iThemes BackupBuddy
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About iThemes BackupBuddy
The day you need the backup, the site that made it may be gone
A backup gets used the day something went wrong: a lost server, an update that left the site blank, a host you have to leave in a hurry. On that day what matters is what recovering it depends on.
Choosing a backup plugin is deciding who you will depend on when restoring. If the backup and its restore live on a third party service, you depend on that account and that connection. If they live on your own destinations, you depend on your own discipline.
BackupBuddy is the plugin in the second group. It is now called Kadence Backups Legacy, formerly Solid Backups Legacy: it runs inside the WordPress dashboard, needs no outside service connecting to the site, sends backups to the destination you choose and restores with a standalone file, importbuddy.php.
Backups you control from the WordPress dashboard
- Its own menu: a top-level Backups section, with several subpages.
- Destinations of your choice: Dropbox, OneDrive, Amazon S3, FTP or SFTP and your own server.
- Scheduling profiles and exclusions among its advanced settings.
- Build settings: ZIP methods, build strategies and time per chunk.
- Restore with importbuddy.php: a standalone file placed on the server alongside the backup.
- Its own tasks: it manages its schedules, housekeeping and emails.
Legacy and NextGen are two different products
The names invite confusion, and it is worth knowing which one you are installing. This plugin uses the backupbuddy/ folder and shows up as Kadence Backups Legacy, or as Solid Backups Legacy on older installs.
The other one, Kadence Backups or NextGen, uses the solid-backups/ folder, stores only in the Kadence cloud and connects to your site over SSH or SFTP. Their backups are not compatible with each other, there is no direct migration between them and moving to NextGen starts a new history. They can run side by side.
If you want to choose where your backups are stored and prefer that nothing external enters the site, Legacy is the one that fits.
What being in maintenance mode implies
Legacy keeps working, but it receives no new features. Bug fixes are evaluated case by case, and active development is in NextGen.
Version 9.1.20 dates from July 2026 and hardens authorization checks on backup downloads, with no new features.
Google Drive stopped being supported in version 9.1.14, and schedules that used it lost that destination.
Requirements, limits and first backup
The destination. Saving to your own server is possible, but that backup shares its fate with the site. If you lose the server, you lose it too, so add an external destination.
Space and time. Backups need enough free disk space, and long ZIP build steps can hit PHP execution limits.
The restore. Restoring involves placing importbuddy.php and the backup on the server. On a new server you will need the database details, and you may have to adjust PHP memory or temporarily disable .htaccess, php.ini and user.ini.
To begin:
- Install the plugin and open its Backups menu.
- Set up at least one destination outside your server.
- Create a scheduling profile and define the exclusions you need.
- Run a manual backup and check that it reaches the destination.
- Restore that backup on a test site with importbuddy.php, before you really need it.
If you need Google Drive or other destinations
UpdraftPlus works with Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Amazon S3 and Rackspace, allows several destinations at once, and adds incremental backups and automatic backup before updating. It is one option if you need Google Drive.
You can also compare Duplicator Pro and Backuply Pro.
Questions about BackupBuddy and its current name
Are BackupBuddy, Solid Backups and Kadence Backups the same thing?
BackupBuddy became Solid Backups Legacy and is now Kadence Backups Legacy. Plain Kadence Backups is NextGen, a different product.
Can I move my backups to NextGen?
No. The backups are not compatible and there is no direct migration. The two can run side by side.
Does it still save to Google Drive?
No. That destination stopped being supported in version 9.1.14.
Topics
Version history
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9.1.20 Current 31 Jul 2026
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9.1.18 18 Feb 2026
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Frequently asked questions
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GPL (General Public License) is the license under which WordPress and most premium plugins/themes are distributed. It grants you the right to use, modify and redistribute the software in as many projects as you want, with no domain restrictions.
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Yes. With membership you get automatic updates via our GPLClub Updater plugin (installed on your WP, detects new versions and applies them). With individual purchase, you get one year of manual updates from your account.
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Depends on the plan. Monthly: 3 domains. Semi-annual: 7. Annual and Lifetime: 15. Individual purchase: 1 domain.
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GPLClub offers its own support for installation, configuration and compatibility. For direct support from the original author (feature requests, product-specific bugs), a license purchased from the author is required.
