 

Migrate

The ‘Migrate’ option allows you to easily move all your site’s content and functionality to a different domain name or a different hosting service. All you require for this option, are the FTP credentials of the new site/domain/hosting service you’d like to move to.

 

Migrating with the new dashboard (the Auto Restore and Migrate features use the same form)
Migrating with the new dashboard (the Auto Restore and Migrate features use the same form)

 

Auto Restore

Perfect for when your site suddenly goes down, the ‘Auto Restore’ backup option has the same form to fill up, except that it requires the FTP credentials of the site you’d like to restore (which is your current site).

As you can see from the previous screenshot, we’ve also got a handy FAQ section on the right for all migration and auto restore- related FTP questions, so you have all the answers at your fingertips.

Test Restore

This option creates a test-environment (a replica), based on the latest backup version of your site, complete with the links, videos, images, and everything else on your site. You can click on these links, and they’ll work like they would on your site. Once BlogVault is done creating this test-version of your site, we mail you the link you can access it on, along with its FTP details, so you can experiment and see if you want to make any changes to your site.

If you’d like to make a Test-Restore of a different backup version of your site, you’ll have to go to the History tab, select the desired backup version, and then restore from it.

You can perform a Test Restore with a single click
You can perform a Test Restore with a single click

 

Backup Now

BlogVault automatically backups your WordPress site every 24 hours, but if the backup schedule is just too far away (such as when you want to make an instrumental change but want to make a backup just before), this option comes in handy.

The Backup Now option also shows up on the Management and Security functionalities (just look for the following icon):

Backup Now icon

This allows you to backup your site before making any changes to it.

 

Management Features

From allowing you to manage your WordPress site’s users to  helping you update the plugins and themes on your site, the Management feature allows you to manage your WordPress site to be secure against threats.

 

The Management features now available on your BlogVault dashboard
The Management features now available on your BlogVault dashboard

 

Manage Plugins

You can manage all the plugins and themes installed on your WordPress site from this option. This means you can see the version you have of each, as well as whether to update specific add-ons, or all of them.

Manage Users

With the ‘Manage Users’ option, you can remotely delete, or change the role or password of those who have access to the site, without having to log in to your WordPress site’s dashboard.

 

Managing your WordPress site's users with the BlogVault dashboard
Managing your WordPress site’s users with the BlogVault dashboard

 

Security Features

We also have a Security feature that allows you to harden your site and clean your site of malware. The Security feature helps you harden your WordPress site, as well as to clean malware and hacked files with a single click. Moreover, since our scanner is built to be accurate and intelligent, it detects the most complex hacks, without raising false alarms, or alerting you of ‘possible hacks’.

 

The Security features on the BlogVault dashboard: When you have a hack on your site, it lets you see the files, Auto Clean with a single click, and harden your site so it's more secure
The Security features on the BlogVault dashboard let you harden your site against future attacks, lets you see hacked files when you have a hack, Auto Clean with a single click, scan your site whenever you want

 

Secure Site

The BlogVault dashboard now features hardening settings under the ‘Secure Site’ feature. These are settings recommended by WordPress, that help make your site more secure against hacks. We’ve categorised these settings into two sections: Basic, and Advanced.

Here is a look at some of the basic security fixes:

 

Basic Secure Site settings
Basic Secure Site settings

 

The advanced security fixes require some caution though– even if they can’t break your site, you won’t be able to install new plugins or themes on your site if you have them enabled.

 

Advanced and Paranoid Secure Site settings
Advanced Secure Site settings

 

The convenient thing about these settings though, is that to enable (or disable) these settings, you have to only select the ones you’d like to enforce or remove, enter your WordPress site’s FTP credentials, and select the folder that your WordPress site is installed from.

Hacked Files

This option only appears when you have a hack on your WordPress site. It identifies the hacked file for you and pinpoints it, so you can look specifically at that one file, if you want to. If you’d rather just clean out the hack with a single click, you can do so by clicking on the ‘Auto Clean’ button.

