Database Export Genie

Preguntas frecuentes

Who can create, download and delete backups?

Only users with the Administrator role (on multisite: Super Admins). Other roles never see the page, even if a role editor gave them the «manage_options» capability, because a database backup contains every password hash and secret key on the site. WP-CLI commands work for anyone with shell access to the server.

How do I restore a backup?

Unzip it. Inside you’ll find database.sql (or database.part-001.sql, database.part-002.sql, … for large sites) and IMPORT-README.txt, which explains each option:

• phpMyAdmin or Adminer: Import → choose the file (import parts in numeric order).
• Command line: mysql -u USER -p DBNAME < database.sql
• WP-CLI: wp db import database.sql

Multiple parts can be joined first: cat database.part-*.sql > database.sql (Windows: copy /b database.part-*.sql database.sql). Moving to a new domain? Run a serialized-safe search-replace after importing, for example wp search-replace 'https://old.example' 'https://new.example' --all-tables.

Where are backups stored? Can anyone download them?

In wp-content/dbmg-backups-<random>/ (or the uploads folder if wp-content isn’t writable). Only administrators can download a backup, through wp-admin with a login and a per-link security check; the zip’s own URL is never shown. The folder is blocked from the web in several independent ways, and each one fails closed:

• .htaccess denies every request on Apache 2.2 and 2.4 and LiteSpeed, plus a rewrite rule for OpenLiteSpeed. If the host doesn’t allow a directive, Apache answers 500 for the folder, which still serves nothing.
• web.config blocks every file on IIS (request filtering).
• An empty index.html stops folder listings on any server.
• Backup files are owner-only (0600). Where the web server runs as a different user than PHP (most control panels and managed Nginx hosts), it can’t read them even without a rule.
• The folder name and every file name contain long random tokens (more than 150 bits together).

The plugin checks all of this from the outside: it puts a test .zip, .sql and .json file in the folder and requests them over HTTP. If any of them comes back, the Storage section and Tools → Site Health show a warning with the exact fix for your server.

The safest setup stores backups outside the web root. Add this to wp-config.php (the plugin suggests a path when it finds one):

define( 'DBMG_BACKUP_DIR', '/home/you/private/db-backups' );

I use Nginx. What should I add?

Nginx ignores .htaccess. Add this to your server block and reload Nginx (the plugin shows the same snippet with your real path if it finds the folder public):

location ^~ /wp-content/dbmg-backups- { deny all; }

Use ^~ as shown, not a regular-expression location: Nginx uses the first regex location that matches, so an earlier rule such as location ~* \.(zip|gz)$ would win over a regex deny.

If you use the dbmg_download_xsendfile filter (X-Accel-Redirect / X-Sendfile), the web server itself reads the zip, so also return a mode it can read from the dbmg_file_mode filter, for example 0640.

Does the backup really keep running if I close the tab?

Yes, on most servers: the backup runs in short server-side steps that start each other. If your host blocks that, WP-Cron takes over; if WP-Cron is also disabled, the backup advances whenever any WordPress admin page is open (the plugin tells you before you start). You can always finish it with wp dbmg run.

Is the backup a point-in-time snapshot?

Small sites (under about 20 MB of SQL on MySQL/MariaDB) are exported inside a single consistent snapshot when the whole export finishes in one step, which is the usual case. Larger backups are exported in chunks while the site stays live, so rows written during the backup may or may not be included — the same trade-off every PHP-based backup plugin makes. backup-info.json inside the zip says which kind you got. For a frozen copy of a busy store, put the site in maintenance mode first.

My host has a 30 second time limit and 64 MB of memory. Will it work?

That’s what it’s built for. Each step uses at most 40% of max_execution_time (never more than 20 seconds), stops at 70% of the memory limit, and resizes its batches automatically. If a step is killed anyway, the next one resumes from the last saved point and throws away any half-written data.

What happens when I uninstall the plugin?

All of its settings are removed. Your backups are kept, unless you ticked «Also delete all backups when the plugin is uninstalled» in the Storage section — deleting someone’s only backup silently would be worse than leaving files behind. If you install the plugin again later, it finds the backups it left behind and lists them again. Deactivating the plugin cancels a running backup and keeps finished ones.

Which databases are not supported?

PostgreSQL (PG4WP), SQL Server and other non-MySQL servers. The page tells you if it detects one.