Within this article we will be looking at how to backup your website and database manually, with FileZilla and PHPMyAdmin.

To start with we will use FileZilla and download all of our websites folders and files.

How To Take A Manual Backup - Part 1

First create a folder on your machine where we will store all of the folders and files, something like 'site-backup-todays-date'. Then you will need to log in to your web space with FileZilla. Select all of the folders and files and drag them into your newly created folder on the left.

Click here to see us backing up the folders and files

Once all of the folders and files have been successfully transferred to your desktop you are half way there, the only step left to do is backing up the database.

How To Take A Manual Backup - Part 2

To backup your database you will need to log in to your PHPMyAdmin control panel, there will most likely be a link within your Hosting Control panel.

Once you have logged in click the 'Export' button find in the next screen shot.

Click here to see where the 'Export' button is

Select the 'Custom - display all possible options' radio button, this will give us more options to configure the backup. Scroll down to the 'Output:' section and change the 'Compression:' to 'zipped'. This will save the output file as a '.sql.zip'.

Click here to see where the 'Custom - display all possible options' radio button is located

Once we have set the 'Compression' to 'zipped' we will then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the 'Go' button. You will be prompt with a download dialog box which will ask you to either 'Open' or 'Save' the output. We are going to 'Save' the output, by default your downloads will be stored within your 'Downloads' folder on your machine. Once the '.sql.zip' folder has been downloaded you will have a backup of your database.

Click here to see the 'Save / Open' dialog

All done, you have now manually taken a backup of your website (folders and files) and of your database ('sql.zip' folder). Check out our 'How To Restore Your Manual Backup' article to restore you recently taken backup and get your website working.