Restore and download
A restore puts a site’s files and database back the way they were in a backup, in place. A download gives you the backup’s four files, to keep somewhere else or to restore by hand.
Restore a backup
Section titled “Restore a backup”- Open the site’s Backups tab, or find the backup under Backups → All backups.
- Choose Restore on the backup, then Restore in the dialog.
- Follow the job. The site is briefly stopped.
Restore appears on a complete backup whose files are on the site’s server. A remote only backup needs Fetch back first, as Offsite copies explains.
What a restore does
Section titled “What a restore does”The job checks the backup’s checksums, then takes a Before a restore backup of the site as it is now. If either step fails, nothing has changed and the site keeps running.
Then it stops the site and pauses the site’s FTP and SFTP logins. It replaces the database with the
backup’s and swaps in the files. The previous files stay next to the new ones, in
wordpress.pre-restore-<time>, for at least a day. A backup taken on another PHP version moves the
site back to that version, if the panel still offers it.
Last, it starts the site. If the site’s address changed since the backup, WordPress’s URLs are rewritten to the current one, and the site’s recipes run for the new address. A site that does not answer afterwards is a warning in the log, not a failed job.
A failure after the site was stopped leaves the site in Error. The job’s log then says where the previous files are.
What changes for logins and jobs
Section titled “What changes for logins and jobs”- WordPress accounts and their passwords are those in the backup.
- FTP and SFTP logins work again once the restore is over, and see the restored files.
- The site keeps its mail login: the panel writes the current one again.
- No other job runs for the site while the restore does, and its backups cannot be deleted meanwhile.
Download a backup
Section titled “Download a backup”Choose Download on a complete backup. You get one .tar file, named after the site and the
backup’s time, that holds the four backup files. It streams from the server that keeps the backup.
To restore it without the panel, follow Manual recovery without the
panel.
Limits
Section titled “Limits”- A restore replaces everything that changed since the backup: posts, orders, comments and uploads.
- A backup restores only onto the site of the same name, on the server that holds the backup. From another server, fetch it back from an offsite copy, or move the site back first.
- A deleted site’s backup has no Restore. Create a site with the same name first.
- The panel’s own database is restored by hand, never from the panel.
- The files a restore set aside are deleted by the nightly housekeeping, a day or more later.
- An API key needs Manage access to restore, and Full access to download the panel’s own database.