Announcing Duplicator WP-CLI Commands (And How They Speed Up Backups)
Looking for a smarter way to manage site backups? Explore Duplicator's new features, including customizable WP-CLI commands and permission settings!
Announcing Duplicator WP-CLI Commands (And How They Speed Up Backups)
Joella Dunn
Joella Dunn
John Turner
John Turner
If you have limited server space, you might not want to store website backups locally. That’s where cloud storage services like Microsoft OneDrive come in.
By integrating OneDrive with your WordPress site, you’ll safely store backups off-site. If things go south, you’ll always have a recent copy to fall back on.
This tutorial will show you how to back up WordPress to OneDrive. Let’s start protecting your website!
Backing up your website is an important step in keeping your data secure. If you ever have a critical error or unexpected cyber attack, you can simply restore backup files you have on hand.
One of the easiest ways to create a backup is by installing a WordPress backup plugin. By default, these will usually save your backup on your local server. However, you might want to store backups off-site.
Fortunately, you can use a cloud service like Microsoft OneDrive as your backup storage location. Using OneDrive, you’ll be able to access and download your backups even when your site is offline.
Here are some key benefits of backing up your WordPress site to Google Drive:
With a free OneDrive account, you’ll have up to 5GB of storage space. If you need room for more backups, you can upgrade to a Microsoft 365 subscription. The basic plan starts at $19.99 per year and comes with 100GB of cloud storage.
After you create a Microsoft account, you might not know how to send your WordPress backups to OneDrive. Fortunately, we’ll walk you through every step of the way.
If you want to start using OneDrive as your cloud backup service, you could manually create a backup and then upload it to your OneDrive dashboard. However, there is an easier way.
Using a backup plugin like Duplicator Pro, you can instantly connect your WordPress website to your OneDrive account. It’ll create copies of your data and protect them in the cloud.
Duplicator is a beginner-friendly tool that allows you to build backups in minutes. It can automatically save your WordPress backups to remote storage services like:
To start using Duplicator’s built-in cloud storage integrations, select a subscription for the Pro version. Although there is a free plugin available, it’s important to upgrade so that you can get remote storage options.
After your purchase, save your license key and download Duplicator Pro. Then, open your WordPress dashboard and install and activate the plugin.
As a final step, you’ll need to activate your license key. To do this, go to Duplicator Pro » Settings » General.
Paste your custom license key and click on Activate.
Duplicator supports a wide variety of cloud storage services. To start using OneDrive, you’ll need to connect your third-party account.
Head over to Duplicator Pro » Storage. Here, you’ll see that the default storage is your local server. Click on Add New.
Give the new storage location a name. Then, select OneDrive in the Type dropdown menu.
Now you’ll need to authorize Duplicator to make changes to your OneDrive account. This will allow backups to be sent automatically to your third-party storage folder.
If you’re using a Microsoft business account, turn the toggle on. Duplicator will request read and write permissions for all folders. Then, hit Connect to OneDrive.
After this, you’ll see new steps to authenticate the OneDrive connection. First, click on Authorize OneDrive.
This will open a new browser window, where you’ll need to sign into Microsoft OneDrive. When prompted, allow Duplicator to create and update your OneDrive files.
Once finished, you’ll receive an authorization code.
Copy this and paste it into Step 2 of the authorization guide.
Finally, click on the Finalize Setup button. This will connect Duplicator to OneDrive!
If you have a free OneDrive account, you will only be able to store up to 5GB of backups. To make sure you don’t surpass this, consider setting a number of Max Backups.
Duplicator will delete any old backups that exceed this limit. Plus, you won’t have to sift through hundreds of backups to find the most recent copy of your website.
Now it’s time to create your first cloud backup! After you set up your OneDrive account, go to Duplicator Pro » Backups » Add New.
At the top, you can change the backup name format with dynamic tags. Feel free to add your site’s title, the current date, your domain, and any other information you need. This helps you identify the right backup later.
Next, expand the Storage section. From your list of storage options, select OneDrive.
You can choose exactly what data to include in the backup file. To save storage space, you could remove inactive plugins, themes, or media files. However, this customization is totally up to you.
Once you click Next, Duplicator will scan your website. Be sure to look over any notices before continuing.
Then, your website will be compiled into a backup. Once the backup files are built, Duplicator will transfer them to your OneDrive folder.
With Duplicator, creating manual backups is pretty easy. However, you might want to save time with scheduled backups. By setting up an automated backup schedule, your backups will be created and sent to OneDrive without any assistance from you.
To schedule a backup now, head over to Duplicator Pro » Schedule Backups » Add New.
Give your schedule a name. If you want to customize what data is saved in the backup, feel free to create a backpu template. However, select Default for complete backups.
Under Storage, choose OneDrive.
Now you can customize exactly when Duplicator will back up your site. The plugin supports monthly, weekly, hourly, and daily backup schedules. Using the dropdown next to Repeats, select one of these options.
Then, choose a date and time for your backup schedule. Lastly, enable the schedule and save it.
This will keep your site backed up regularly! Since your backups will be sent to OneDrive, they’ll be safe from server crashes or other errors.
At some point, the worst might happen. You could end up losing your site to a hacker or accidentally breaking something in your files. When this happens, you can easily restore your website and get it back online.
Simply find a recent OneDrive backup in your WordPress dashboard. Hit Restore.
Then, download the OneDrive backup. This will transfer your data from the cloud to your local server.
Once the backup is downloaded, Duplicator will trigger the restoration wizard. Click on Restore Backup to continue.
When it’s ready, use the Admin Login to access your restored site.
You can do this for any of your OneDrive backups!
Yes, you can use OneDrive as a backup service for your WordPress site. You’ll simply have to install a backup plugin like Duplicator Pro. Then, connect your OneDrive account and select OneDrive as your preferred storage location.
You can back up your entire site by installing Duplicator Pro. Using this backup plugin, you can package all of your WordPress files, themes, plugins, and database tables into a single zip file. Duplicator can even back up large sites and WordPress Multisite networks. You’ll also be able to save your backups to a cloud storage location like OneDrive.
The best free backup tool for WordPress is Duplicator. Using the free version from WordPress.org, you can compile your files and database into backups. Plus, Duplicator makes it easy to migrate your website to a different domain name or clone it to a staging site.
Alternatives: UpdraftPlus, WPVivid, and BackWPup are also popular options. UpdraftPlus backups can be sent to extra storage locations like Rackspace Cloud and WebDav, but this requires a paid subscription.
OneDrive may delete files if your account has been inactive for 12 months. Your account can also be frozen if you exceed your storage quota. To prevent this from happening, you can use Duplicator to set the maximum number of backups that are allowed to be stored in OneDrive.
You can back up your WordPress site for free using Duplicator Lite. After installing this free plugin, you can create full backups of your site files and database. Then, download them to easily restore your website if you need to.
That’s it! You’ve saved your first WordPress backup to OneDrive.
Before you go, you might enjoy these extra tutorials and guides:
Upgrade to Duplicator Pro to automatically send site backups to OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, and more!
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