WP Back-Up Lessons Learned

My first post of the year described my passion for writing and blogging – and yet, I’ve hardly written at all this year.

My second post was about being grateful for all the things I have in my world – the open sky and mountain views.

WP Suspended Account

And then WP suspended my account and I had to sit back and look at the fragility of this process. Pouring out words, sharing photos, linking to videos, telling my story, reading and writing comments are all steps along the way.  And then someone steps up and adds a code filled with links  — or spams my blog or email account and I am dead in the water with no recourse.

After researching this WP suspension, I realized it happens quite often. Sometimes it is

legitimate and bloggers violate the rules. Many times the blog was invaded and hacked and then everything I had written disappeared. Like my Yahoo account, I immediately went into WP and changed my password. Then I began my research. Here’s what I learned:

There is a way to back up your blog and you should probably do it sooner than later so
you don’t lose your ‘stuff.’

Here’s how to backup your account:

• Log into WordPress.
• Open the Dashboard.
• Select Tools > Export
• Export > Create an XML file containing your posts and comments for you to
  save or import into another WP blog.
• Export > All Content (this will contain posts, pages and feedback)
• Click  > Download Export File button

My download file was named: insideoutcafe.wordpress.2013-02-18. It is filled with code and can be opened in another WP blog.

Store this away in a folder (I named mine  – Restore Blog) so you can reinstall if your blog gets shutdown, hacked or suspended. If you have it in a folder, you can import it to another system (Blogger, LiveJournal,, Tumblr, TypePad, etc.) and reinstall and move forward.

Hint: You might want to Export your file on a weekly basis!

 So, I learned some valuable lessons  – the most important one was how to EXPORT my WP blog files and protect my ideas, visions, photos, words, videos and insights that I’ve created over the past few years.

Export and Update Passwords on a regularly basis!

1. Export your blog files on a regular basis.
2. Change your password and make it hard to crack.  The best passwords are not words at all but a sequence that only you can know. One idea is the first letter of each word in a phrase = April showers bring may flowers = asbmf1! (Always add a number and symbol to your password.).

I hope this information helps you. I am not so frustrated anymore so will turn my attention back to writing, sharing and reading.

If you have some insights and suggestions – PLEASE share them with me!

Related articles

• Not a Good Week: Suspended and Hacked (margekatherine.com)
• How to use Blogger Import/Export Feature? (earnblogger.com)
• How to Export Your Blogger and WordPress Posts (freetech4teachers.com)