How backups work

A backup is a full copy of one site, its files and its database, kept on the server that hosts the site. The panel takes backups on a schedule, before risky changes, and whenever you ask. Each scheduled run also backs up the panel’s own database.

Backups → All backups listing every site's backups, a deleted site's included

What a backup holds

Each backup is a folder under <backup location>/<slug>/, named after the time it was taken, in UTC. It holds four files:

File	Holds
`db.sql.gz`	The site’s database, dumped in one consistent transaction
`files.tar.gz`	The site’s `wordpress/` folder, its `config/` folder and `site.json`
`manifest.json`	The site’s name, domains, PHP and WordPress versions, language and database
`sha256sums`	Checksums of both archives, checked before every restore

The panel archives the files while the site keeps running. The four files are enough to rebuild the site without the panel, as Manual recovery shows.

Kinds, and how long each is kept

Kind	Shown as	Taken	Kept
Scheduled	`scheduled`	By the backup schedule, and by backup or update schedules of your own	The newest 10 per site
Manual	`manual`	Back up now on the site’s Backups tab	Until you delete it
Final, taken on deletion	`final`	When you delete a site, unless you switch it off	Until you delete it
Before an update	`pre_update`	When an update runs with Back up first	Until you delete it
Before a restore	`pre_restore`	Before every restore	Until you delete it
Server move	`move`	At both ends of a move to another server	Until you delete it
Panel database	`panel`	After each scheduled run, of the panel’s own database	The newest 10

Keep last N scheduled backups per site in Settings → Backups sets the retention. The nightly housekeeping removes the older ones. A scheduled backup with a complete offsite copy gives up its local files instead, and stays listed as remote only. The other kinds are yours to prune: every bulk update with Back up first adds one backup per site.

When backups are taken

Schedule (cron) in Settings → Backups sets the scheduled run, every day at 03:00 by default, on the panel server’s clock. Each run backs up every running site, then the panel’s own database. To leave one site out of that run, switch off Include this site in the periodic backups on its Backups tab. Every other kind is still taken for it.

Pausing Scheduled backups under Automations → Schedules stops the run for every site. Before any backup starts, the panel checks for free space of one and a half times the site’s size, and the backup fails without it.

Find a backup

Backups → All backups lists every backup on every server, newest first. Filter it by Site, Kind and, with several servers, Server. A site’s own Backups tab lists that site’s.

The backups of a deleted site stay. Deleted sites above the list names those sites, and their rows say deleted. Their final backup and every other kind are kept until you delete them, while scheduled ones still follow retention. To bring such a site back, create a site with the same name on the server its backup is on. Then restore the backup from the new site’s Backups tab.

Backups on several servers

A backup stays on the server where it was taken, even after its site moves. A download comes from that server, and a restore has to run there. So a backup left behind by a move cannot be restored onto the moved site, unless it has an offsite copy. Fetch back then brings it onto the site’s current server. One offsite destination serves every server: each server uploads its own backups.

Limits

A backup reads the files while the site serves visitors. A file changed meanwhile may not match the database dump.
A stopped site is not backed up on schedule.
A backup restores onto a site of the same name only. There is no restore into a new site under another name.
The panel’s SSH key is not in the panel’s own backup. Keep a copy of /srv/panel/ssh somewhere else.
Only scheduled backups and panel snapshots are pruned. Everything else stays until you delete it.