When those of us with self-hosted WordPress blogs back up our content using the built-in WXR functionality, do we ever check the downloaded XML file? Until recently, I didn’t worry about it. I’d click on the Export button, copy the WXR file to a backup folder and think my blog was safe, but I was wrong.

You see, what may be happening is the creation of the WXR file on the server side may be terminated before all the content gets written to it, and we’ll end up with a partial backup of our blogs. This is no fault of the WordPress platform, but will happen when the server settings don’t allow enough resources to the PHP script which writes out the XML file. When that’s the case, this is what the end of the WXR XML file looks like.

In the screenshot you see above, the script ran out of memory (I’d set PHP’s memory_limit at 64 MB, which was too little for my needs), but it can also run out of time, if PHP’s max_execution_time is set too low.

Depending on your scenario, you may or may not have access to the original php.ini file on your web server. If not, check with your host, you may be able to create a php.ini at the root of your hosting account to adjust these parameters (within limits). The thing to do is set the memory_limit and the max_execution_time high enough to allow PHP enough resources to generate the full WXR file. I can’t prescribe any specific limits here, because the amount of memory and time the script needs depends on how big your blog is. All I can suggest is that you experiment with the settings until they’re high enough for the WXR file to generate fully. You don’t want to set them too high, because your server will run out of memory, and that’s not fun either. This is what my setup looks like.

What happens if you use a cheap web host is that you’ll get crammed along with hundreds of other sites on a single virtual server where all the settings are tightly reined in, to make sure no one’s hogging any resources. Chances are that as your blog grows, your WXR file will get too big and will need more resources than are available to write itself, which means you’ll start getting truncated backup files. If you never check them by opening up the XML and scrolling to the end to rule out any error messages, you’re not really backing up your blog.

Keep this in mind if you want to play it safe. Always check the WXR file. A good backup should close all the tags at the end, particularly the tag, like this screenshot shows.