CloudScale Backup & Restore

Descrizione

Most backup plugins fail exactly when you need them most: on your biggest site, or the site that’s grown since you installed them. All-in-One WP Migration’s free version caps imports at 512MB (its Unlimited extension costs $69/year to remove the cap). Duplicator’s free version starts failing and timing out around 500MB, with no chunking until you upgrade to Pro. UpdraftPlus has no hard site-size limit, but its free version is restricted to a single cloud storage destination, so you’re stuck with whatever free-tier space that one provider gives you.

CloudScale Backup & Restore has no site-size limit, no destination limit, and no plan wall. It reads your database in 500-row chunks and never loads the whole thing into memory, so a 50MB site and a 50GB site back up the same way, reliably, without hitting your host’s memory limit or execution timeout. It backs up to five destinations at once, for free: Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, and CloudScale’s own Managed Cloud Backup, and every destination you enable gets a copy of every backup.

Any Size, No Limits

• Streams the database in 500-row chunks via $wpdb; never loads the full database into memory, regardless of size
• set_time_limit(0) and ignore_user_abort(true) on every backup and restore, so PHP’s execution-time limit never cuts a large operation off mid-run
• Restore uses a character-level SQL parser that correctly handles quoted strings, escaped characters and multi-line INSERT statements, on files of any size
• System Info panel shows exactly which backup and restore method, and memory limits, your server is using

Back Up to Five Destinations at Once

• Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive, using your own accounts, free, with no destination limit
• CloudScale Managed Cloud Backup: $5/month for 750GB of off-site storage on Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval, no separate cloud account needed
• Configurable retention: keep the last N backups on every destination, deleted automatically after each run. Managed copies are additionally capped at 90 days in storage, enforced even if the site stops running; your own cloud destinations follow whatever lifecycle rules you set on your own bucket
• Every destination you enable receives every backup automatically

What It Backs Up

Choose any combination, packaged into one .zip with a descriptive filename (for example backup_db-media-plugins_2026-02-21_09-10-00.zip) that reflects exactly what it contains:

• Full WordPress database: all tables, all data
• Media uploads folder (/wp-content/uploads/)
• Plugins folder (/wp-content/plugins/)
• Themes folder (/wp-content/themes/)
• Optional Site Root Extras: root-level files like php.ini, robots.txt, favicon, .well-known/, and search-engine verification files
• Optional Server Config Snapshot: read-only reference copies of your nginx/Apache config, PHP runtime settings and MySQL variables
• Post-restore environment comparison flags PHP version, missing extensions, lower memory/upload limits, or MySQL version differences between the backup’s original server and the one you restored onto
• Every zip includes backup-meta.json: plugin version, creation timestamp, WordPress version, site URL, table prefix, and which components were included, so you can verify a backup without restoring it

Automatic backups are off by default. Run your first backup manually to confirm everything works on your server, then configure a schedule if you need one.

Restore Safely

Clicking Restore DB opens a confirmation modal that:

1. Shows the exact backup file name and creation date you are restoring from
2. Displays a warning box explaining what will happen step by step
3. Requires you to tick a checkbox: “I have taken a server snapshot and understand this will overwrite the live database”
4. Only enables the Restore button after that checkbox is ticked

During restore, WordPress’s native .maintenance file is created so visitors see the standard maintenance page. It is always removed when restore finishes, whether the restore succeeded or failed. The plugin header shows a live badge indicating whether the site is online or in maintenance mode.

Disaster Recovery

• Failover Mode: a standby server never creates, schedules, or allows a manually- or WP-CLI-triggered backup while flagged as a failover target, and says so on every admin screen
• EC2 AMI Snapshots: create a full machine image of your AWS-hosted server directly from the plugin, with optional reboot for filesystem consistency, plus AMI history and status polling

Security

• Backup directory uses a randomised, non-guessable name, not a fixed predictable path
• Protection covers Apache (both .htaccess syntaxes), nginx, IIS (web.config), and a silent index.php, plus 0700 permissions, not just an .htaccess that nginx and IIS ignore
• A daily self-check fetches its own backup URL to confirm the directory genuinely isn’t publicly readable, and warns you with the exact server rule to add if it is
• All passwords passed to CLI tools via environment variable, not shell arguments