 

When you click on 'Hacked Files', a list of just the hacked files appears. You can choose to clean them automatically by clicking on the 'Auto Clean' button.

 

Auto Clean

Another feature that only appears when you have a hack, the Auto Clean function helps you remove malicious code on your site with a single click. Since we’ve built our cleaner to even identify complex hacks, you can choose to remove them immediately, without technical assistance.

Once you click on the Auto Clean function, you are taken to the form asking for your WordPress site’s FTP details.

 

Clicking on the 'Auto Clean' button takes you to the same FTP form that appeared for 'Migrate' and 'Auto Restore'
Clicking on the ‘Auto Clean’ button takes you to the same FTP form that appeared for ‘Migrate’ and ‘Auto Restore’

 

Once you enter your WordPress site’s FTP details, your site will be cleaned.

Scan now

One of the most revolutionary additions to our dashboard, the ‘Scan Now’ feature allows you to scan your site for hacks at any given point of time. Our malware scanner looks for hacks based on the actions the code performs, rather than signatures, or keywords. So no more backdoors, or recurring hacks. Before scanning your site, we run a backup so you always have the latest version of your site to fall back on.

 

 

When you click on 'Scan Now', the dashboard backs up your WordPress site
When you click on ‘Scan Now’, the dashboard backs up your WordPress site

 

Better Navigation

We’ve tried to make the new dashboard as functional as possible. One of the steps we’ve taken in this direction, is the addition of ‘Quick Links’ that help you download backups, migrate backups to a new location, or restore it with a click. This section also has ‘Resources’, which help give you a quick snapshot of everything you need to know about your WordPress site. Perfect for emergencies, the icons for these functions, and the information related to your site, are right under your site’s thumbnail, on the Site Details page.

 

Features and information on the left for better, easier navigation
Features and information on the left for better, easier navigation

 

Since these features are in-built into BlogVault’s dashboard, we backup your site automatically before making any changes to your WordPress site. This makes it a comprehensive solution to help you manage your site in the most secure way possible. BlogVault has always been focused on giving our customers the best experience, in the most reliable, sensible way, and we hope you’ll find our new makeover to be as practical as we intended it to be.

If you’ve got questions about the new dashboard, or suggestions, do reach out to us here.

 

by Ruby Paulson

Automated Updates on WordPress: Choosing the right way to do it

WordPress site owners are constantly asked to update their sites. But keeping track of updates is incredibly difficult, because of the frequency and number of updates to be made. This is why automating updates might a useful practice.

 

Making sure your WordPress site is up to date could be an overwhelming process, since there are so many releases.

 

If there’s one piece of advice in the world of WordPress for site owners, it’s this: update, update, update. Updating WordPress is easy in theory, especially since all site-owners receive notifications about core and plugin updates. When it has to be put into practice, though, updating WordPress is its own beast. Not only might updates break WordPress sites; they might also cause incompatibilities, and be impossible to undo as well. This is why it’s important to always have a reliable backup solution for WordPress sites.

Updating WordPress is an important task though, because of new features that might impact user experience, but also security updates that help against major vulnerabilities. However, with WordPress receiving updates very frequently on the Core as well as the add-on front, it is difficult to keep up with all the changes, and apply them. This is why automating updates on WordPress sites might be a workable solution for you as a WordPress site owner.

Types of WordPress Updates

While updates for WordPress add-ons have both developmental as well as security updates, updates for WordPress core perform different functions. Based on these functions, WordPress Core updates can be categorized into:

  1. Release updates, which contain both Major and Minor releases.
    1. Major updates contain developmental changes including the addition of new features, or changes to core technologies on WordPress. Every major release is named after a major jazz musician.
    2. Minor updates contain security patches and fixes. As a result, they are highly recommended, and are automated by default on every installation of WordPress. Every WordPress site is recommended to run these updates since they contain important security updates that keep WordPress sites safe.
  2. Developmental updates, which are only for the changes that might be unstable– these updates are what future developments are built on. Also known as ‘bleeding edge’ updates, they are only meant for sites running the developmental version of WordPress.
  3. Translation updates (which are language packs), and come in handy if your WordPress site has multilingual support.

