Updating clients website

@GCarlD

Well-Known Member
Hi everyone,

I have been editing and updating a client's website; the only things that still need updating are certain plugins, woo commerce, the WordPress version itself and the theme. I haven't updated those yet, as I know it is vital to back up the site before doing such major updates. But this is where the issue is...

My client has been trying for months to get the login information to their site's hosting account, in order for me to do the backup and also to create a new email address using their domain name which they have also requested.

I was hoping to simply receive the username and password to their hosting account (I had to find out which hosting company they are with and their possible username, as they do not seem to have any information regarding their own account!) and do the backups from there via a control panel of some sort, and also create an additional email address for them. The information my client has managed to get from their old designer is as followers:

Host:
UN:
Port:
PW:

(I have obviously removed the above details.) Their old designer left my client a message to say 'Please use a FTP provider such as Filezilla.'

Now, while I am sure the information their previous designer has provided is more than useful, I haven't used Filezilla before.... Hence why I was hoping to receive the login details to their account :(

Can anyone talk me through how I can backup their site using the information I have? What options do I have regarding creating backups? Also, can I create an additional email address using their @'domain.name' with this information?

I do however have access to their WordPress admin, hence how I have been able to do all the edits and updates that I have so far...

Any help will be really appreciated.

Thank you :)
 
Ok been a while since I used filezilla...

Host.... PW bits go into the site manager section of filezilla. This should then open up the directory of the server so you can manage files etc. Basically it will be like explorer/file manage on windows but connecting over the internet

That is literally all that info will allow you to do. You will not be able to change any settings like you can in cpanel or set up any future email addresses. For this you'll need access to the email settings section which isn't available via ftp as far as I'm aware.

I have no idea what the current arrangement is with your client but it sounds like there's a possibility the old web person is hosting the data on his own server.
 
I'd also check who has access to the domain name itself.
If they can access that you could clone the site and move it over to a new hosting account where you can manage it.

You could install a plugin such as duplicator that will grab a copy of the site as it stands so at least you have a fall back if all gets lost
 
FTP will only let you backup files, it will not backup the database, for which you would use something like PHPmyAdmin which you can usually access from the cPanel or equivalent. But, as the above poster mentions, there are numerous plugins that let you do backups from within the WP admin area. I recommend WP Clone by WordPress Academy.
 
Thanks so much guys, your comments have confirmed my own thoughts. I've never used a plugin to back-up a site, I usually do it via the hosting cPanel. Are plug-ins such as your recommendations as good/ reliable?

So as it stands, I can backup the site using a plugin, and then finish the major updates, but I can't set-up additional email accounts from their domain name.

Forgot to mention earlier, I found out they are hosted by 'One'? I've never heard of them but there are so many web hosting companies out there.
 
The plugin I recommended has been consistently reliable for me.

No, you can't create new email accounts from the WP admin.
 
I know about WP Academy and know they are credible but after reading January's update of WP Clone, stating that it 'fails in 10-20% of restore installations; As such it is NOT intended as a regular backup method' I had to opt for the 'Duplicator' plugin as recommended above previously. It is 5 star with over 900,000+ Active Installs, raving reviews and sounds like a must have plugin. I hope I have made the right choice. No doubt they'd both do the job but WP Clone sounded like an unnecessary risk compared to Duplicator.

Thanks all for all your recommendations :)
 
Not having much luck with these backup plugins, running into errors with both Duplicator and WP Clone.

Here's the message I get from WP Clone: 'The plugin encountered an error during the backup process, the following error message was returned: Error Message: possibly out of free disk space.'

Is this a hosting account issue? Or something I can rectify my end in order to create a backup?
 
You would need the access you lack to increase a disk space limit, or would have to speak to the host. However, try going into advanced options and excluding large files such as media folders as these wouldn't be affected by plugin/WP updates anyway.
 
You would need the access you lack to increase a disk space limit, or would have to speak to the host. However, try going into advanced options and excluding large files such as media folders as these wouldn't be affected by plugin/WP updates anyway.

Ok, so I've got to this section here in advanced settings:

Screen Shot 2017-03-23 at 11.04.22.png

What should I type in 'Excluded directories' in order to exclude media folders and other large files as you suggest? Or should I just check/ tick the 'Backup database only' box? If so, what exactly is backed up in the database? And what will I be missing in the backup if I took that option?
 
type in /uploads that will exclude all uploaded media which will remain unchanged.

Just backing up the DB would be fine if you had access to FTP as you could just copy all the file to a local location just in case, but since you don't you'll want include the files in the backup as you may need them if there's a problem with an update.

P.s. Problems after updates are rare AF but WooCommerce is infamous for changing shit up in updates so often doesn't play nice if modification have been made to it.
 
