Documentation

Everything you need to install, configure and use WP Backup Nota.

Installation

WP Backup Nota can be installed just like any other WordPress plugin.

Method 1: WordPress Admin Dashboard

  1. Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
  2. Go to Plugins → Add New.
  3. Search for WP Backup Nota.
  4. Click Install Now, then Activate.

Method 2: Manual Upload

  1. Download the plugin ZIP file from your account on wp-nota.com.
  2. Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
  3. Choose the ZIP file and click Install Now.
  4. Click Activate Plugin.

Method 3: FTP/SFTP

  1. Unzip the plugin file on your computer.
  2. Upload the wp-backup-nota folder to /wp-content/plugins/ via FTP.
  3. Go to Plugins in your WordPress admin and activate it.
💡 Requirements: WordPress 5.6+, PHP 7.4+, MySQL 5.6+. The ZipArchive PHP extension is recommended but not required (PclZip is used as fallback). OpenSSL is required for encryption.

License Activation

After purchasing a license from wp-nota.com, you'll receive a license key by email.

  1. Go to WP Backup Nota → Settings → General.
  2. Enter your license key in the License Key field.
  3. Click Activate License.

Your license allows the plugin to receive automatic updates. Without an active license, the plugin continues to work but won't receive updates.

Your First Backup

Creating your first backup is simple:

  1. Go to WP Backup Nota in your WordPress admin sidebar.
  2. Choose a backup type: Full, Database Only or Files Only.
  3. Optionally nota-check a cloud destination to upload the backup automatically.
  4. Click Start Backup.
  5. Watch the progress bar — your backup will complete without any timeouts.

The backup ZIP is saved to /wp-content/wp-backup-nota/ and listed in the Backups table below.

Manual Backup

The main WP Backup Nota page lets you create backups on demand.

Available Options

  • Cloud destinations: Check any cloud service to upload after backup.
  • Backup Type: Full site, database only, or files only.
  • Notes: Add a description (e.g. "Before plugin update") for easy identification later.

Backups are processed in chunks — each AJAX request adds a batch of files to the ZIP. This means you can safely close the browser tab after starting a backup; the process will continue via WordPress cron.

Selective Backup

WP Backup Nota supports three backup modes:

  • Full: Files + database in one ZIP. Use this for a complete site backup.
  • Database Only: Only the MySQL database is exported. Ideal for frequent DB backups between full site backups.
  • Files Only: Only WordPress files are archived, without the database. Useful when you've made theme/plugin changes and want to save them quickly.
⚠️ Important: Files-only backups cannot be restored via the Admin Panel Restore feature. Use the standalone installer for files-only restores.

Scheduled Backups

Configure automatic backups under Settings → Auto Backup.

  • Frequency: Daily, weekly or monthly.
  • Backup Hour: Choose what time of day backups run (UTC).
  • Backup Type: Set the default type for scheduled runs.
  • Cloud Targets: Enable any cloud service to upload automatically.
  • Auto-delete local: Remove local backup file after successful cloud upload to save disk space.
  • Max Backups: Oldest backups are automatically deleted when the limit is exceeded.

Exclusion Rules

Under Settings → Exclusions, you can define paths to skip during backup.

Enter one path per line, relative to your WordPress root. Examples:

/wp-content/uploads/videos
/wp-content/uploads/large-images
/wp-content/custom-large-folder

The following directories are automatically excluded without any configuration:

  • /wp-content/cache (W3 Total Cache, WP Rocket, WP Super Cache)
  • /wp-content/uploads/cache
  • /wp-content/et-cache (Divi)
  • /wp-content/wpo-cache (WP Optimize)
  • /wp-content/breeze-cache
  • The WP Backup Nota backup directory itself

Backup Encryption

Enable AES-256 encryption under Settings → General → Backup Encryption.

  1. Check Enable AES-256 encryption for all backups.
  2. Enter a strong password in the Encryption Password field.
  3. Click Save Settings.

When encryption is enabled, the database.sql file inside each backup ZIP is encrypted using AES-256-CBC. The encrypted file is saved as database.sql.enc. The ZIP file itself remains unencrypted, so you can still see the file list.

⚠️ Critical: If you lose your encryption password, encrypted backups cannot be restored. Store your password in a secure password manager.

The password is stored encrypted in the WordPress database using your WordPress secret keys as the cipher key — so it's not stored in plain text.

Google Drive

Go to Settings → Google Drive to connect your account.

  1. Enter your Google OAuth2 Client ID and Client Secret. (You'll need to create a project in the Google Cloud Console.)
  2. Click Authorize with Google and follow the OAuth flow.
  3. Once authorized, select a destination folder using the folder picker.
  4. Optionally enable Auto-upload for scheduled backups.
💡 Tip: You can create a dedicated folder (e.g. "WP Backups") to keep your backups organized.