Depending on your comfort-level with code, and the time you’re willing to spend maintaining your site, you could automate your WordPress site’s updates manually, with the help of a plugin, or via managed WordPress services. Every method has its pros and cons, so it’s best to choose one with careful thought.

Automating WordPress Updates the Manual Way

This method will require you to make changes to your WordPress installation’s core files.

How to automate updates to WordPress Core the Manual Way

Updating WordPress Core includes making changes to the wp-config.php file.

WordPress contains a parameter called define( ‘WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE’) in the wp-config file. The value you assign this function determines WordPress release update is automated.

To Automate All WordPress Core Updates

Assign the value ‘true’ to the above function, as demonstrated:

define( ‘WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE’, true );

This will enable the automation of all release updates, developmental updates, and translation updates on your WordPress site.

To Only Automate WordPress Core Minor Release Updates

As mentioned, WordPress automatically makes Minor release and translation updates to your site. However, if you disabled all automatic updates by assigning the above function the value ‘false, you would have disabled Minor updates too. Just assign the value minor to the same function above, instead of true. This will disable all updates other than Minor updates, which keep your WordPress site secure.

Here’s how you do it:

define( ‘WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE’, minor );

 

How to Automate Updates to WordPress Add-ons the Manual Way

Automatically updating add-ons isn’t recommended by WordPress, since the developers’ updates might work for that plugin/theme, but might be incompatible with other add-ons or elements on your WordPress site. However, if your WordPress site is simple and has very few plugins/themes that are compatible with each other, it might not be as big a problem.

In order to manually configure your installation of WordPress to update plugins & themes, you have to make modifications to a filter called auto_update_$type, found in the wp-admin folder. The value assigned to $type determines which WordPress add-on is updated automatically.

To automatically update all plugins on your WordPress site, the filter must read:

add_filter( ‘auto_update_plugin’, ‘__return_true’ );

To automatically update all themes on your WordPress site, the filter must read:

add_filter( ‘auto_update_theme’, ‘__return_true’ );

Pros of Manual Automation of Updates

  • The code isn’t complex, so it’s beginner friendly.
  • Manual automation is free.
  • WordPress site owners won’t have to install an extra plugin just to keep their site up to date.

Cons of Manual Automation of Updates

  • The changes have to be made to the WordPress wp-config.php files and the wp-admin folder. This might make some WordPress users uncomfortable, especially since changes to the WordPress core files are not recommended.
  • Making the changes to code might require some time, especially for WordPress novices.
  • If your site crashes with any update, you will have to check your site’s status after disabling each update manually.

 

Automating Your WordPress Site with Plugins

This method comes in handy for WordPress site-owners who do not want to tinker with code themselves, and don’t mind installing an extra plugin on their site. A couple of examples of plugins that help automate updates, are Advanced Automatic Updates, and WP Updates Settings.

How to Use the Advanced Automatic Updates Plugin

Step 1: Install and activate the plugin.

Step 2: Locate the plugin under your WordPress site’s Settings tab, and click on it.

Using the Advanced Automatic Updates plugin

 

Step 3: Check the kind of updates you would like to automate on your WordPress site.

 

Updating Themes with the Advanced Automatic Updates plugin

 

If you would like notifications about these updates to be sent to an email address other than the one of the site owner, you can enter it here:

 

Notifications with Advanced Automatic Updates

 

As you can see, you can also disable email notifications about the same, and request for debug information (in case you’re running development updates).

How to Use the WP Updates Plugin

Step 1: Install and activate the plugin.

Step 2: Just like for the Automatic Updates plugin, locate the Updates tab under your Settings tab, and click on it.