Developer & Automation

• Trigger a backup from WP-CLI or a system cron job
• Configurable scheduling: any interval in days, and the exact hour of day to run
• Full backup history: view all stored backups with filename, type label, size, creation date, and age; download any backup directly from the WordPress admin
• One-click migration: restore the database from any stored backup or by uploading a .zip or .sql file, on the same host or a new one

External services

This plugin optionally connects to third-party services when those features are configured by the site administrator. No data is sent to any external service unless the administrator has explicitly enabled the relevant integration.

Telegram Bot API (optional notifications)

When Telegram is configured, the plugin sends backup, restore, and plugin
rollback notifications, plus error alerts, to the administrator-configured
Telegram chat via the Telegram Bot API. The message contains the site name,
event status, and (for error alerts) a summary of the PHP error, file name,
and line number. No personal visitor data, post content, or backup data is
transmitted. No data is sent unless a Telegram bot token and chat ID have
been entered in the plugin’s Notifications settings.
API endpoint contacted: https://api.telegram.org/bot{token}/sendMessage
Terms of Service: https://telegram.org/tos
Privacy Policy: https://telegram.org/privacy
Telegram Bot API documentation: https://core.telegram.org/bots/api

Amazon S3 (optional cloud backup)

When S3 settings are configured, the plugin uploads backup zip files directly
to the administrator’s own S3 bucket via the AWS S3 REST API (no external
tools required). Only the backup zip file is transmitted. Credentials (bucket
name, access key ID, secret access key, region) are stored in the WordPress
options table and are never sent anywhere except to the AWS S3 endpoint.
API endpoint contacted: https://s3.{region}.amazonaws.com/
Terms of Service: https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/
Privacy Policy: https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/

Google Drive (optional cloud backup)

When Google Drive settings are configured, the plugin transfers backup zip files
to the administrator’s own Google Drive account using the Google Drive v3 REST
API and OAuth 2.0. No data is sent unless the administrator has completed the
OAuth authorisation flow (entered a Client ID and Client Secret from Google
Cloud Console and clicked “Connect to Google Drive”). Only the backup zip file
is uploaded. OAuth tokens (access token and refresh token) are stored in the
WordPress options table.
API endpoint contacted: https://www.googleapis.com/ and https://oauth2.googleapis.com/
Terms of Service: https://policies.google.com/terms
Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Dropbox (optional cloud backup)

When Dropbox settings are configured, the plugin transfers backup zip files to
the administrator’s own Dropbox account using the Dropbox v2 REST API and
OAuth 2.0. No data is sent unless the administrator has completed the OAuth
authorisation flow (entered an App Key and App Secret from the Dropbox App
Console and clicked “Connect to Dropbox”). Only the backup zip file is
uploaded. OAuth tokens are stored in the WordPress options table.
API endpoint contacted: https://api.dropboxapi.com/ and https://content.dropboxapi.com/
Terms of Service: https://www.dropbox.com/terms
Privacy Policy: https://www.dropbox.com/privacy

Microsoft OneDrive (optional cloud backup)

When OneDrive settings are configured, the plugin transfers backup zip files to
the administrator’s own Microsoft OneDrive account using the Microsoft Graph
REST API and OAuth 2.0. No data is sent unless the administrator has completed
the OAuth authorisation flow (entered an Azure App Client ID and Client Secret
and clicked “Connect to OneDrive”). Only the backup zip file is uploaded.
OAuth tokens are stored in the WordPress options table.
API endpoint contacted: https://graph.microsoft.com/ and https://login.microsoftonline.com/
Terms of Service: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/servicesagreement/
Privacy Policy: https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement

CloudScale Managed Cloud Backup (optional, paid service)

