Skip to content

Download a full database backup

Download a backup copy of the entire database of a WordPress single site or a WordPress multisite environment.

VIP Dashboard

In the application view of the VIP Dashboard:

  1. Select an environment from the environment dropdown located at the upper left of the VIP Dashboard.
  2. Select “Database” from the sidebar navigation at the left of the screen.
  3. Select Database Backups from the submenu.
  4. Select the date of the backup for download. Database backups are grouped by date, and dates can be selected from buttons in a carousel labeled “Select a date“. The buttons also display the number of backups available for download for each date.
  5. Select the “Configure Download” button to the right of a database backup.
  6. In the “Configure your backup copy” modal, select “Entire database“.
  7. Select the “Generate Backup Copy” button to the right of a database backup.
    The button label will display the text “Preparing Backup” while the database backup file is being prepared for download.
    Backup files for larger databases will take a longer time to prepare.
  8. The button label will display the text “Download” when the database backup file is ready for download. Select “Download” to download the file to the user’s local machine.

VIP-CLI

VIP-CLI command: vip export sql

In this command example, the export of a database backup is initiated for the develop environment of the “example-app” application. Updates on the progress of the export are output in the command line terminal.

$ vip @example-app.develop export sql
Fetching the latest backup for example-app
✓ Latest backup found with timestamp 2023-05-31T06:03:07.000Z
Creating a new export for the backup with timestamp 2023-05-31T06:03:07.000Z
✓ Preparing 
⠦ Creating backup copy 
○ Requesting download link 
○ Downloading file 

Specifying the location of a download

The database file can be exported to a specific location of the user’s machine with a custom file name by passing a local path value to the --output option. For example:

vip @example-app.develop export sql --output=/Desktop/custom-name.sql.gz

Last updated: March 25, 2024

Relevant to

  • WordPress