Title: Upgrading WP- Database backup
Last modified: August 20, 2016

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# Upgrading WP- Database backup

 *  [lzr0](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lzr0/)
 * (@lzr0)
 * [14 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/upgrading-wp-database-backup/)
 * Hi,
    My webhost (GoDaddy) provides a tool for SQL database backup and restore.
   I read WP codex on database backup, but still don’t understand- is it sufficient
   to have SQL backup, or I need additionally to backup my wp_content (or possibly
   something else)?
 * My second question is: since the WP instructs to disable plugins before upgrading
   WP version, will all plugins settings stay after I disable and then re-enable
   them, or I would need to customize them from scratch (I am talking about plugins
   like SEO, cache, etc.)?

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

 *  [Sugar Apple](https://wordpress.org/support/users/blacklizt/)
 * (@blacklizt)
 * [14 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/upgrading-wp-database-backup/#post-2795643)
 * 1. you need to back all of your database table also with wp-content
    – database
   hold your wordpress configuration and post – wp-content hold your themes, plugins,
   upload, etc the most important priority is database backup, at least backup ur
   database twice a week.
 * 2. you do not need to configure the plugins again after upgrading wp.
    but make
   sure you have database backup before upgrading wp.
 *  Thread Starter [lzr0](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lzr0/)
 * (@lzr0)
 * [14 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/upgrading-wp-database-backup/#post-2795656)
 * > you need to back all of your database table also with wp-content…
 * blacklizt,
    Do you mean by “database table” all folders and files? In other words,
   I need to download everything from root directory, correct? I am still confused,
   what does sql backup do? lzr
 *  [Johnb81](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnb81/)
 * (@johnb81)
 * [14 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/upgrading-wp-database-backup/#post-2795664)
 * Hi Izr0,
 * WordPress mainly uses:
 * 1. The MySQL database to store the actual content, comments, information about
   each user and some plugins store data there as well.
 * 2. The php files which are the main script which connects to the database and
   that is WordPress. This can be downloaded each time from WordPress.org
 * 3. wp-content is the directory which contains all the plugins and themes you 
   are using.
 * So to make a proper backup, you need to back up the MySQL database (typically
   a *.sql file) and the wp-content directory only.
 * To be on the safe side, I would recommend you to download and backup all the 
   files and directories in the root of your website, including wp-admin etc. Some
   people have additional folders (unrelated to WordPRess) which they might still
   need. So backing up the root is always recommended.
 *  [Sugar Apple](https://wordpress.org/support/users/blacklizt/)
 * (@blacklizt)
 * [14 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/upgrading-wp-database-backup/#post-2795705)
 * > database table
 *  for example you have a database called “wordpress” then inside the database 
   there are some tables. You need to backup all tables or in simple words you need
   to backup “wordpress” database.
 * 1. MySql database hold all information of your wordpress like posts, pages, comments,
   configuration, etc. If you lose this, then you need to make new posts, configure
   anything from scratch, lose your visitor comments, etc.
 * 2. Talking about files backup, the most important from files backup is anything
   inside wp-content due any uploads (media, plugins, themes) are in this folder.
   So back-up this folder is very important.
 * 3. If you have free time, you can also backup files on root folder. To save your
   time, separate the backup. i mean, backup the root files without wp-content (
   it will save time to download) then backup the wp-content.
 * So you will have 2 backups, first the root files without wp-content and the second
   only wp-content files.
 * *) root folder is where you can find wp-config.php
 *  Thread Starter [lzr0](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lzr0/)
 * (@lzr0)
 * [14 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/upgrading-wp-database-backup/#post-2795730)
 * blacklizt and Johnb81,
    Thanks, lzr

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

The topic ‘Upgrading WP- Database backup’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [sql](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/sql/)
 * [upgrade](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/upgrade/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 5 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [lzr0](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lzr0/)
 * Last activity: [14 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/upgrading-wp-database-backup/#post-2795730)
 * Status: not resolved

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