Incremental WordPress Backups: Save Storage and Speed Up Backups

By Krasen Slavov Backup & Disaster Recovery

Full WordPress backups waste storage and time by copying unchanged files repeatedly. Incremental backups copy only changed files since last backup, reducing storage by 70-90% and dramatically speeding backup processes. This guide teaches incremental backup implementation, differential strategies, and optimization for efficient WordPress backup management.

Understanding Incremental Backups

Full Backup: Complete copy of all files every time. Simple but inefficient.

Incremental Backup: Only backs up files changed since last backup (full or incremental).

Differential Backup: Backs up files changed since last full backup.

Example Scenario:

  • Monday: Full backup (10GB)
  • Tuesday: Incremental (500MB changed files)
  • Wednesday: Incremental (300MB changed files)
  • Thursday: Incremental (400MB changed files)

Weekly storage: 11.2GB vs 40GB for full backups daily.

Benefits of Incremental Backups

Storage Savings: 70-90% reduction in backup storage requirements

Faster Backups: Complete in minutes instead of hours

Reduced Bandwidth: Less data transfer to cloud storage

Lower Costs: Cloud storage and bandwidth savings

Less Server Load: Minimal resource consumption

How Incremental Backups Work

Track file modification times and sizes to identify changes:

# Check file modification time
stat -c '%Y' filename

# Compare with last backup timestamp
if [ file_time > last_backup_time ]; then
    backup_file
fi

Implementing Incremental Backups

Using UpdraftPlus Premium:

  1. Install UpdraftPlus Premium
  2. Enable incremental backup feature
  3. Configure full backup frequency (weekly)
  4. Configure incremental frequency (daily)
  5. Set retention policy

UpdraftPlus handles complexity automatically.

Manual Incremental Backup Script

#!/bin/bash
# Incremental WordPress Backup Script

SITE_PATH="/var/www/html"
BACKUP_DIR="/backups/wordpress"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M)
FULL_BACKUP_DAY="Sunday"

# Determine backup type
if [ $(date +%A) == "$FULL_BACKUP_DAY" ]; then
    BACKUP_TYPE="full"
    REFERENCE=""
else
    BACKUP_TYPE="incremental"
    REFERENCE="--newer-than='1 day ago'"
fi

# Create backup filename
FILENAME="$BACKUP_TYPE-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

# Perform backup
cd $SITE_PATH
tar -czf $BACKUP_DIR/$FILENAME $REFERENCE wp-content/

# Database always full backup
wp db export $BACKUP_DIR/database-$DATE.sql
gzip $BACKUP_DIR/database-$DATE.sql

echo "$BACKUP_TYPE backup completed: $FILENAME"

Differential vs Incremental

Incremental (Tuesday backs up since Monday, Wednesday backs up since Tuesday):

  • Smallest individual backup sizes
  • Requires all incremental backups for full restoration
  • Fastest backup process

Differential (Tuesday backs up since Sunday, Wednesday backs up since Sunday):

  • Larger individual backups over time
  • Only needs last full + last differential for restoration
  • Simpler restoration process

Choose based on restoration complexity vs storage efficiency.

Database Incremental Backups

Databases are trickier for incremental backups since small changes affect large tables.

Binary Log-Based Approach:

Enable MySQL binary logging:

# my.cnf
log-bin=mysql-bin
expire_logs_days=7

Backup binary logs between full database backups:

# Full backup Sunday
wp db export full-backup.sql

# Incremental via binary logs Monday-Saturday
mysqlbinlog mysql-bin.000001 > incremental-monday.sql

Restoration replays binary logs onto full backup.

Changed File Detection

Efficiently identify changed files:

Using find Command:

# Files modified in last 24 hours
find /var/www/html/wp-content -type f -mtime -1 -exec cp {} /backups/incremental/ \;

Using rsync:

# Sync only changed files
rsync -av --link-dest=/backups/last-full/ /var/www/html/wp-content/ /backups/incremental/

rsync’s --link-dest creates hard links to unchanged files, saving space.

Restoration from Incremental Backups

Restore requires applying backups sequentially:

  1. Restore last full backup
  2. Apply each incremental backup in chronological order
  3. Restore database
  4. Verify integrity

Restoration Script:

#!/bin/bash
RESTORE_DIR="/var/www/html"
BACKUP_DIR="/backups/wordpress"

# Restore last full backup
tar -xzf $BACKUP_DIR/full-backup-*.tar.gz -C $RESTORE_DIR

# Apply incremental backups in order
for inc in $(ls $BACKUP_DIR/incremental-*.tar.gz | sort); do
    tar -xzf $inc -C $RESTORE_DIR
done

# Restore database
gunzip < $BACKUP_DIR/database-latest.sql.gz | wp db import -

Optimization Strategies

Exclude Frequently Changing Files:

tar --exclude='*/cache/*' --exclude='*/tmp/*' -czf backup.tar.gz wp-content/

Compress Aggressively:

# Use higher compression
tar -czf backup.tar.gz --use-compress-program="gzip -9" wp-content/

Use Deduplication:

Tools like Duplicity provide block-level deduplication, further reducing storage.

Cloud Storage with Incremental Backups

AWS S3 with Lifecycle Policies:

Configure S3 to transition old incremental backups to Glacier:

  1. Full backups: Keep 4 weeks
  2. Incremental backups: Keep 7 days, transition to Glacier
  3. Archived backups: Glacier for 1 year

Optimizes costs while maintaining recovery capability.

Monitoring Incremental Backup Chains

Track backup relationships:

#!/bin/bash
# Backup chain verification script

echo "Full Backups:"
ls -lh /backups/full-backup-*

echo "Incremental Backups:"
ls -lh /backups/incremental-backup-*

echo "Verify chain completeness..."
# Check for gaps in backup sequence

Missing incremental backup breaks chain, preventing restoration.

Testing Incremental Restorations

Monthly, test complete restoration:

  1. Create test environment
  2. Restore last full backup
  3. Apply all incremental backups
  4. Verify site functionality
  5. Document any issues

Never assume incremental backups work—test regularly.

Performance Comparison

Full Backup:

  • Time: 45 minutes
  • Storage: 10GB
  • Bandwidth: 10GB upload

Incremental Backup:

  • Time: 5 minutes
  • Storage: 500MB
  • Bandwidth: 500MB upload

20x efficiency improvement for large sites.

Conclusion

Incremental WordPress backups reduce storage requirements by 70-90% and dramatically accelerate backup processes by copying only changed files. Implement weekly full backups with daily incrementals, use rsync for efficient changed-file detection, test restoration procedures regularly, and leverage cloud storage lifecycle policies for cost optimization. Incremental backups enable frequent protection without storage explosion.

  1. UpdraftPlus Premium
  2. rsync Documentation
  3. MySQL Binary Logging
  4. AWS S3 Lifecycle
  5. Duplicity Backup Tool

Call to Action

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