Most webdesigners and webmasters don’t think about saving backup copies of your images, HTML, and PHP files. Especially with the existence of “cloud-based storage systems,” saving multiple copies of files seems a little ridiculous. Why waste all that time when you’re probably not going to need it?

But what if you no longer have access to the Internet–say, if service is switched off in your area for a while, or if you’re moving somewhere where you can’t access fast Internet anymore (like where I live, smack dab in Dialup Country)? What will you be able to do then with all your files stored in an utterly inaccessible cloud?

You’ll likely do what I did–start keeping a copy of everything offline on your own hard drive again.

Before I Was Wise: Only-Online Copies

On my first site, way back in the fall of 2003, I kept no backup copies of anything except my images–I edited everything online. That was because the free host I was using at the time provided an awesome online editor and I had a great connection at college. (Boy, I miss the super-duper-internet in the college dorms…*sigh*) My reasoning behind not keeping any copies offline was that I was changing the content so fast, it almost didn’t make sense to keep old copies of stuff that I’d just have to copy/paste and resave later.

The Problem with Only-Online Copies

Unfortunately, when I came home to visit from college, I soon realized the big problem with just keeping my online files. When I didn’t have access to anything but dialup internet at home, I was stymied–the online file editor wouldn’t load very quickly at all, and so I ended up not being able to stay as updated as I was used to doing. I couldn’t even work on the content at home while being offline, since I didn’t have any copies of the files to look at.

The Better Way–The Offline-Backup Way

After one visit at home like this, unable to write and unable to update, I had had it with only-online copies. From then on, I started keeping offline copies so I could write content while I was at home and unable to connect to the online editor.

Even though it was a little bit more work in the short-term, now I’m quite glad I switched over to doing it this way, especially once I transferred over to a new host and ended up back on dialup for the majority of my everyday life. My new host, while being infinitely better, had a few less bells and whistles on its online editor, and the lack of fast internet meant days of being at home bored and too tired/sick to leave the house in search of quiet places to work on webdesigny things. Thus, offline copies are wonderful inventions.

But they’re not just good for creating content in the first place–making offline file copies is also a great way to save your data if your site goes down. If your site’s host goes kaput for some reason, you’ll be able to move everything fairly effortlessly and without having to make any changes to what you’ve got on your hard drive.

To start this process, just keep an offline copy of every file you create for your website, and save all your changes in it. Practice this so it becomes second nature, and you will thank yourself so much when you need to refer back to these files or need to work on them and have no internet.

Also, if you’re on the go and don’t have a flash drive with you, you can make your edits with your host’s online editor, and then create a temporary offline copy in an email and send it to yourself. This way, whenever you DO get to access the offline copy again, you can at least try to access your email and put in the new changes.

Summary

Whatever kind of site you’re doing, saving offline copies of your files will save you lots of trouble if and when you’re without internet, or have to recover your site if your host goes down or deletes your files. Always having a backup copy means that the Murphy’s Law of the Internet (stating that whatever CAN be deleted most likely will be if you don’t have a backup) doesn’t get you.