13. Snapshot 4.0

The Setup Wizard/Welcome Guide will open the first time you click into Snapshot.

Click the Get Started button to open the backup scheduler and select the desired storage region for your backups. Then click Continue.

The wizard’s backup scheduler lets you choose to create a “Daily”, “Weekly”, or “Monthly” schedule. Choose the day, day of the week/month, and time you want backups to be scheduled. You can also choose “None” and create a schedule later if you prefer. See the Backups section for more.

If you do not want to schedule a backup at this point, you can also just click the “X” icon in the upper right corner to close the wizard and continue to the Snapshot Dashboard.

Click Save to schedule your managed backups. When saved, the wizard will close with a notification at the top of your screen about when your first backup will run.

The Overview section is a quick way to see what settings and destinations are set up and active with your Snapshot backups. Available information in the Overview section includes:

• Backups Available – Number of backups currently being stored in your cloud storage
• Available Destinations – The number of connected backup locations. A full explanation of what destinations are and how to configure them can be found under the Destinations section of this guide.
• Last Backup – Lists the date and time of your most recent successful backup
• WPMU DEV Storage Space – Available WPMU DEV Storage Space included with your plan and how much storage has been used (upgrade plans for increased storage are available in the Addons section of your Account page). If you are running both Snapshot version 3 and version 4, this includes the total storage used across both versions.

The Backup overview module is a quick way to see information about your latest backups. For more information about configuring Backups, visit the Backups chapter. The Backup Overview module shows:

• Title – This is the date of a scheduled backup or the title you entered for an on-demand backup
• Destination – Tells what storage solution is being used

Clicking the “View All” button redirects you to the Backups section where you can get more detailed information about all available backups.

Click the “Backup Now” button to trigger an on-demand once-off backup. In the Creating Backup modal that pops open, you will add a title or a note about the backup to help make your backup easier to identify. For more information about creating Backups, visit the Backups chapter.

If you would like to apply global file exclusion settings, check the box next to the “Apply global file exclusions set in the settings page.” For more information, see the Global Exclusions section in Backups Settings.

The Destinations Overview module lists all your connected cloud storage accounts where backups can be stored.

• Active Destinations – Name of connected cloud storage destinations
• Type – Note about where the backup is stored

Click the “View All” button to open the Destinations tab where you will be able to connect other destinations and get more information about your connected accounts.

Learn more about Destinations and configuration options in the Destinations chapter.

Create a manual backup

The first time you visit the Backups tab, you’ll be greeted with a prompt to run a backup now if you haven’t already. Click the Backup Now button to get started.

Enter a title for your manual backup and check the box to Apply global file exclusions if needed and if you have added any under the Settings tab, then click the Run Backup button.

The modal will close and you’ll see a progress bar indicating at which step the backup is currently at. Once that has completed, you’ll see your new manual backup in the list of Available Backups.

Create a backup schedule

If you have not yet set up a schedule for your backups, or wish to modify your existing backup schedule, click the Manage link in the Overview section next to Backup schedule.

This will open a modal just like the one you saw when you went through the Setup Wizard. The backup scheduler lets you choose to create a “Daily”, “Weekly”, or “Monthly” schedule. Choose the day, day of the week/month, and time you want backups to be scheduled. Click the Save Schedule button to finish.

Available Backups

Once you have at least one backup completed, you’ll see a list of all your available backups with the most recent one at the top. You can create a new manual backup at any time by clicking the Backup Now button at top-right.

Like the Backups section on the overview page, the Title is set as the date of a scheduled backup or your custom title for once-off manual backups. The Destination is what cloud service your backup was pushed to. Frequency notes if the backup is a Daily, Weekly, or Monthly backup, or a manual backup, as indicated with the label None.

