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WordPress backup to OneDrive

How to Back Up WordPress to OneDrive 

Written By: author image Joella Dunn
author image Joella Dunn
Joella is a writer with years of experience in WordPress. At Duplicator, she specializes in site maintenance — from basic backups to large-scale migrations. Her ultimate goal is to make sure your WordPress website is safe and ready for growth.
     Reviewed By: John Turner
reviewer image John Turner
John Turner is the President of Duplicator. He has over 20+ years of business and development experience and his plugins have been downloaded over 25 million times.

Are you not sure how to save your WordPress backup to OneDrive?

A cloud storage service like Microsoft OneDrive can be an effective place to store WordPress backups. Rather than overloading your web hosting plan, you can save backups off-site in the cloud. This ensures you always have an available backup when you need one. 

This tutorial will show you how to back up WordPress to OneDrive! 

The Benefits of Backing Up Your WordPress Site to OneDrive

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.

Microsoft OneDrive

Here are some key benefits of backing up your WordPress site to Google Drive:

  • Security measures like ransomware detection
  • Off-site backup storage to easily recover your site after hacks or critical errors
  • Accessible backups from any device
  • Offline availability
  • Opportunities for team collaboration
  • Various plans to scale your storage space

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. 

As of now, Duplicator does not support Microsoft business plans.

How to Back Up WordPress to OneDrive

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. 

Step 1: Install Duplicator Pro

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:

Duplicator Pro plugin

Duplicator is a beginner-friendly tool that allows you to create backups in minutes. It can also automatically save your WordPress backups to remote storage services like:

Along with backups, Duplicator supports migrations and cloning. Using this plugin, you can easily migrate your site to another host, server, or domain name. You’ll receive email notifications for any issues along the way. 

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. Unlike other backup plugins, you won’t need any add-ons to get cloud storage functionality. 

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 » Licensing:

Activate Duplicator Pro license key

Paste your custom license key and click on Activate

Step 2: Connect Your OneDrive Account

Although Duplicator supports a wide variety of cloud storage services, you can’t start using any until you connect your third-party account.

To get started, head over to Duplicator Pro » Storage. Here, you’ll see that the default storage is your local server:

Add new storage location

Click on Add New to start setting up your OneDrive storage. Give the new storage location a name. Then, select OneDrive in the Type dropdown menu:

New OneDrive storage location

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.

Next to Authorization, hit Connect to OneDrive:

Connect Duplicator to OneDrive

After this, you’ll see new steps to authenticate the OneDrive connection. First, click on Authorize OneDrive:

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:

Microsoft OneDrive connection to Duplicator

Once finished, you’ll receive an authorization code:

Copy Microsoft authorization code for Duplicator

Copy this and paste it into Step 2 of the authorization guide:

Paste OneDrive authorization code

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 Packages:

OneDrive max packages

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. 

Step 3: Create a OneDrive Backup

Now it’s time to create your first cloud backup! After you configure your OneDrive account, go to Duplicator Pro » Packages » Create New:

Create Duplicator package

You’ll notice that Duplicator automatically generates a name for the backup. However, you can edit this so you can easily find the backup later:

New OneDrive backup

Next, expand the Storage section. From your list of storage options, select OneDrive:

Select OneDrive storage

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.

Duplicator custom package components

Once you click Next, Duplicator will scan your website. Be sure to look over any notices before continuing:

Duplicator package scan

Then, your website will be compiled into a backup. Once the package files are built, Duplicator will transfer them to your OneDrive folder.

Step 4: Set Up Automatic Backups

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 » Schedules » Add New:

Create website backup schedule

Give your schedule a name. If you want to customize what data is saved in the backup, feel free to create a package template. However, select Default for complete backups:

OneDrive backup schedule

Under Storage, choose OneDrive:

OneDrive automatic backup storage

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:

OneDrive monthly backup schedule

Then, choose a date and time for your backup schedule. Lastly, enable the schedule and save it:

Enable backup schedule

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. 

How to Restore Your OneDrive Backup

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.

Restore remote backup

Then, download the OneDrive backup. This will transfer your data from the cloud to your local server.

Download OneDrive backup

Once the backup is downloaded, Duplicator will trigger the restoration wizard. Click on Restore Backup to continue.

Restore remote backup with Duplicator

When it’s ready, use the Admin Login to access your restored site.

Restored remote backup

You can do this for any of your OneDrive backups! 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can I use OneDrive as my backup?

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. 

How do I back up my whole WordPress site?

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.  

What is the best free backup for WordPress?

The best free backup tool for WordPress is Duplicator. Using the free version from WordPress.org, you can compile your files and database into packages, which can be saved as 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. 

How long do files stay on OneDrive?

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. 

How do I back up my WordPress site for free?

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.

Duplicator Lite will automatically save backups on your local server. If you want to use cloud storage like Microsoft OneDrive, you’ll need to upgrade to Duplicator Pro.

Conclusion

That’s it! You’ve saved your first WordPress backup to OneDrive.

Before you go, you might enjoy these extra tutorials and guides:

Do you want to easily store your backups in the cloud? Download Duplicator Pro to automatically send site backups to OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, and more!

author avatar
Joella Dunn Content Writer
Joella is a writer with years of experience in WordPress. At Duplicator, she specializes in site maintenance — from basic backups to large-scale migrations. Her ultimate goal is to make sure your WordPress website is safe and ready for growth.

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