Backing up your website’s database regularly is essential. As someone who has experienced data loss firsthand, I can’t stress enough how important it is to make routine backups — it can save you time, stress, and sometimes even your entire website.
Most modern websites rely on a back-end database. If something goes wrong — whether it’s an accidental deletion, corruption, or malicious activity — and the data is not part of a recent backup, recovering it can be impossible.
Pro Tip:
Before making big changes like updating your CMS, installing new plugins, or publishing major content, download a local backup of your database.
Steps to Backup Your Database in cPanel:
Step 1: Log into your cPanel account.
Step 2: Under the Files section, click Backup.
Step 3: In the Download a MySQL Database Backup section, click the name of the database you want to back up (e.g., userna5_wordpress).
Step 4: Your browser will begin downloading a compressed .sql.gz file of your database.
Done!
You now have a safe, working copy of your database saved locally on your computer. If anything ever goes wrong, you can restore your site using this backup.
