Backing Up WordPress Before Upgrade (and How to Restore)

For these instructions, wordpress_dir is your wordpress directory.

Find Database Username and Password

cat /var/www/wp-config.php | grep DB

or

cat /var/www/wordpress_dir/wp-config.php | grep DB

Backup Database

mysqldump --no-tablespaces -u wordpressuser -p wordpress_db | xz -9ec > wordpress_20191119.sql.xz

Move to WordPress Directory

cd /var/www

Move Config to WordPress Directory

sudo mv wp-config.php wordpress_dir

Archive WordPress Directory

tar Jcvf ~/wordpress_20191117.tar.xz wordpress_dir

Copy WordPress Directory

sudo cp -a wordpress_dir wordpress_dir.bak

Log in to MySQL

sudo mysql

Create New WordPress Database

CREATE DATABASE wordpress_20191119 DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;

Grant Privileges to New Database

GRANT ALL ON wordpress_20191119.* TO 'wordpressuser'@'localhost';

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Load Backup to New Database

zxcat wordpress_20191119.sql.xz | mysql -u wordpressuser -p wordpress_20191119.sql.xz

Move to Web Directory to Restore Files

cd /var/www

Backup Up Current WordPress Directory

sudo mv wordpress_dir wordpress_dir_broke

Edit wp-config.php

sudo nano /var/www/wordpress_dir/wp-config.php

Edit “DB_Name” to wordpress_20191117

Control-o to save. Control-x to exit.

The website will now be restored

Move wp-config.php from wordpress_dir

sudo mv /var/www/wordpress_dir/wp-config.php /var/www/