Amazon S3

Go to Settings → Amazon S3 and enter:

  • Access Key ID and Secret Access Key from your AWS IAM user.
  • Region (e.g. us-east-1).
  • Bucket Name — must already exist in your AWS account.
  • Path Prefix — optional folder inside the bucket (e.g. my-site/backups).

Click Test Connection to verify your credentials, then click Save Settings.

Wasabi

Wasabi setup is identical to Amazon S3. Go to Settings → Wasabi and enter your Wasabi Access Key, Secret Key, region and bucket name.

Wasabi is an S3-compatible service with lower nota-pricing than AWS — a great option for cost-conscious users.

Dropbox

Go to Settings → Dropbox:

  1. Enter your Dropbox App Key and App Secret.
  2. Click Connect Dropbox and authorize the app.
  3. Select a destination folder using the folder picker.

Microsoft OneDrive

Go to Settings → OneDrive:

  1. Enter your Azure App Client ID and Client Secret.
  2. Click Connect OneDrive and complete the Microsoft OAuth flow.
  3. Select a destination folder using the folder picker.

Admin Panel Restore

You can restore any backup directly from the WordPress admin panel without the standalone installer.

  1. Go to WP Backup Nota (main page).
  2. Find the backup you want to restore in the Backups table.
  3. Click the ↩ Restore button.
  4. A modal will nota-open showing the backup's source URL compared to your current site URL.
  5. If the source URL differs from your current site, a URL override field appears pre-filled with your current URL.
  6. Type I confirm in the confirmation field and click Yes, Restore.
⚠️ Warning: The Admin Panel Restore overwrites your current database. Always create a fresh backup before restoring. This feature only restores the database — file restoration is not available from the admin panel.

Files-only backups are not supported by this feature.

Migration Installer

Each backup ZIP contains a standalone installer.php file. This installer works completely independently of WordPress — perfect for restoring when WordPress is broken, or migrating to a new server.

How to use the installer:

  1. Download your backup ZIP file.
  2. Extract all contents to your server's document root (or a subfolder).
  3. Navigate to https://yoursite.com/installer.php in your browser.
  4. Fill in the database credentials for your new/target server.
  5. Enter the new site URL if you're migrating to a different domain.
  6. Click Start Installation and wait for completion.
💡 Security: After successful restore, delete installer.php from your server immediately. The installer is a powerful tool and should not be left publicly accessible.

Site Migration

WP Backup Nota makes migrating WordPress sites straightforward:

  1. Create a full backup on your source site.
  2. Download the backup ZIP.
  3. Upload your WordPress files to the new server (or use the files from the ZIP).
  4. Extract the backup ZIP contents to the new server.
  5. Open installer.php in your browser.
  6. Enter new database credentials and the new site URL.
  7. The installer will automatically replace all URLs and file paths — including inside serialized data.

General Settings

Go to Settings → General to configure:

  • Maximum Backups to Keep: Number of local backups retained before old ones are deleted.
  • ZIP Chunk Size: How many MB of files are processed per AJAX request. Reduce on low-memory servers.
  • Backup Encryption: Enable AES-256 encryption for all backups.

Email Notifications

Go to Settings → Notifications to configure:

  • Email Address: Where to send notifications. Leave blank to use the WordPress admin email.
  • On Success: Receive an email after every successful backup.
  • On Failure: Receive an email when a backup fails (recommended).

Troubleshooting

Backup gets stuck / doesn't finish

The plugin uses heartbeat detection to identify stuck backups. If a backup has no activity for 10 minutes, it's automatically marked as failed and logged in the backup history. You can then start a new backup.

To prevent backups from getting stuck:

  • Reduce the ZIP Chunk Size in General Settings (try 5 MB).
  • Add large files/folders to Exclusion Rules.
  • Make sure WordPress cron is working on your server.

Out of memory errors

If you see memory exhaustion errors in the backup history, try:

  • Reducing the ZIP Chunk Size in Settings.
  • Excluding large directories (videos, large uploads) from backups.
  • Asking your host to increase the PHP memory limit to at least 256 MB.

Cloud upload fails

If the backup completes but cloud upload fails:

  • Check your cloud service credentials in Settings.
  • Test the connection using the Test Connection button.
  • Make sure your API keys have the necessary permissions (read + write).
  • Check if your cloud storage bucket/folder exists and has write access.

Getting help

If you can't resolve an issue, email us at support@wp-nota.com with a description of your problem and your PHP/WordPress version.