How to Back Up a Joomla Site with Akeeba Backup

Backups are the single best insurance before any update or change. Akeeba Backup is the de-facto community standard for Joomla. Test your restore process at least once — an untested backup isn’t a backup.

Step 1 — Install Akeeba Backup

It’s a normal extension. Download the Akeeba Backup Core (free) package from the developer, then go to System → Install → Extensions and upload the .zip (see install an extension).

Step 2 — Take your first backup

Open Components → Akeeba Backup.
Run the configuration wizard if prompted (it auto-detects sensible settings).
Click Backup Now → Backup Now! and let it finish.

Akeeba produces a single archive (a .jpa file) containing both your files and the database — that’s what makes it a full backup.

Step 3 — Get the backup OFF the server

A backup that only lives on the same server won’t help if the server dies or is hacked. Download the archive to your computer (Akeeba → Manage Backups → Download), or configure Akeeba to push backups to remote storage (S3, Dropbox, etc.) on the paid edition.

Step 4 — Know how to restore

Restoring uses Akeeba Kickstart (a small free script): you upload Kickstart plus your archive to a server, run it, and it extracts the files and restores the database. Practising a restore on a test/staging site once means you won’t be learning under pressure during a real emergency.

When to back up

Before every Joomla or extension update or migration.
On a schedule for live sites (Akeeba can run from a cron job).

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