Hi Frankieplus
All content such as posts, pages, custom menus, widgets etc are stored in the database. Did you delete the database?
no this method is not okay. The files are only half of your site, and I’d argue that they are less important than having your database backed up, because that is what you have written. In the event that your server goes down, you could get your site online again with just the database. you would be missing photos, etc, but at least your blog posts and pages would still be there. Check out wp-db-manager plugin – it should get you going with a nightly database backup. I have a gmail account that I set up just to get my nightly backups of all of my sites.
Len, rfair404.. Thanks for your responses..
Could you please help me understand what I did? Here is what happened.
1.Via FTP I downloaded the entire \wordpress file and folder structure as a backup.
2. I went and made changes to menus and pages on my blog.
3. I then decided I didn’t want the changes so I wanted an easy way to get back to the way I gad it..
4. So I then deleted the entire \wordpress file and folder structure from the server.
3. I re uploaded the entire \wordpress file and folder structure back from my computer to the server. Same way as it was.
All is working fine. I logged into PhpMyAdmin and it looks like my wordpress Database is there, alive and well..
The changes I made to the menus and pages that I didn’t want are *still there* even though I re uploaded the \wordpress file structre.
I’m assuming that now that I know better, that this is because the changes were made to the database files which I didn’t back up but somehow didn’t delete? Am I right?
But just for the education, where are the database files for wordpress located anyway? They can’t be in the wordpress folders or I would have deleted them. ??
-Frankie
Does you host give you access to phpMyAdmin? It’s something you should learn to be familiar with eventually.
For now, listen to rfair404’s suggestion about that backup plugin he linked to.
As I said, all content is stored in the database. As such, that is what you really want to be backing up.
EDIT: Ignore my question about phpMyAdmin – I didn’t read you reply thoroughly enough. 🙂
The changes you made are still there because all content is stored in the database, not files. WordPress is dynamic in nature and not static. The software interacts with your database.
Howdy @frankieplus,
As the other posters have noted, the information that you changed is STORED IN THE DATABASE!!! Post content, page content, menu items, theme selections, … get the idea 🙂 ANYTHING you can CHANGE in the Admin, IS STORED IN THE DATABASE. Period. WP does NOT create or modify FILES! Plugins are an exception; when you install a new plugin, those files are copied to the file/folder structure but there are also entries made in the DATABASE! 🙂
Cheers!
Lyle
The changes I made to the menus and pages that I didn’t want are *still there* even though I re uploaded the \wordpress file structre.
I’m assuming that now that I know better, that this is because the changes were made to the database files which I didn’t back up but somehow didn’t delete? Am I right?
Yes. Your DATA is in the database.
The only ‘content’ that lives on the server are your image uploads (in wp-content/uploads)