 

The WP Updates plugin shows up under Settings

 

Step 2: Choose the kind of WordPress Core release updates you would like to automate on your WordPress site.

 

Core Updates with the WP Updates plugin

 

Step 3: Choose whether you would like to automatically update add-ons on your WordPress site.

 

Plugin and theme updates with the WP Updates plugin

 

Step 4: If you’d like translation and developmental updates, click on the appropriate check-boxes.

 

Click on these checkboxes if you want other updates also to be automated.

 

Pros of Automating Your WordPress Updates With a Plugin

  • These plugins do the work for you: you don’t have to manually tinker with any code; they’ll do it for you.
  • Most plugins that automate WordPress sites allow you to enable or disable different updates with a single click.

Cons of Automating Your WordPress Updates With a Plugin

  • This will require you to install an extra plugin just for updating your WordPress site.
  • Some plugins only update WordPress core, while others will allow you to update add-ons as well.
  • You, as a WordPress site owner, will still need to weed out problems if your site crashes with updates.

Using Managed Services to Automate Your WordPress Site

There are two types of managed services you could use to automate updates on your WordPress site: managed WordPress hosting, and WordPress support and maintenance services.

Managed WordPress Hosting

These services help manage your WordPress site’s hosting issues, as well as a few issues related to your WordPress site as well. A couple of examples of managed WordPress hosting services/ managed WordPress hosting providers are Flywheel, and WP Engine. These services automate the update of your entire WordPress site, but after the following steps meant to benefit you no matter the state of compatibility of your WordPress site:

  1. The hosting provider checks their systems for compatibility with WP updates (whether this includes both core and add-on updates depends on the web host).
  2. They then mail you beforehand with the dates for your WordPress site’s update.
  3. Every managed hosting service performs a backup of your WordPress site before the update. Only after this do they perform the update.
  4. Once they perform the update, they check for issues.
  5. If your WordPress site is not compatible with the update, the managed hosting provider restores your site with the backup that they made.
  6. The service then mails you about the status of the update (successful/unsuccessful, and reasons if unsuccessful).
  7. If you’ve tested your site and found it incompatible, you can ask certain web hosting services to postpone updates till you fix the issue at hand.

Notes:

Plugin and theme updates are not done automatically by managed WordPress hosting services, simply because different plugins have settings that might conflict with each other and break your site.

If you’d still like to automate the updates of add-ons, you can get in touch with your WordPress host about the same.

Since each managed hosting service has different terms and conditions, and pricing plans, it is recommended that you read their documentation carefully, and then get in touch via email or from their in-website chat support.

Pros of Using a Managed Web Hosting Service With Automatic WordPress Updates

  • You, as a WordPress site owner, don’t have to fiddle with the WordPress core files.
  • Your WordPress hosting service tests and runs WordPress updates for you.

Cons of Using a Managed Web Hosting Service With Automatic WordPress Updates

  • Managed WordPress hosting comes at a price.
  • These services don’t take care of all the issues that might come up during updating your WordPress site. If your site has certain customizations that makes it incompatible with WordPress updates, these services might mail you asking for you to seek a professional developer’s assistance. This means even if you’re paying a premium price for managed hosting, you might also have to hire a WordPress developer separately.

WordPress Support and Maintenance Services

WordPress support and maintenance services (such as WP Curve, WP Maintainer, and Valet), are perfect for super-busy site owners who can afford to have a full-time service just for maintaining their WordPress sites. In terms of updates and maintenance, these services usually perform the following functions:

  1. Core and add-on updates.
  2. Support/repairs in case of incompatibility.
  3. Audit of the security and maintenance of your site so the chances of it breaking upon update are reduced.
  4. Regular backups to rely on in case of incompatibility with any update.

Similar to managed WordPress hosting services, it is recommended that you go through the list of their offerings, (and their pricing plans) carefully. All you have to do after that, is contact them over email, or from their respective websites.

