WordPress backup for portfolio and photography websites

Most business sites are mostly text. A portfolio or photography site is the opposite: galleries of high-resolution images, project case studies, client proofing pages and a carefully designed layout. The media library is usually most of the site’s size, and it is also the part that is hardest to rebuild. Finding and re-uploading years of work, in the right galleries, with the right captions, can take days.

• The media library: every image in every gallery, at the sizes WordPress generated.
• Galleries and project pages: order, captions and categories live in the database.
• Theme and page builder layouts: the design is part of the work you show.
• Contact and booking forms for shoots or commissions.
• Client proofing pages, if you use a gallery or proofing plugin.

Because image-heavy sites produce large backup files, they are where restores usually fail. Many hosts limit a single upload to a few megabytes, so a backup of hundreds of megabytes cannot be uploaded in one go. Quick Restore uploads in small chunks, so the host’s limit is not a problem. The free version restores backups up to 512 MB; beyond that, Pro restores any size.

• Resize photos to the largest size your theme displays before uploading, and keep the originals in your own archive.
• Remove unused images and old test galleries before backing up.
• Read restoring large WordPress backups for more ways to keep backups lean.

• Back up after every new project you add, not on a calendar alone.
• Keep a copy off the server: download the backup to your computer or your own cloud drive.
• Back up before redesigns and theme changes; they are the biggest risk to your layout.
• Test a restore once on a staging copy so you know it works before you need it.

New studio name, new domain? Restore the backup on the new domain and Quick Restore rewrites the links in pages and galleries. See restoring WordPress to a new domain.

Pro suits most portfolio and photography sites, because image-heavy backups quickly pass the free version’s 512 MB restore limit. If you publish new work every week and want backups on autopilot, Pro Plus adds scheduling and emailed download links. See Quick Restore pricing.