Have you ever lost all your computer files because you didn’t back them up?
It’s a sickening feeling when you can’t restore thousands of files collected over several years of work. The same thing can happen to your forum, blog or CMS web site that uses a mySQL database to store information. One of the easiest and most full proof backup methods is to use phpMyAdmin.
How to use phpMyAdmin
Go to cPanel->mySQL databases->phpMyAdmin and choose your database.
Click on the Export link.
Choose Select All to select all the tables.
Select “SQL”->for output format.
Check “save as file”
Select gzipped and hit Go to download the backup file.
Save it to a folder labeled “backupFeb08” so you know when you created the last backup.
Create a backup the first of every month.
How to restore a backup of a mySQL database
Click the SQL tab
On the “SQL” page, unclick “show this query here again”
Browse to the backup of the database on your computer
Click Go.
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Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Site Design, Web Hosting, Search Engine Optimization
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How to Mass Delete Comments From WordPress Using phpMyAdmin
Have you been inundated with spam comments
on your Word Press Blog?
Recently I helped a customer that had accumulated over 4000 spam comments on her blog. She tried removing them from the Word Press dash board however it only removes 20 comments at a time. This would take forever because there multiple pages of comments to delete.
Here are the steps to mass delete comments from
your Word Press database using phpMyAdmin:
1. Go to phpmyadmin in your cpanel
This is the management panel that comes with your hosting account if it uses the Apache environment. Once you’re logged in cpanel click on the mySQL databases icon then click on the phpmyadmin link at the bottom of the page.
2. Click your Word Press database link
This is located in the top left and will display all the data in tables.
3. Remove all comments
If you want to remove all comments check the wp_comments table then in the drop down box select empty then press go. Remember this will remove both approved and unapproved comments.
How to remove unapproved comments and keep the approved comments
1. Back up your database – this is to make sure you can restore all your files should you make a mistake. To do this click on your database, click export, make sure all your tables are selected, check SQL, click save file, click go. Follow the rest of the screen prompts to download the database to your computer. You can save it as a text or zipped file.
2. Click on the comments table. ( You can click browse to view all the approved and unapproved comments).
4. Click the mySQL tab. This will open up a query box. Delete the default query and type in:
DELETE FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_approved = 0
Click go
This will delete all the 4000 unapproved comments
5. Remove overhead. These are fragments still left in the database that must be removed. To delete them go to ” check all tables with overhead”, select “optimize table” from the drop down box.
Your database size will now be reduced because you’ve removed the 4000 unapproved comments.
If you check your blog you’ll notice all the comments have disappeared.
Tip
To prevent spam from accumulating install the activate the Akismet plugin. This is a spam filter which allows you to mass delete comments within the Word Press administration panel.
Here’s a video tutorial showing how to use phpmyadmin to remove WP Spam Comments: