Backing up your Database

If you have a website running a shopping cart or it is built with WordPress, Joomla or one of the many other content management systems it's likely you have a MySQL database. It is important to backup a copy of your database on a regular basis, often times this is a hard lesson to learn because it is too late. Bakcing up your database is easy to do in PHPMyAdmin. We'll show you how to backup your database using PHPMyAdmin and assume that you alreayd know how to log into cPanel. If you need assistance with cPanel please review our article on How to log into cPanel. 

1. Once you have logged into cPanel, click on the icon "PHPMyAdmin" in the databases section. Once you have done that you should see a screen similiar to the one below.



2. Click on the tab labeled "Export" at the top of the page.



3. Select your databases you wish to backup from the list on the left side and check the "SQL" radio button under the list.



4. Make sure the "Structure" box is checked as well as "Add if not EXISTS", "Add AUTO_INCREMENT value" and "Enclose table and field names with backquotes". These are typically checked by default.



5. Scroll down the page to the "Save as file" section. Select the compression you wish to use. This can be important is you have a large database to help you control the size of the file.



6. Click the "Go" button in the bottom right corner of the "Save as file" section.



7. Congratulations! You have now successfully backed up your database.