Click on a specific backup to open more information and actions. Additional information includes:

• Current Schedule – Clicking on the schedule opens the schedule modal for you to change the frequency, day, and time your backup runs.
• Global Exclusions – A list of any global exclusions applied to your backup at the time of the specific backup. Get more details about setting and understanding Global Exclusions in the Settings chapter of this document.
• Date – When the selected backup ran.
• Size – This notes the size of the selected backup.

Additional actions per available backup

There are four action buttons along the bottom of the details section for any backup:

• Delete
• Restore
• View Logs
• Download

Delete
Click the Trash icon to delete the most recent backup, or you can delete all the backups on your site from the Backup > Settings tab.

Because backups are incremental, you must delete them one at a time, beginning with the most recent backup, or delete them all. Members can store a maximum of 30 manual and 30 scheduled backups, for a total of 60 backups. More information can be found in the Backups Settings documentation below.

Restore
Click the Restore (semi-circle with an arrow) icon to open the Restore Backup modal.

The Restore Backup modal indicates the directory where the backup will be restored. Click the “Restore” button to restore to the selected backup. Keep the page open until the process has finished.

During the restoration, a progress indicator will let you know where the restore is at, and which steps have already been taken.

There are 5 steps in restoring your site:

• Backup exported
• Download backup
• Restore files
• Restore database
• Finalize restoration

This process could take a few minutes for small sites and up to a few hours for larger sites. A notification will appear at the top of your screen when the restoration is complete, and will include a link to view the site.

View Logs Button
Clicking the View logs button opens the backup log in the Logs tab. Get more information about the logs tab in the Logs section of this document.

Download
Clicking the Download link will prepare an export version of the selected backup for download and email a link that allows you to download the backup. The link expires in 7-days, but the backup will be stored for 30-days.

Clicking the Logs tab opens a history of all the backups for the site. You can use these to debug issues and see what’s happening behind the scenes with each backup.

The Available Logs section is an overview of all backups with the most recent backup at the top. Backup information includes the Date and Destination.

Clicking a backup will open the full log for that backup. Sort the information from your log with:

• All – Display the entire report
• Warning – Only display warnings and errors
• Errors – Only display errors

Click the “View Backup” button to jump to the backup on your Backup list. Click the “Download” button to download your log file to your computer. Log info includes each action and when it was actioned.

The Backups Settings tab allows you to set exclusions and view the number of backups your site will save.

Global File Exclusions

This setting allows you to choose specific files or folders you want to exclude from your once-off and scheduled backups. Enter the relative path to the file or folder you would like to exclude from your backup and press enter to add an exclusion; for example: /wp-content/custom-folder/ or /file.php.

You can currently only add one exclusion at a time. You can remove any of the added exclusions by clicking the [X] icon next to your list of added exclusions.

Storage Limit

Backups on WPMU DEV’s cloud storage will keep the most recent 30 backups before removing the older ones. Currently, this limit cannot be changed.

Storage region

You can select which storage region you prefer for all your backups:

• United States – This region is recommended for better performance.
• Europe – This region is EU data protection directive compliant.

Delete Backups

Delete is a one-click option to remove all backups. Clicking the Delete button will open a modal where you will need to confirm your action by clicking Delete. Click cancel or the close modal icon [X] to close without Deleting remote backups.

The General tab is basic information about your Snapshot connection, including your Snapshot API Key that connects to your cloud storage and your website ID.

Snapshot API Key

This unique key is used to connect Snapshot on your site with WPMU DEV cloud storage. Click the copy button to copy the Snapshot API key to your clipboard if needed.

Site ID

This is your website’s WPMU DEV ID. Click the copy button to copy the Snapshot API key to your clipboard if needed.

The Data & Settings tab is where you manage how Snapshot stores and handles information created by the plugin.

Uninstall

The Uninstall module allows you to configure what you do with backups when Snapshot is uninstalled. You can choose to either Keep or Remove backups.

Be sure and click the “Save Changes” button after making changes.

Reset Settings

Use the Reset button in the Reset Settings module to roll back to default Snapshot settings.