Backup your Wordpress database

Sometimes I’m dense. I didn’t notice that Wordpress had stopped incorporating the automatic database backup feature as of the latest couple of versions because I have my backup emails filtered to go into their own folder where they don’t clutter my inbox.

It wasn’t until a site had trouble and the host re-installed a day-old backup (losing a number of visitor comments and even one post) that I realized I didn’t have backups coming on that site. Because I’d upgraded to a version that no longer has Backup built in.

Check your WP installs and add the backup plugin if you need it. If your database is huge and you have trouble getting it through email, tell it not to save your spam filter or stats tables from plugins - they tend to store hoardes of data, and that is stuff you can live without in the event of a crash.