WordPress Backup Status Across Sites in GoBuildWP Cloud

What each row tells you

Open Backups in your Cloud account. Each connected site gets a row with the backup plugin, how long ago its newest successful backup finished and the exact time. A backup running tag appears while one is in progress. Four counts at the top add them up.

• Recent: the newest successful backup is less than 7 days old
• Older than 7 days: backups ran once and have since stopped or failed
• No backup yet: a backup plugin is active but has never finished a backup
• No backup plugin: none of the supported plugins is active on the site
• Not reported: the site runs a GoBuildWP Free older than 1.18.0

Which backup plugins Cloud can read and start

Cloud reads UpdraftPlus, BackWPup and Duplicator, and All-in-One WP Migration on sites running GoBuildWP Free 1.18.1 or newer; on an older one, a site whose only backup plugin is All-in-One WP Migration shows No backup plugin. When a site has more than one active, the row shows the newest successful backup among them.

Starting a backup from Cloud works with UpdraftPlus, BackWPup and All-in-One WP Migration. UpdraftPlus takes a full backup. BackWPup runs one of its own jobs that is scheduled with WP-Cron, and that job decides what goes into it. All-in-One WP Migration makes a full export to its backups folder on the server, on sites running GoBuildWP Free 1.18.2 or newer and GoBuildWP Pro 1.12.2 or newer, when the installed All-in-One WP Migration release still provides the export steps and helpers GoBuildWP checks for before starting; if it does not, the start is refused and names what is missing. GoBuildWP Pro runs those export steps itself on the server rather than through the plugin's requests to itself, so a host that drops those requests can still finish the export. The server still needs disk space for the archive, and a step that makes no progress in three tries fails the export. No specific release or host is recorded as tested here. Duplicator can be read but not started from Cloud.

Back up now (Pro)

With a GoBuildWP Pro licence linked to the Cloud account, tick the sites you want and select Back up selected now, or use Back up all sites now, which names how many sites it covers. A site can be started from Cloud when it runs the GoBuildWP Pro plugin and has UpdraftPlus, BackWPup or All-in-One WP Migration active; any other site's checkbox is greyed out and its row says what is missing.

Cloud asks each site's backup plugin to start, and then checks the site every minute for up to 30 minutes until a newer successful backup shows up. The run page follows the run live: each site's steps in order, and at every check whether a backup is running there, its newest backup and how much of the 30 minutes is left. On sites running GoBuildWP Free 1.18.4 or newer it also shows an All-in-One WP Migration export's state as it happens, running, stalled or failed with the site's own reason, and ends that site's wait as soon as the export fails instead of after 30 minutes. A site that cannot start a backup says why. Without Pro, the buttons are shown locked and the status list stays fully readable.

Where the backup goes, and what Cloud keeps

The archive stays wherever the backup plugin sends it: its remote storage, or the server if that is how it is set up. Cloud never receives the archive, a download link or storage credentials. What Cloud keeps is the time of the newest successful backup, which plugin made it and whether one is running.

Backups as the first step of an update

The Updates confirm screen can run the same backup before updating each site: tick Back up each site first and that site's updates wait for the new backup to land; if none lands within 30 minutes, they are not run. The option is ticked by default but can be unticked, and sites Cloud cannot back up, including Free-only sites, update without this step. A site that has the GoBuildWP Pro plugin also refuses a safe update without a successful backup from the last 24 hours, unless you untick Require a recent backup.

What Backups does not do

Cloud does not restore. Restore from the backup plugin on the site, or from wherever the archive is stored.

The backup is queued on the site's own WP-Cron, which runs when the site gets a visit. On a quiet site, or one where WP-Cron is switched off without a real server cron calling it, a backup started from Cloud may not begin within the 30 minutes Cloud waits. An All-in-One WP Migration export started by GoBuildWP Pro moves on in short slices on WP-Cron and at each of Cloud's once-a-minute checks, so it does not depend on the site's requests to itself. Each of its exports stays on the server, because the free plugin never deletes one, so the site refuses a new export within an hour of the last or when its disk is short of space. Clients you invited see backup status on their sites and cannot start a backup.