If the domain name is registered in your clients name one.com may allow access to the hosting if he says the person who set up the account has disappeared.
 
type in /uploads that will exclude all uploaded media which will remain unchanged.

Just backing up the DB would be fine if you had access to FTP as you could just copy all the file to a local location just in case, but since you don't you'll want include the files in the backup as you may need them if there's a problem with an update.

P.s. Problems after updates are rare AF but WooCommerce is infamous for changing shit up in updates so often doesn't play nice if modification have been made to it.

Ok thanks I'll give that a try, although I think all the uploaded media are pretty small files.

I can get Filezilla to access FTP if needed?

Yeah, I was thinking if it's worth the risk of just doing the updates anyway if I am unable to create a backup, as I have never had any issues after an update.


If the domain name is registered in your clients name one.com may allow access to the hosting if he says the person who set up the account has disappeared.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure it's registered in their old designer's name. They have been in contact with their previous designer but it takes a while before they get a reply :(
 
@wac Thanks so much '/uploads' worked and the backup has been successful! I guess I should copy and paste the backup link somewhere safe!

Worst case scenario, if something did go wrong and I had to restore the site from the backup, what would be missing? Is it everything that has been uploaded to the site, eg. image files? Or will the site be exactly the same, with all images in place but those images will be missing from the 'media' tab in the WP admin dashboard?

I'm a bit confused as to what I would need to replace that has not been backed up?
 
You didn't copy the uploads folder basically. This is usually the biggest folder so sometimes causes the backup to fail due to timing out

If you can get into the ftp just copy that folder to your desktop so you have all uploads ready to replace.

Updating shouldn't cause any major issues unless the previous designer has recoding some of the files manually. If there is a custom css section within the theme dashboard it may be worth copying that content too in case you need it in the future
 
Thanks guys, I have managed to copy over the uploads folder using Filezilla.

Originally, I didn't know what I was doing so I unwittingly began downloading all of the site's files and folders to an unknown location/ folder which was just called '/' ? Does anyone know where on my mac this is?

I don't think any files actually downloaded on my computer, as thousands of files were appearing in the 'queue', hundreds were failing and I didn't notice any 'Successful Transfers' in the dialogue box at that point, before I tried to stop (& failed) the files queuing up, at which point I just exited the program, went back in and did everything right on my second try, i.e. choose exactly what folder I want to transfer (uploads) and where I want to transfer it to (my desktop).

I would like to check to put my mind at ease that I don't have hundreds (or more) of files in an unknown '/' location on my mac, from my FTP failing first time round.
 
Thanks guys, I have managed to copy over the uploads folder using Filezilla.

Originally, I didn't know what I was doing so I unwittingly began downloading all of the site's files and folders to an unknown location/ folder which was just called '/' ? Does anyone know where on my mac this is?


This will likely be your hard drive, normally called Macintosh HD by default. With Filezilla the panel on the left is your local directory, so if you select 'download' on your hosted server, it will download to whatever local directory you're currently in. I do this all the time by mistake!

When I do back-ups, I back up everything to my hard drive so you have a copy of the themes, plugins, etc just in case. Make sure to grab a dump of the database too if you haven't already. You can do this via the Tools > Export panel in WP. Without the database entries for the content, the wp-uploads folder is just a folder of images. Personally, I prefer to download an SQL dump via phpMyAdmin, but if you don't have access to a hosting panel then this isn't really an option.
 
@Paul Murray In my 'Macintosh HD' it contains 5 folders: Applications, Library, System, User Information and User. Is this where the files would be? Or could they be in one of those folders? Or possibly even hidden files?! Or they didn't actually download onto my mac the first time round?

I thought the backup I did contained everything except the Uploads folder, which I now have from FileZilla. Am I mistaken in thinking this? /uploads was the only directory I excluded from the backup. Do I still need to get the database etc as you suggested, or is this all already in the backup I created using WP Clone?
 
@Paul Murray In my 'Macintosh HD' it contains 5 folders: Applications, Library, System, User Information and User. Is this where the files would be? Or could they be in one of those folders? Or possibly even hidden files?! Or they didn't actually download onto my mac the first time round?
If they were saved to '/' then they'll be in the Macintosh HD directory with those other folders. They won't be hidden unless the files you downloaded were hidden to begin with.

I thought the backup I did contained everything except the Uploads folder, which I now have from FileZilla. Am I mistaken in thinking this? /uploads was the only directory I excluded from the backup. Do I still need to get the database etc as you suggested, or is this all already in the backup I created using WP Clone?

WP-Clone grabs the database for you, so you should have at in your back-up.
 
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