How WP Safer backups work: full, incremental and where they are stored

WP Safer backs up your WordPress sites through the WP Safer plugin installed on each site. The plugin packs the site's files and database into an archive, WP Safer copies that archive into off-site storage, and the copy on your web server is removed. This article explains the two backup types, how they depend on each other, and where your backups are kept.

Full and incremental backups

Every backup is one of two types. You can see the type of each backup in the Type column of a site's Backups tab.

• Full backup — a complete copy of the site: the WordPress files (core, themes, plugins, uploads) and the database. A full backup can be restored on its own.
• Incremental backup — the database plus only the files that changed since the previous backup, and a list of files that were deleted in the meantime. Incremental backups are much smaller and faster, but they are not complete on their own.

Backup chains

An incremental backup is always built on top of a full backup. A full backup together with the incremental backups taken after it is called a chain. When you restore an incremental backup, WP Safer uses the whole chain automatically: it starts from the full backup and applies each incremental backup in order, up to the one you picked. You never have to choose the archives yourself.

This has two practical consequences:

• An incremental backup cannot be restored if the full backup it depends on is missing or damaged. WP Safer checks every archive in the chain before a restore starts and tells you if one is missing.
• Deleting a full backup by hand makes the incremental backups that followed it unusable. Let backup schedules rotate old backups for you instead (see Schedule automatic backups).

A new chain begins whenever a new full backup is taken. Backup schedules start new chains on their own; the rules are explained in the schedule article.

Automatic and manual backups

• Automatic backups come from a backup schedule you create on the Schedule Backups page. A schedule decides by itself whether each run should be full or incremental, and it removes old backups according to the number of full backups you choose to keep.
• Manual backups are the ones you start from a site's Backups tab with Start full backup or Start incremental. They are never removed automatically. See Take a manual backup.

Where backups are stored

• Archives are stored off-site, in private object storage (DigitalOcean Spaces) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, inside the EU. They are not kept on your web host, so a problem with your hosting account does not take your backups with it.
• Archives travel over encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS) and the storage is not publicly accessible.
• The Download button next to a backup creates a personal link that works for 10 minutes. Refresh the page to get a new link.
• Each backup is checked when it arrives: the archive must open, must contain the database, and a full backup must contain the WordPress core files. An archive that fails this check is discarded and the backup is treated as failed, so it is retried instead of being listed as a good backup.

Storage space

Backups count toward the cloud backup space of your plan. The Storage used card on the Sites page shows how much you use and your limit, and turns into a warning at 80%. Deleted backups, and the backups of sites you removed from WP Safer, are moved to the trash and still take space until you delete them permanently; the card shows this space separately with a Manage link.

To keep storage under control, lower Full backups to retain in your schedules, delete manual backups you no longer need, or add storage to your plan.

Where to see backup activity

• Sites → (your site) → Backups: every stored backup with its date, type, size and status, plus the Restore, Download and delete actions.
• Tasks → Backup tasks: backups waiting in the queue or running right now.
• Logs → Backups: the history of finished backups, including failed ones, with filters for period and status.