How to backup a WordPress site from IONOS (or any legacy host)

Short answer: Install UpdraftPlus on your IONOS WordPress site, run a full backup (files + database), and send it to Google Drive or Dropbox. If UpdraftPlus times out because IONOS’s PHP limits are tight, switch to manual SFTP for the files and phpMyAdmin (Export, Custom, gzipped) for the database. Either way, end up with two artifacts: a wp-content archive and a .sql or .sql.gz dump. That pair is everything you need to restore the site anywhere – including on Hostney, which can pull the live site directly with our migration plugin and skip the export step entirely.

The same approach works for GoDaddy, Bluehost, HostGator, SiteGround, and any other shared host that gives you wp-admin access plus either an SFTP login or a File Manager.

Quick reference: which method to use#

Method	Best for	Time	Skill required
UpdraftPlus to cloud storage	Sites under 2 GB on hosts with normal PHP limits	10-30 min	Beginner
Duplicator full-site package	Sites under 1 GB where you want a single migration archive	15-45 min	Beginner
Manual SFTP + phpMyAdmin	Any site, especially large ones or hosts with strict PHP limits	30-90 min	Intermediate
Hostney migration plugin	Skipping the backup step entirely – pulls live to Hostney	20 min – 6 hr (auto)	Beginner

If you are backing up specifically because you plan to move to Hostney, scroll to the last section. You probably do not need to export anything at all.

Method 1: UpdraftPlus to cloud storage (the easiest path)#

UpdraftPlus is the most-installed backup plugin on WordPress.org and the most forgiving on shared hosting. It splits the backup into chunks so it does not require one long-running PHP process, and it can ship the result straight to cloud storage so you never have to download a large archive over your home internet.

Steps#

1. Log in to your IONOS WordPress admin ( yoursite.com/wp-admin ).
2. Plugins > Add New, search for UpdraftPlus, install and activate.
3. Settings > UpdraftPlus Backups > Settings.
4. Pick a remote destination – Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Amazon S3 are all free or near-free for typical site sizes. Authorize the connection.
5. Under Files included in backups, leave everything ticked (plugins, themes, uploads, others).
6. Save changes.
7. Go back to the Backup / Restore tab and click Backup Now. Tick “Include the database” and “Include any files”. Click Backup Now again to confirm.
8. Wait for the progress bar to finish. It will produce five files: db , plugins , themes , uploads , others . They will be sent to your remote destination automatically.

When UpdraftPlus fails on IONOS#

Symptoms: the backup stops at the same percentage on every retry, the log shows PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size exhausted , or the process is killed mid-run.

IONOS’s lower-tier shared plans cap PHP at 30-60 second execution and 128-256 MB memory. UpdraftPlus copes with chunking, but a single oversized media file or one huge database table can still trip it.

Fixes to try, in order:

• In Settings > UpdraftPlus Backups > Settings, scroll to Expert settings and raise Split archives every to 100 MB. Smaller chunks survive tight PHP limits.
• Exclude wp-content/cache/ and wp-content/upgrade/ – these are throwaway and only inflate the backup.
• Run the database and files as separate backup jobs (untick one at a time).
• If it still fails, give up on UpdraftPlus for this site and switch to Method 3 (manual SFTP). Plugins cannot get around hard PHP limits when the file or dataset is genuinely large. This is also why most WordPress migrations fail on hosts with restrictive caps.

Method 2: Duplicator (single archive for migration)#

Duplicator packages your entire site – files plus database – into a single .zip plus an installer script. If your goal is to move the site somewhere else, this is the format most migration workflows expect.

Steps#

1. Install Duplicator from Plugins > Add New.
2. Duplicator > Packages > Create New.
3. Step 1 is a scan. Look at the warnings panel. If it flags a large database or large files, click Yes. Continue with the build process! only if your site is under 1 GB. Otherwise abandon Duplicator and use Method 3.
4. Step 2 builds the package. Wait for Archive and Installer to both show as built.
5. Download both files: [hash]_archive.zip (your site) and installer.php (the restorer).

Duplicator is the standard for “I want a single artifact to take with me.” It struggles above 1 GB on shared hosting for the same reason every archive-style tool does – PHP timeouts.

Method 3: Manual SFTP + phpMyAdmin (always works)#

When plugins fail or the site is too large, do it by hand. This sounds harder than it is, and it is the only method that scales to sites of any size on any host.

Files: download wp-content over SFTP#

IONOS calls this SFTP in their panel (under Hosting > Manage > SFTP / Webspace). You will get a hostname, port (usually 22), username, and either a password or a key.

1. Install an SFTP client. FileZilla is free and works on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
2. Connect: protocol SFTP, host as given, port 22, your username, your password.
3. Navigate to the directory that contains wp-admin , wp-includes , and wp-content . On IONOS this is usually /clickandbuilds/WordPress/MyWebsite/ or similar.
4. Right-click the wp-content folder and download it. This will pull everything: plugins, themes, uploads, mu-plugins, and any custom directories your plugins created.
5. Also download wp-config.php from the same level. You do not need this in the new site, but keep it for reference – especially the table prefix line ( $table_prefix ).

What about wp-admin and wp-includes ? Skip them. They are identical to a fresh WordPress install of the same version and will be replaced at the destination. Downloading them just wastes time.

Database: export with phpMyAdmin#

IONOS exposes phpMyAdmin under Hosting > Manage > MySQL Databases – click the database name to launch it.