When the administrator subscribes to the optional CloudScale Managed Cloud Backup
service, the plugin contacts the CloudScale broker to request a short-lived,
prefix-scoped Amazon S3 access token, then uploads backup zip files directly to
CloudScale’s managed S3 storage (hosted in the EU, eu-west-1). Only the site’s
domain name, the subscription licence key, and the backup zip file are involved;
the backup bytes are uploaded straight to S3 and do not pass through the broker.
No data is sent unless the administrator has subscribed and entered a licence key.
API endpoint contacted: https://api.cloudscale.consulting/ (broker) and
https://cloudscale-backup-restore-global.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/ (storage)
Terms of Service: https://cloudscale.consulting/terms
Privacy Policy: https://cloudscale.consulting/privacy

PayPal (optional, payment for Managed Cloud Backup)

Subscription payments for the optional CloudScale Managed Cloud Backup service are
processed by PayPal. Payment details are entered on PayPal’s own hosted checkout
page and are never collected, stored, or transmitted by this plugin. When the
administrator starts a subscription, the subscriber’s email address and a PayPal
order amount ($5.00 USD) are sent directly from the WordPress server to the PayPal
REST API (api-m.paypal.com) to create a checkout session; no payment-card data is
handled by the plugin or the WordPress site. No data is sent unless the administrator
chooses to subscribe to the paid service.
API endpoint contacted: https://api-m.paypal.com/ (live) or
https://api-m.sandbox.paypal.com/ (sandbox testing)
Browser-loaded script: https://www.paypal.com/sdk/js – PayPal’s JavaScript SDK, loaded
into the plugin’s admin screen only after an administrator opens the subscription
checkout. PayPal requires the SDK be served from its own origin so a compromised build
can be revoked, so it cannot be bundled with the plugin.
Terms of Service: https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/useragreement-full
Privacy Policy: https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/privacy-full

AWS EC2 / AMI snapshots (optional, AMI snapshot feature only)

When the AMI snapshot feature is used, the plugin reads instance metadata
(instance ID and region) from the local EC2 Instance Metadata Service at
http://169.254.169.254. This address is only reachable from within an EC2
instance and no data leaves the server at this step. AMI creation, status poll,
deregister, and snapshot delete requests are then issued directly to the AWS
EC2 REST API (no external tools required). The same AWS credentials
(access key ID and secret key) used for S3 are used; if none are configured
the plugin attempts to use the EC2 instance role via IMDS.
API endpoint contacted: https://ec2.{region}.amazonaws.com/
Terms of Service: https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/
Privacy Policy: https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/

Automatic Crash Recovery: health check probe (optional)

When Automatic Crash Recovery is enabled, the plugin periodically sends an HTTP
request to the administrator-configured health check URL to verify the site is
responding. The URL defaults to the site’s own home URL. No personal data is
transmitted. The request is a plain GET with no authentication payload. The
same probe is made when the administrator clicks “Test Health Check” in the
plugin settings. If a system-cron watchdog script is installed on the server,
that script also probes this URL independently via curl. The health check URL
is set by the administrator and is never shared with any third party.
No Terms of Service or Privacy Policy apply (the request goes to a URL you own).

Files written outside the plugin folder

The Automatic Crash Recovery feature writes a single file outside the plugin
folder when it is enabled: wp-content/fatal-error-handler.php. This is a
WordPress-recognised drop-in file (documented in the WordPress Developer
Handbook under get_dropins()). WordPress core checks for this file on every
request; if present, it replaces the default fatal-error screen with a custom
handler. The plugin uses this mechanism to show a branded recovery page to
visitors while a crash is being fixed, instead of a blank white screen.

The file is written using the WordPress Filesystem API (WP_Filesystem). It is
only written when the feature is enabled, only overwritten if it was written by
this plugin (identified by an internal marker), and is deleted when the feature
is disabled or the plugin is uninstalled. No personal data is stored in this file.

Privacy Policy

CloudScale Backup & Restore does not collect, transmit, or store any personal data. All backups are stored locally in the cloudscale-backups/ folder inside your WordPress uploads directory. No telemetry or analytics are sent by this plugin. Optional cloud backup features (S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, AMI snapshots) transmit data only when explicitly configured by the site administrator. See the External services section above.