Backup website

2 minute read

The single most important aspect of managing the website is to ensure that backups exist before making significant changes.

Scheduled backups

Backups are scheduled to occur every day at 12:05am Pacific time. The backup retention schedule is:

  • Past 12 weeks - daily backups are all retained
  • Previous 40 weeks - one backup per week is retained

This means that for the past three months we can restore the web site to how it was on a particular day, and for the nine months before that we can restore the website to how it was on a particular week.

When a backup is needed

Some actions, such as creating or deleting test content, do not require a backup. Other actions, such as modifying the theme or updating plugins, can have significantly more dramatic effects.

It is highly recommended to create a backup before the following tasks:

  • Updating, adding, or deleting a plugin
  • Modifying a theme
  • Modifying the menu
  • Deleting content (and removing it from the recycle bin)

A backup is not necessary before:

  • Creating new content
  • Deleting content (but not removing it from the recycle bin)

Running a manual backup

It is safe to rely on a scheduled backup for most purposes. However, if you are doing a lot of work on the website and wish to preserve everything you’ve done since 12:05am, you can run a manual backup.


Last modified August 13, 2020: Update backup content (a882f6a)