1. In phpMyAdmin, click your database name in the left sidebar (it usually starts with db followed by digits).
2. Click the Export tab at the top.
3. Pick Custom – display all possible options.
4. Under Tables, leave all WordPress tables selected (anything starting with your table prefix, usually wp_ ).
5. Under Output, tick Save output to a file and pick gzipped as the compression. The gzip step is what saves you when the export would otherwise be too large to download.
6. Under Format-specific options, leave SQL.
7. Under Object creation options, tick Add DROP TABLE / VIEW / PROCEDURE / FUNCTION / EVENT statement. This makes the dump replayable on a new database.
8. Under Data creation options, leave INSERT with Maximal length of created query.
9. Click Go at the bottom. The browser will download a .sql.gz file.

Keep that .sql.gz next to your wp-content folder. Together with a clean WordPress install of the matching version, that is a complete site.

If phpMyAdmin’s Export hangs or times out, run the export with WP-CLI instead ( wp db export site.sql --add-drop-table ) – but IONOS does not give you SSH on most plans, so this is usually only an option after you have already moved to a host that does.

For the full restore procedure on the other side, see how to restore WordPress manually.

How long does each method take#

Site size	UpdraftPlus	Duplicator	Manual SFTP + DB
Under 500 MB	5-15 min	5-15 min	15-30 min
500 MB – 2 GB	15-45 min	15-60 min (may fail)	30-60 min
2 GB – 10 GB	Often fails	Will fail	1-3 hours
Over 10 GB	Will fail	Will fail	2-6 hours, possibly across multiple SFTP sessions

The manual route is the only one that is bounded by your internet speed and disk space rather than by PHP limits. For anything over 2 GB on a shared host, plan on doing it manually.

Common mistakes when backing up from a legacy host#

Forgetting the database. A file-only backup is not a backup. Without the wp_options , wp_posts , and wp_postmeta tables, you have a folder of files with no site.

Skipping wp-content/uploads/ . Some “lightweight backup” workflows skip uploads because they are large. Then the restored site has every post but no images. Always include uploads unless you are deliberately rebuilding the media library from scratch.

Backing up only the active theme. Inactive themes can hold custom child themes, customizer settings (in the database), and assets referenced elsewhere. Just take all of wp-content/themes/ .

Trusting one backup. Run the backup, then verify it. For a plugin backup, restore it to a WordPress staging site or a local environment and load the homepage. For a manual backup, at minimum unzip the file archive and open the .sql.gz to confirm both are non-empty and recent. A backup you have never tested is a hope, not a backup.

Leaving the dump on the server. Once the export is on your laptop or in your cloud storage, delete it from the IONOS server. A .sql file containing your full database in a publicly-reachable directory is a credentials leak waiting to be discovered.

Mixing up table prefixes. If the source site uses wp_ and you restore into a database where another site uses wp_ too, the imports collide. Always restore into a clean database, or use a different table prefix. The prefix lives in your old wp-config.php on the $table_prefix line.

Not capturing wp-config.php for reference. You will not reuse it on the new host (the database credentials and salts will be different), but you need the table prefix, the WP_HOME and WP_SITEURL overrides if present, and any custom constants the previous host or your developer set.

If you are moving to Hostney, skip the backup#

The whole exercise above is “get the site into portable files.” If your end destination is Hostney, you do not actually need to do that yourself. Install the Hostney Migration plugin on your IONOS site, paste a one-time token from your Hostney panel, and click Start. Our worker pulls the database and files directly from your live site in paginated chunks, handles the URL rewrites without corrupting PHP-serialized options, and stops you ever holding a multi-gigabyte archive on your laptop.

The plugin is open source and on the wordpress.org plugin directory, so you can audit the code before installing it.

What this saves you, compared to manual backup + manual restore:

• No PHP timeouts on the source – the destination worker controls the pace, so IONOS’s tight limits stop being a problem.
• No naive find-and-replace on the database. Serialized data stays intact, which is the failure mode that breaks most plugin-based migrations.
• No WAF interference. Many migration plugins fail silently when the destination’s web application firewall flags response bodies as SQL injection. Our protocol wraps payloads to bypass that.
• No “did the upload finish?” anxiety. Failed batches retry automatically, with adaptive sizing if the source’s memory limits are tight.

Full architectural detail on what we do differently is in why most WordPress migrations fail. If you would rather see the manual migration path end to end (whether to Hostney or elsewhere), how to migrate WordPress to another hosting provider covers it.

A backup checklist before you start the migration#

Whether you migrate yourself or let Hostney pull the site, do these before flipping the switch:

• [ ] Note your IONOS PHP version (Hosting > Manage > PHP) so the new host can match it
• [ ] Note your MySQL/MariaDB version
• [ ] Note your WordPress version (Dashboard > Updates)
• [ ] Take a full UpdraftPlus or Duplicator backup AND send it offsite (Google Drive, Dropbox, S3 – not just the IONOS server)
• [ ] Manually download wp-content/ and a phpMyAdmin SQL dump as a second copy
• [ ] Take note of any custom constants in wp-config.php ( WP_HOME , WP_SITEURL , custom upload paths, WP_CONTENT_DIR )
• [ ] List your active plugins and versions – some store data outside standard tables
• [ ] Screenshot the homepage, a sample post, and the WooCommerce shop page (if applicable) so you can compare after the move
• [ ] Do not change DNS yet

Then, and only then, start the migration. For broader context on what’s actually moving and what can go wrong, what is website migration and how does it work is the conceptual overview.

The exact same backup approach works on GoDaddy, Bluehost, HostGator, SiteGround, A2 Hosting, and any other shared host. The plugin names and panel paths differ slightly – GoDaddy buries SFTP under Settings > Server, Bluehost calls phpMyAdmin from the Advanced tab – but the artifacts you walk away with (a wp-content archive and a .sql.gz dump) are identical. Backup once, restore anywhere.