Making Your Own Off-Site Backups Print

Overview

Foxpress Cloud includes automatic daily backups for every shared hosting account. While our backups provide strong protection, keeping your own off-site copy of your website gives you an extra layer of security and full control over your data.

This article walks you through several ways to download and store your own backups.

Why Keep Your Own Backups?

• Independence: You have a copy of your data that does not depend on any hosting provider.
• Faster recovery: If you need to move to a new host or restore a specific file, having a local copy saves time.
• Version history: By saving periodic backups, you can go back to a specific point in time, not just the most recent snapshot.
• Peace of mind: The best backup strategy uses multiple locations. Our server-side backups plus your own off-site copy means your data is protected even in worst-case scenarios.

Option 1: Download a Full Backup from cPanel

1. Log in to your cPanel account at yourdomain.com/cpanel
2. Scroll to the Files section and click Backup Wizard
3. Click Back Up, then choose Full Backup
4. Select Home Directory as the backup destination and click Generate Backup
5. Once the backup is ready, you will receive an email notification. Return to the Backup Wizard to download the file.

The full backup includes your files, databases, email accounts, and cPanel settings in a single compressed archive.

Option 2: Download Individual Components

If you only need specific parts of your account, cPanel lets you download them separately:

1. Go to Backup Wizard in cPanel
2. Click Back Up, then choose Partial Backup
3. Download your Home Directory, individual MySQL Databases, or Email Forwarders/Filters as needed

Option 3: Use File Manager to Download Specific Files

1. In cPanel, open File Manager
2. Navigate to the folder you want to back up (e.g. public_html)
3. Select the files or folders, then click Compress to create a zip archive
4. Download the archive to your computer

Option 4: WordPress Backup Plugins

If your site runs WordPress, you can use a backup plugin to schedule automatic off-site backups to services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3:

• UpdraftPlus (free and paid versions available)
• All-in-One WP Migration (good for creating portable site archives)
• BlogVault (managed backup service with one-click restore)

These plugins run independently of server-level backups, giving you an additional safety net.

How Often Should You Back Up?

• Before any major change: Always back up before updating WordPress, installing new plugins, or making significant content changes.
• Weekly or monthly: For most sites, downloading a copy once a week or once a month is a good habit.
• After adding important content: If you have just published a large batch of new pages, products, or posts, grab a fresh backup.

Where to Store Your Backups

Save your backup files somewhere separate from your hosting account. Good options include:

• Your local computer or an external hard drive
• A cloud storage service (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud)
• A dedicated backup service (Backblaze B2, Amazon S3)

The key is that your backup lives in a different location than your website. If something happens to the server, your off-site copy is safe.

Need Help?

If you need assistance creating a backup or restoring from one, open a support ticket and we will help you through it.