Creating full WordPress backups is resource intensive. If your website has very large media files, such as HD pictures and videos, it can be very difficult to download or store huge WP backup files. This is especially true when your website is hosted on a shared server. In fact, you don’t have to backup every file every time. Some files will remain the same on server all the time unless you delete them manually. For example, all your images, videos and other files will be uploaded to /wp-content/uploads folder. If you set to organize the uploads into month- and year-based folders in WordPress settings, you can choose not to backup those old media files and folders that you have already backed up before. Today, we will discuss how you can not to backup all WordPress files or folders every time? You will learn how to exclude certain files and folders in WordPress backups using a free and easy-to-use WordPress plugin below.
Install WordPress backup plugin
In an earlier guide, we used this free plugin to backup your WordPress websites. Refer to this guide and install this free plugin if not yet.
Exclude files, folders in WordPress backups
From your WP dashboard >> Tools >> Backups, create a new schedule or edit an existing full backup schedule or file backup schedule. Click on the Excludes option, you will find the Exclude button behind the files and directories on your server.
You can click on a folder to drill down sub-folders. It is super simple to exclude files and folders from your WordPress backups and create partial backups of WordPress sites. The backup plugin is even able to automatically detect and ignore common Version Control Systems folders and other backup plugin folders. Very user friendly!
