Can you sync a local copy of WordPress files to and from a remote host?

A frequently-asked query:

Hi,
Alright I have my site up and running and everything is working just fine. All of my files are backed up locally and I only sync files back and forth that have been changed.

My question is I’m also using WordPress on my site for blogging purposes. Everything that’s on my site is backed up EXCEPT WordPress. Now I’m still kind of new to databases and everything, but can I safely sync my WordPress directory with my other local site files? I want to do this for ease of changing themes, or restoring them should something happen to the remote files

Now if I were to create a new blog entry or page using WordPress are those files saved in my WordPress directory or are they in some sort of SQL database? If they are in a separate database outside of my WordPress directory, what is the best way to back this up regularly to my local computer?

Basically I just want to be safe in case something happened to where I ever had to either restore all of my files to the website or even transfer my files to a different web host. Would all of the user accounts and blog posts still be intact? Heck sometimes even just upgrading WordPress software can mess things up.

I know I’m a bit paranoid but I’d rather play it safe.
Thanks,
Adam Lawton

P.S. in response to any answers, would your methods also work on forum applications such as bbpress or phpbb?


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Feel free to leave a comment in the box below.

  1. Synful Visions
    Aug 23rd, 2011 at 23:00 | #1

    The site itself is all contained within the files in whatever your public_html folder is. This name varies by platform and host.

    The actual posts and everything else are entirely resident within the SQL database. This can be backed up to a file periodically that will allow you to reload everything should there be a failure.

    The actual backup process for the SQL portion depends entirely on the database software and how your host allows you to access it.

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