How to Export a Database Using phpMyAdmin

You can export an entire database or individual tables from phpMyAdmin in a few clicks.

Step by Step

In phpMyAdmin, select the database you want to export from the left sidebar.
Click the Export tab at the top of the page.
Choose an export method:
Quick — exports the entire database in SQL format with default settings. Good for most cases.
Custom — lets you pick specific tables, change the format, and configure options.
Click Go. Your browser will download the export file.

Quick Export

The quick export generates a .sql file containing all CREATE TABLE statements and INSERT statements for every table in the database. This is the right choice when:

You want a full backup of a small to medium database.
You plan to import it into another MySQL/MariaDB server.
You don't need to customize the output.

Custom Export

The custom export gives you control over:

Which tables to include (deselect tables you don't need).
Output format — SQL, CSV, JSON, XML, and others.
Compression — none, gzip, or zip. Use gzip for large exports.
Data options — whether to include structure (CREATE TABLE), data (INSERT), or both.
Encoding — set to utf8mb4 if your database uses it.

For Large Databases

If your database is larger than about 100MB, phpMyAdmin may time out during the export. Use mysqldump from the command line instead:

mysqldump -h your-host -u your-username -p your-database-name > backup.sql

For a compressed export:

mysqldump -h your-host -u your-username -p your-database-name | gzip > backup.sql.gz

mysqldump is faster, more reliable for large datasets, and has no file size constraints.