How to Create a Joomla 3 Backup

• How to Backup Joomla Manually – Learn how to create a Manual Joomla backup the good old “do-it-yourself” way!
• How to Backup Joomla with Akeeba Backup – Find out how to use the popular Akeeba Backup component to backup your Joomla website.
• How to Backup Joomla with Softaculous – If your site is hosted with SiteGround you can also backup your Joomla using Softaculous Autoinstaller.

How to Backup Joomla Manually

Backup your Joomla files

You can always use an FPT client to transfer all Joomla files and folders to your local hard drive. However, Joomla comes with more than 3000 core files. Add your actual media content – photos, videos, extensions etc. and that number will grow even bigger. This means that if you decide to transfer your files via FTP it may take some time because multiple small files are slower to transfer than one big file. A more efficient way to transfer your files is to compress them first into a single ZIP file using the File Manager tool in cPanel. To do this go to the main folder of your Joomla 3 installation, select all files and press the Compress button in the top part of the page.

Now, press the Compress File(s) button and the File Manager will create the archive of all the files and folders you’ve selected.

Once you have created the archive of your files you can download it either through an FTP client or navigate to the file using a regular browser to download it on your hard drive.

STEP 2Backup your Joomla database

There are two popular ways to create a backup of your Joomla database. The first one is via the SSH console and the second option is to use the phpMyAdmin tool in your cPanel. Either way, you need to know your Joomla MySQL database name, username and the password for it. To obtain this information, open the configuration.php file in the Joomla root directory. In it, locate the following lines that contain the database credentials.

public $user = 'user_joomlat';
public $password = 'password';
public $db = 'user_joomlatut';

Once you have that information, you can proceed with the actual backup creation.

Backup your Joomla database using SSH

To create a backup of your Joomla database via SSH, first you need to access your account. To do that, please take a look on our SSH Tutorial. Next, navigate to your Joomla site folder. Here, you need to use the mysqldump command and the information you’ve obtained from the configuration.php file to create a backup of your database:

mysqldump -uuser_joomlat -ppassword user_joomlatut > db-backup.sql

Finally, navigate your browser to yourjoomlasite.com/db-backup.sql and download the backup of your Joomla database locally.

Backup your Joomla database using phpMyAdmin

First, login to your cPanel account and open the phpMyAdmin tool which is located in the Databases section.

Backup Joomla with Akeeba Backup

STEP 1 Download & Install Akeeba Backup

First, you need to download the component from the Official Akeeba Backup website. Then, login to your Joomla 3 admin area and navigate to Extensions -> Extension Manager.

Now, you need to install Akeeba Backup. The installation process is the same as for any other Joomla extension you’ve ever installed – click the Choose File button, select the .zip file you’ve downloaded from the Akeeba’s official website and hit the Upload & Install button.

After few moments, the component will be installed on your Joomla 3 site and you will be brought to a page that confirms that the installation was successful. Now, you need to go to the Akeeba page in your Joomla backend. To do this go to Components -> Akeeba Backup.

STEP 2Create a Joomla Backup with Akeeba

The first time you open this page, you will be required to agree to the component’s terms of use. After you read them, click on the big, orange button Accept the mandatory information and apply preferences.

Once you do that, you will see the Akeeba Backup main page. Here, you need to click on the Backup Now button.

On this page you will be provided with the ability to write short description and to add a comment for that backup. It is good practice to use the comments field so you can later know why you’ve created this backup. Finally, press the Backup Now! button to begin the backup process.

Once you click the button, the backup creation process will begin. You can monitor the backup progress while waiting for its completion.

When the Akeeba component is done with the backup creation, the screen will refresh and you’ll be brought to a page showing that the process was successful. On this page, click on the Manage Backups button to proceed.

STEP 3Download the Backup to your Local Computer

Here you will see a list of all the Joomla backups you’ve created using the Akeeba component. Find the one we’ve just created and click on the download icon on the right side of the page. The download of your archive will begin immediately.

That’s it! You now have a complete backup of your Joomla website stored on your local hard drive

How to Backup Joomla via Softaculous

First, you need to login to your cPanel account and open the Softaculous autoinstaler, which is located in the Sitebuilding Software group of tools.

Next, select Joomla from the list of available scripts and click on the title of the box.

On this page you will see some general information about Joomla and a list of the Joomla installations you have on your hosting account. Locate the one you want to backup and press the yellow file icon next to it.

Here, you can specify whether you want your database, your files or both to be backed up. If you want to make a full backup of your Joomla 3 site, check both and press the Backup Installation button at the bottom of the page.

After few seconds your backup will be created and you will be brought to a page, confirming that the archive process was successful. Click on the Backups page link to see a list of all the backups you have created via Softaculous.

Since you’ve just created the backup of your Joomla application, it should be first in the list. Click on the blue arrow icon right next to the backup and save the archive file on your local computer.

That’s it! You now have a full backup of your Joomla 3 site.