BD Backup

Getting Started with BD Backup

Updated March 9, 2026 5 min read

What Is BD Backup?

BD Backup is a WordPress backup plugin that creates full-site and database-only backups of your WordPress installation. It is designed specifically for shared hosting environments where server resources are limited, using chunked AJAX-driven processing to avoid timeouts. The plugin stores backups locally on your server and provides one-click restore, scheduled automation, and email notifications.

Key Features

  • Full-site backups — archives every file on your WordPress installation plus a complete database export into a single ZIP file.
  • Database-only backups — exports all database tables into a SQL dump, skipping files entirely for a much faster snapshot.
  • Scheduled backups — automate backups on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule using WordPress cron.
  • One-click restore — restore your site from any completed backup directly from the admin dashboard.
  • Chunked processing — backups and restores run in small chunks via AJAX so they work reliably on shared hosting with low execution time limits.
  • Email notifications — receive an email when a backup completes successfully or fails.
  • Automatic retention — old backups are automatically deleted based on a configurable retention count.
  • File exclusions — exclude specific paths, file extensions, or files above a certain size from full backups.
  • PclZip support — uses the PclZip library bundled with WordPress, so it works on hosts where the ZipArchive PHP extension is not available.

Requirements

  • WordPress 5.6 or later
  • PHP 7.4 or later
  • PclZip or ZipArchive (PclZip is bundled with WordPress and is always available)
  • Sufficient disk space in wp-content/uploads/ to store backup archives

Installation

  1. Download the BD Backup plugin ZIP file from your BDShield account.
  2. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
  3. Choose the downloaded ZIP file and click Install Now.
  4. Once installed, click Activate Plugin.

After activation, the plugin automatically redirects you to the BD Backup dashboard. You can also access it at any time from the BD Backup menu item in the WordPress admin sidebar (identified by the backup icon).

What Happens on Activation

When you activate BD Backup, the following setup runs automatically:

  1. A database table called {prefix}_bdbk_backup_log is created to store the history of all backup and restore operations.
  2. Default settings are saved to the bdbk_settings option in your WordPress options table.
  3. A backup storage directory is created at wp-content/uploads/backups-bdbk/, protected with an .htaccess file that blocks direct HTTP access and an index.php file that prevents directory listing.

Understanding the Dashboard

The BD Backup admin page is organized into three tabs:

Dashboard Tab

This is the main view you see after activation. It contains:

  • Stats grid — four cards showing the number of completed backups, failed backups, total storage used by all backup files, and the current schedule frequency.
  • Quick Actions — two large clickable cards to start a Full Backup (files + database) or a Database Only backup immediately.
  • Progress section — a progress bar that appears when a backup or restore is running, with a percentage indicator and status message. A Cancel button appears during active operations.
  • Recent Backups — a table showing the last 5 backups with their status, type, file size, duration, and date.
  • System Info — a panel displaying PHP version, WordPress version, MySQL version, memory limit, max execution time, ZIP support status, free disk space, and database size.

History Tab

A full paginated list of all backups ever created. You can filter by status (Complete, Failed, Cancelled, In Progress) and type (Full, Database Only). Each row shows a status badge, backup type, file size, duration, trigger type (Manual or Scheduled), date, and action buttons for downloading, restoring, or deleting the backup.

Settings Tab

All configurable options for scheduling, retention, notifications, exclusions, and performance tuning. These are covered in detail in the next article.

Your First Backup: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Follow these steps to create your first backup right after activating the plugin:

  1. Navigate to BD Backup in your WordPress admin sidebar.
  2. On the Dashboard tab, locate the Quick Actions section.
  3. Click the Full Backup card (labeled “Files + Database”). This creates a complete backup of your entire WordPress installation.
  4. The progress bar appears and begins updating. You will see status messages as the backup moves through its phases:
    • Scanning files — the plugin scans your WordPress directory to build a list of all files, excluding any paths or extensions you have configured.
    • Exporting database — each database table is exported to a SQL file, showing progress as “X/Y tables.”
    • Archiving files — all scanned files are compressed into a ZIP archive using PclZip.
    • Adding database dump — the SQL export file and a manifest.json file (containing backup metadata) are added to the ZIP.
    • Finalizing — the ZIP is moved to its final storage location and the file size is recorded.
    • Cleaning up — temporary files are removed and old backups beyond the retention limit are deleted.
  5. When the progress bar reaches 100%, you see a “Backup complete!” message with the total duration.
  6. Your new backup now appears in the Recent Backups table on the Dashboard tab, and in the full History tab.

Tip: If you only need to back up your database (posts, pages, settings, user data), click Database Only instead. This is significantly faster and produces a much smaller file since it skips all theme, plugin, media, and core files.

Backup File Storage

All backup ZIP files are stored at:

wp-content/uploads/backups-bdbk/

This directory is protected from direct web access by an .htaccess file containing Deny from all. Backups can only be downloaded through the WordPress admin dashboard, which verifies your admin permissions and checks a security nonce before serving the file.

Backup File Naming

Backup files follow this naming pattern:

bdbk_{domain}_{type}_{date}_{hash}.zip

For example: bdbk_example.com_full_2026-03-09_143022_a1b2c3d4.zip

  • {domain} — your site domain, sanitized for use in filenames.
  • {type} — either full or db depending on the backup type.
  • {date} — the UTC timestamp when the backup started, in Y-m-d_His format.
  • {hash} — an 8-character random string to ensure uniqueness.

System Info Panel

Before creating your first backup, check the System Info panel on the Dashboard tab to confirm your server meets all requirements:

  • ZIP Support should show “Available” in green. If it shows “Missing” in red, contact your hosting provider.
  • Disk Free should show enough free space to hold your backup. A full-site backup is typically close to the size of your wp-content directory.
  • Max Execution shows your PHP timeout in seconds. BD Backup works around this limit with chunked processing, so even a 30-second limit is fine.
  • Memory Limit should be at least 128M for reliable operation.

Tip: The DB Size value shows how large your database export will be approximately. If you only need to protect your content and settings, a Database Only backup is often sufficient and takes just seconds.