Pros of Depending on WordPress Support and Maintenance Services

  • Since you are paying these services specifically to maintain your WordPress site, you can expect them to solve any problems you might have while updating your WordPress site.
  • You need not hire a developer to this end.

Cons of Depending on WordPress Support and Maintenance Services

  • These services come at a premium price, and usually require you to pay more in order to fix issues that might come up during updates. Each service has its own pricing plan.
  • A number of maintenance and support services do not provide free support, so if you run into issues with your site, it might be expensive to get them sorted out.

Automating your WordPress site might seem like an easy fix that will help your WordPress site stay up to date with security patches and new features, but it also comes with many caveats. Not only might updates your site break, but they might also be difficult to undo. This is why it is imperative for every WordPress site owner to maintain a recent, secure backup of their WordPress sites that can be relied on.

by Suhas Udayakumar

How Often Should You Backup Your WordPress Sites?

Frequent WordPress backups contribute greatly towards efficient your WordPress restores. The battle is between resource consuming hourly backups and infrequent backups which increase the risk of data loss. Do you know what is the right answer?

The frequency of WordPress backups is a much-discussed topic. At BlogVault we believe that ideally, WordPress sites must be backed up at least once a day. This is a logical idea when you consider that all backups are meant for recovering your site. This means you want to minimize data loss, when you restore your WordPress site.

Daily backups, however, is not a ‘golden frequency’. Different types of sites require backups to be made at different frequencies. Daily backups strike a balance between minimizing data loss and not consuming too many resources of your WordPress site’s servers. Backing up more frequently, however; especially when done inefficiently, may affect your site’s performance. On the other hand, backing up infrequently, like on a weekly/monthly backup schedule may mean that you lose substantial amount of data.

 

How frequently do you backup your WordPress site?

 

WordPress Backup Frequency

 

Why Make Daily Backups?

We mentioned that daily backups ensure that updates to all the posts and pages of your site are saved. WordPress users who manage smaller sites may feel that daily backups are not as important. This may be because the website is not updated with new content. However, we have to remember that WordPress sites are run on plugins and themes which are updated often. Older backups will not contain these updates and restoring them is not very efficient. This can also cause security concerns as plugin and theme updates include security updates too.

 

Restoring from Older WordPress Backups

If older backups are restored, then you may have to go back and update all the plugins, themes and may be even WordPress core. This may not be feasible in case you own multiple sites or have many plugins and and themes on your site.

Also, backups bring up compatibility issues. In case you restore older backups, then you can only test these issues after the site has been restored and the updates are made. However, the more recent the backup, the easier it is to test for functionality. Of course, with a WordPress backup service like BlogVault you can test your backups with a single click.

 

What Type of WordPress Site Do You Have?

 

E-commerce sites & Popular Blogs

While daily backups are a great option, for e-commerce and popular blogs it still may not be enough. For e-commerce sites, it is crucial to track transactions, data on pending orders, and the delivery status of orders with utmost immediacy. For popular blogs, comments and content can be generated very regularly; and this includes news sites. In such cases, real-time backups is the answer.

 

Real-time Backups for WordPress Sites

Backups in real-time are meant to save every change as soon as the changes are made, (or at least as quickly as possible). The concern with this is of course the effect on WordPress site-performance. However, when done right, real-time WordPress backups can be a comprehensive solution.

Real-time backup solutions for WordPress sites track changes and backup only those changes to the site as quickly as possible. Since only the changes are backed up, even large sites with frequent updates and changes can be completely backed up without affecting site performance. However, there are different methods to achieve this result and results vary depending on how effectively your backup plugin does the job.

 

Frequency is Key to Having Secure WordPress Backups

If backups do not allow you to make efficient restores then the point has been missed. Making daily or real-time backups are key to having functional backups which are ready for restores. A WordPress backup service, can allow you to not only automate the frequency of your backups; but also ensure that your backups follow other best practices of WordPress backups as well.