Descripción
DadsFam Backups keeps a safety net under your WordPress site. Back up your database and files whenever you like, or set a schedule and forget about it. When something goes wrong, restore in a few clicks.
It’s built for real-world hosting. Big sites usually choke other backup plugins because PHP runs out of time or memory halfway through. DadsFam Backups works in small, resumable steps instead — so a backup that’s too big to finish in one go simply picks up where it left off until it’s done.
What you get (free)
- Full backups — database + plugins, themes, uploads, and the rest of
wp-content. Pick exactly what to include. - Resumable engine — large sites back up in bounded chunks and never time out.
- One-click restore — restore the database, files, or both, right from the dashboard.
- "What will I lose?" before every restore — before you press the button, see in plain English what the restore removes: the orders, posts, pages, comments and customer accounts added since the backup was made, and any plugin, theme or WordPress versions it would change.
- Safety copy and one-click undo — just before a restore, the parts about to be replaced are backed up automatically. If the restore was not what you wanted, one click puts everything back as it was a moment before.
- Move or clone a site by link — create a transfer link on the old site and paste it on the new one: the backup is copied straight across, server to server, with no downloading, uploading or size limits. Click "Clone here" and the web address throughout your content and the database table prefix are adjusted for you.
- Look inside any backup — browse a backup folder by folder, download a single file, or put back just one file or folder instead of restoring everything. Only missing files are put back unless you choose to replace, and it can be undone for 24 hours.
- Switching from UpdraftPlus? — UpdraftPlus backups already on your site can be turned into DadsFam backups in one click, so your history comes with you. The UpdraftPlus files are not changed.
- Scheduled backups — daily, weekly or monthly at a time you choose. No server cron setup needed; it runs through WordPress and heals its own schedule.
- Smart retention — automatically keep only the most recent N backups. Pin the ones you want to keep for good, and give any backup a short note such as "Before the redesign".
- Extra database backups — back up just the database daily in between weekly full backups, ideal for shops whose orders change all day.
- Exclusions — skip caches,
node_modules, logs and anything else with simple patterns. Backups left behind by other backup plugins are spotted for you, so your archives do not fill up with old copies of other archives. - Faster with photos and video — media that is already compressed is stored as it is instead of being squeezed again, which saves time on every backup.
- Email notifications — get told when a backup finishes or fails.
- Activity log — a clear history of every backup, restore and scheduled run.
- Secure storage — backups live in a protected folder (no public web access) and downloads are nonce + capability protected. A built-in test checks the folder really is private on your server, and tells you exactly what to send your host if it is not.
- Status where you already look — WordPress Site Health warns when a backup is overdue, an optional dot in the admin bar shows green, amber or red, and an optional weekly email says "All good" or exactly what needs attention.
- Off-site copies to Google Drive or OneDrive — connect an account in one click and every backup gets a second home. Uploads are resumable and continue in the background, so a big archive finishes even on a slow shared host.
- Restore from the cloud — lost the server, or deleted the local copy? Pick an off-site backup and it is pulled back onto your site, resuming by itself if the connection drops. Then restore it normally.
Built honestly
No nag screens, no crippled free version, no surprise server configuration. The free plugin really backs up and really restores your whole site.
Going further with Pro
An optional commercial add-on, DadsFam Backups Pro, adds more off-site destinations (Amazon S3 and S3-compatible, FTP/FTPS, SFTP), encrypted off-site copies, advanced schedules, a backup before every update with one-click undo, a Rescue Kit for when you cannot log in, and a long-term history of off-site backups. It is a separate plugin and is not required — Google Drive, OneDrive and cloud restore are all part of this plugin. Pro is at plugins.dadsfam.co.za.
A word about PRO
Right, let me be straight with you, because I hate being sold to as much as you do.
Everything above is free and it stays free. Backing your site up on a schedule, restoring it, cloning it to a new domain, downloading the archive, verifying every backup is not corrupt — none of those are premium features. Those are things a backup plugin should just do, and if I put them behind a paywall I would be taking the mickey.
There is a PRO add-on. It exists because I am a dad in Cape Town, and this is one of the things that puts food on the table at my house. That is the honest reason. Not "unlock your potential", not "supercharge your workflow". Just: if this plugin saved your site and you can spare it, PRO helps me keep building.
What PRO adds is for when your backups need to go further than Google Drive or OneDrive, which are free here — sending each one off to Amazon S3 or an FTP or SFTP box, encrypting those off-site copies, keeping a history of them out there, and running on a tighter schedule. It also keeps the old version before every update so a bad one can be undone in a click, and gives you a Rescue Kit for the day you cannot even log in. That is convenience and peace of mind. It is not the plugin working properly, because the plugin already works properly.
