Getting Started

The Getting Started tab is your home base. It shows the current state of your site’s protection at a glance and walks you through the three things that make a site safe: create a backup, copy it offsite, and set a schedule.

---

Step 1: Create a backup

Click Back Up Now to create a full local backup immediately. The most recent backup’s filename, size, and age are shown once one exists. You can download it directly from here with the Download button.

---

Step 2: Copy to the cloud

Choose where offsite copies go: CloudScale Managed (the recommended zero-config option; backups land in secure EU storage under your subscription) or Your own cloud (AWS S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive, configured in the Cloud Backups tab).

Once a destination is selected, Copy Last Backup to Cloud pushes your most recent backup immediately with a live progress bar.

CloudScale Managed subscription: subscribe directly from this panel. Once active, the card shows your licence key, storage used, and a link to view all stored backups in the Restore tab.

How long Managed backups are kept: two limits apply, and whichever is reached first wins.

• Your retention count, Managed keeps the same number of backups as your Keep last N backups setting on the Local Backups tab. If that is set to 3 and you back up daily, Managed holds roughly the last 3 days.
• A 90-day maximum, no Managed backup is kept longer than 90 days, even if your site stops backing up. This is enforced in storage, not by the plugin, so it still applies to a site that is offline, broken, or abandoned.

So 90 days is a ceiling, not a guarantee. If you want to be able to go back further, raise Keep last N backups, but nothing is retained beyond 90 days. If you need longer retention, use Your own cloud, where you control the bucket’s lifecycle rules.

---

Step 3: Set a schedule

Enable Automatic backups and choose a frequency. The schedule runs via WordPress cron. For production sites, replace WP-Cron with a real server cron for reliability (see the Backup Schedule card on the Local Backups tab for setup instructions).

Optionally enable Email reminders. If no backup has been created within the reminder interval you’ll receive a nudge email to the admin address.