The ones that leave people with nothing.
STORING BACKUPS ON THE SAME SERVER
Lost in the same event that loses the site. The most common mistake by a wide margin.
NEVER TESTING A RESTORE
An untested backup is an assumption. People discover the archive is incomplete or corrupt at the worst possible moment.
ASSUMING THE SCHEDULE RUNS
A backup plugin configured and never actually running is extremely common, particularly where cron was not set up.
RETENTION TOO SHORT
Three days of backups, all infected, when a compromise is discovered weeks later.
FORGETTING EMAIL
Plugin backups cover the website. Mailboxes are not included, and for most businesses mail is as valuable as the site.
BACKING UP FILES WITHOUT THE DATABASE
Restores an empty shell.
NO BACKUP BEFORE CHANGES
The two minutes nobody spends, and the reason a failed update becomes a crisis.
BACKUPS THAT FILL THE DISK
No retention policy, storage full, backups silently failing for months.
NOT KNOWING HOW TO RESTORE
Having backups and no idea what to do with them.