So if the free one does everything you need, brilliant. Genuinely. Use it, and I hope it saves you the afternoon nobody wants — the one where the site is gone and there is no backup. If you get to the point where off-site copies would let you sleep easier, PRO is at plugins.dadsfam.co.za.
Either way, thanks for using something I built. — Zak, DadsFam
PRO adds:
- Off-site backups to Amazon S3 and S3-compatible storage (Wasabi, Backblaze B2, DigitalOcean Spaces, MinIO)
- FTP, FTPS and SFTP destinations
- Encrypted off-site copies
- Remote retention — keep a set number of backups off-site, or a history: 7 daily, 4 weekly and 12 monthly
- More frequent, advanced backup schedules
- A copy of the old version before every plugin, theme and WordPress update, with "Undo last update"
- A Rescue Kit: a single file you upload when WordPress will not load, to restore a backup without logging in
External services
Connecting Google Drive or OneDrive is optional and nothing is sent anywhere until you connect an account.
When you do, this plugin uses the DadsFam connection service at https://connect.dadsfam.co.za to handle the sign-in. You are sent there to approve access, and it returns a one-time code that this site swaps for an access token server-to-server, so the token never travels through your browser. The service receives the provider you chose and the address to send you back to. Terms of use and privacy policy: dadsfam.co.za/privacy-policy and plugins.dadsfam.co.za/privacy-policy.
Once connected, your site talks directly to Google (googleapis.com) or Microsoft (graph.microsoft.com) to upload and download your backups. Nothing passes through DadsFam.
When you paste a transfer link under "Copy a backup from another site", this site downloads that backup from the site address in the link — your other site. Nothing is sent anywhere else, and nothing happens until you paste a link.
The "Are my backups private?" test on the Settings tab (also run weekly by Site Health) requests a harmless test file from your own site’s address, to see whether the backups folder can be reached from the web. It contacts no other server.
Capturas
Instalación
- In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins Add New Upload Plugin.
- Upload the
dadsfam-backups.zipfile and click Install Now. - Click Activate.
- Open DadsFam Backups from the admin menu and create your first backup.
Your server needs the PHP zip extension (ZipArchive). Almost all hosts have this; if not, ask your host to enable it.
FAQ
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Where are my backups stored?
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In
wp-content/uploads/dadsfam-backups/, inside a folder protected from direct web access. You can also download any backup to your computer. -
Will a backup time out on a big site?
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No. The backup runs as a series of small steps and resumes itself, so size isn’t a problem. Very large sites just take a few more steps.
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Is it safe to leave the page while a backup runs?
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Yes. Manual backups continue while the tab is open; scheduled backups run entirely in the background.
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Can I restore to a different domain or different table prefix?
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Yes. The easiest way is a transfer link: on the old site, go to Backups "Move this site" and create a link; on the new site, paste it under "Copy a backup from another site". You can also upload the .zip under Import, or drop it into the backups folder and click Scan. Then click Clone here. The old web address is changed to the new one throughout your content, and a different database table prefix is handled for you. This is part of the free plugin.
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What happens if a restore goes wrong, or is not what I wanted?
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Unless you untick it, a safety copy of everything the restore is about to replace is taken first. Afterwards, a "Put things back" button restores that safety copy, returning the site to how it was just before. The newest two safety copies are kept; they are not uploaded off-site and do not count towards your retention number.
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Can I get back just one file or folder?
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Yes. Click the folder icon next to a backup on the Backups tab to look inside it. Download any single file, or click "Put back" on a file or folder. By default only files that are missing are put back; you can choose to replace the current versions too. Either way there is an Undo button for 24 hours. Server settings files, wp-config.php and this plugin itself are never overwritten this way — download them instead.
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I used UpdraftPlus before. Can I use those backups?
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Yes. If UpdraftPlus backups are in wp-content/updraft, the Backups tab lists them with a Convert button. Each one becomes a normal DadsFam backup you can restore, browse or move to another site. Encrypted UpdraftPlus backups and multisite backups cannot be converted. To bring in UpdraftPlus backups from another server, upload their files into wp-content/updraft first.
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Are my backups private?
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The backups folder is protected on Apache, LiteSpeed and IIS servers. Nginx ignores that protection, so the plugin tests it for real: Settings "Are my backups private?" places a harmless test file, tries to download it the way a stranger would, and deletes it. If it can be downloaded, you get the exact rule to send your host.
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Does restore overwrite my site?
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Yes — that’s the point of a restore. Always take a fresh backup first, and ideally test restores on a staging copy before running them on a live site. By default
wp-config.phpis never overwritten. -
Do I need to set up a server cron job?
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No. Scheduling uses WordPress’s own cron and self-heals if it ever goes missing.
Reseñas
No hay reseñas para este plugin.
Colaboradores y desarrolladores
"DadsFam Backups" es un software de código abierto. Las siguientes personas han colaborado con este plugin.
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Registro de cambios
1.15.5
- Fixed: an AI assistant asking for your backup history, the activity log or the list of backups was only ever given one entry, however many it asked for, so it could not tell how often your backups run. It now gets what it asks for (20 at a time unless it asks for more) and is told how many there are in all.
- Fixed: the activity log said "an off-site upload looked stalled, restarting it" a second after a backup was queued to go off-site, when nothing was wrong. A backup that has only just been queued now gets a few minutes to start before anything calls it stalled. An upload that really does stall is still restarted, exactly as before.
- Clearer: when another rule decides what is kept — such as the “Keep a history” option in the add-on — the “How many to keep here” box on Google Drive and OneDrive is greyed out with a note saying what is kept instead. The same goes for “Keep this many recent backups” when that rule covers this server too. Before, the box looked as if it was in charge when it was not. Your number is kept for when the rule is switched off.
- For AI assistants: the destination list says when a destination’s number is not being used and what decides instead, changing that number says so, and pruning a destination reports the rule it applied instead of claiming it kept "the newest N".
- Fixed: the health check told AI assistants "there are no backups stored on this server" as if it were a problem, on sites set to delete each backup from the server once it is safely off-site. That empty folder is the plan, so it is no longer reported as a problem, as long as the newest backup did reach off-site storage.
1.15.4
- Code tidy-up from the WordPress.org Plugin Check, with no change to how the plugin works: notes for translators on every message that has a placeholder, error messages escaped where they are created, table names escaped in the database export and restore queries, and a few standard WordPress names marked as intentional.
- The changelog on WordPress.org now shows the 1.15 releases. The complete history, back to 1.0, is in changelog.txt inside the plugin.
1.15.3
- Fixed: a backup converted from UpdraftPlus showed "0 DB rows" in the list, which read as an empty database. Its database is there; UpdraftPlus does not record how many rows it holds, so the count is now left out instead, and the row says it was converted from UpdraftPlus.
- Fixed: an UpdraftPlus backup that had already been converted still offered "Convert", and a second click made another full-size copy. It now shows "Converted", and converting the same backup twice is refused. Delete the converted copy if you ever want to convert it again.
1.15.2
- Fixed: on a laptop-height screen the restore window could run off the top and bottom of the screen, hiding its title and the Restore and Cancel buttons. Windows now scroll when they are taller than the screen, and their buttons stay in view while you scroll. The same applies to the window for looking inside a backup.
1.15.1
- Fixed: off-site copies now count database-only backups separately from full backups, as this server already does. With a database-only schedule running more often than full backups, the off-site "keep this many" setting could remove the only full backup from Google Drive or OneDrive.
- The readme now lists the outside services this plugin talks to in its own "External services" section.
- For developers: one retention planner now decides what to remove, here and off-site, and exposes the
dadsfam_backups_retention_planfilter.
1.15.0
- New: move a site by link. On the old site, Backups "Move this site" creates a transfer link for any backup (it works for 6 hours to 7 days, and can be switched off at any time). On the new site, paste it under "Copy a backup from another site" and the backup is copied straight across, server to server, in pieces that carry on if the page is closed or the connection drops. Then click "Clone here" as usual. No downloading to your computer, no uploading, no upload size limits.
- New: look inside a backup. The folder icon next to each backup opens it folder by folder. Download any single file, or put back just one file or folder instead of restoring the whole site. By default only missing files are put back; you can choose to replace the current versions too, and either way it can be undone for 24 hours. The same files a full restore protects (server settings files, wp-config.php and this plugin) are never overwritten this way.
- New: convert UpdraftPlus backups. UpdraftPlus backups in wp-content/updraft are listed on the Backups tab with a Convert button that turns each one into a normal DadsFam backup — restore it, browse it, or move it to another site. The UpdraftPlus files are never changed or deleted.
- For AI assistants: a new ability to look inside a backup. Putting files back and restoring stay with the person.
Earlier versions
The full history, back to 1.0, is in changelog.txt, which comes with the plugin.