How to Find Your WordPress Database (and Why it’s Important)
WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems out there, with over 24 million downloads globally. What is WordPress Database? A WordPress Database is the underlying software which drives WordPress sites. In other words, a WordPress Database is the information base that stores all your WordPress site’s data. Depending on how you have set things up, your WordPress database might also contain a copy of your WordPress site’s content.
To find your WordPress database, you will need to navigate to the directory where WordPress is installed on your website. This will usually be found at /var/www/html/ or C:\wamp\www\. Once you have found the directory, simply search for the word ‘database’ inside this directory. You will then see a list of all the files inside this directory that start with ‘wp_’. This is your WordPress database.
Why is it important to find your WordPress database? There are a number of reasons, but the most obvious one is to be able to backup your site in case something goes wrong. When you install WordPress, it gives you a special link which you can use to create an account on the WordPress.com backup service. This account will give you access to unlimited backups, which you can restore at any time.
Another important reason to find your WordPress database is to identify the theme you are using for your site. WordPress comes with a variety of built-in themes, but if you wish to switch to a different theme, you will need to identify the database that it is installed on. This is usually done by looking at the file names of the individual files inside the WordPress database. For example, if your WordPress database contains a file named style.css, this would indicate that you are using the TwentyFourteen theme. You can then safely assume that any files inside the WordPress database with the extension .css are part of the theme, and can be safely renamed or removed.
Learn More About WordPress Backup
WordPress comes with a built-in feature which makes it incredibly easy to backup your site. Simply log in to your WordPress dashboard, and click on the Settings button. From here, you can access the main settings page for your site. On this page, you will see a link to Start Backup. Once you click on this link, you will be taken to a page which will instruct you on how to create a WordPress backup.
If you are new to WordPress or have never created a WordPress backup before, this will all be a bit too much information at once. Luckily for you, we have detailed the entire creation of a WordPress backup for you to follow along. We will walk you through the entire process step-by-step, so you can be sure that when the time comes to use your new found knowledge, it will work just like you intend it to.
In order to create a WordPress backup, you will need to begin by clicking on the Start Backup button located on the Settings page for your site. This will bring you to a page which will ask you to enter a name for your backup and select the location where you would like to store it.
After clicking on the Create button, you will see a dialog box pop up which confirms that your backup has been created successfully.
While we are on the subject of backups, it is also important to note that there are a variety of plugins available for WordPress which will make taking regular backups of your site a breeze. For example, the BackupBuddy plugin will create a daily (or weekly) backup of your entire WordPress site, and allow you to restore that backup at any time. This can be extremely useful for those who frequently update their sites with new content, as sometimes this can lead to data loss if you are not careful. Having a backup available allows you to quickly get your site back up and running.
Explore The WordPress Dashboard
We mentioned earlier that WordPress comes with a variety of built-in themes. If you have installed WordPress on your computer, you will have the ability to explore these themes through the dashboard. To do this, you will need to log in to your WordPress dashboard and click on the Appearance icon located in the dashboard header. This will bring you to the Editor for your site. Now, if you have not used WordPress in a while, you might not know exactly where to find this icon, as it can be slightly hidden. To easily find the Editor, click on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the dashboard, then click on the Appearance tab.
The WordPress Editor is where you can make changes to the look and functionality of your site. You can create new posts or pages, edit existing posts and pages, and tweak a variety of settings for your site. On the left-hand side of the Editor, you will see a variety of icons which represent different types of content that you can add to your site. For example, there is the Image icon which allows you to upload an image to your site, the Video icon which allows you to upload a YouTube video to your site, and the Audio icon which allows you to upload an audio file to your site. Each of these icons will be accompanied by a number, indicating the number of posts, pages, or videos that you have uploaded to your site, respectively.
On the right-hand side of the Editor, you will see a variety of short-cut icons. These shortcuts will enable you to quickly perform common tasks on your site. For example, if you have set up your site so that posts automatically display as Latest News on your home page, then you can just click on the New Post icon to create a new post, or the Audio icon to listen to audio files.
As mentioned earlier, the Dashboard is the area of WordPress where you can access various settings and information about your site. To the left of the Dashboard, you will see the Activity button. This is a great place to check for updates to your site. In addition, if you have enabled the WordPress Notifications plugin, you will be able to receive notifications whenever there is new activity on your site (such as when someone leaves a comment, or when someone registers or logins to your site). To view your site’s activity at any given moment, simply click on the Activity button located in the dashboard header.
To conclude this section on the WordPress dashboard, let’s briefly discuss how to create a new post. If you are familiar with using regular blogging platforms like Blogger or Medium, creating a new post on WordPress should be incredibly easy. Simply click on the New Post icon located in the dashboard header, then enter a title for your post, and type in the body of the post what you want to say. Once you have finished entering text (or if you are using images, adding images to your post is as easy as clicking on the Insert button from the dashboard toolbar, selecting Image, and clicking on the Use File button.)
Now that you are equipped with the basics of using WordPress, it’s time to take a look at the security issues surrounding WordPress. Since WordPress is such a popular choice among bloggers and website owners, it is important to be aware of potential security issues which could arise from using WordPress.