Back up and restore your app

A backup lets you go back to a known good state after a bad update, a broken plugin or a mistake. This guide shows how to create a backup of an app, how to restore one, and what to expect while a restore runs.

What a backup contains

A backup captures your app's data at that moment: its files and, for apps that come with a database, the database as well. Backups are stored separately from the app itself.

Depending on your plan, the panel also makes backups automatically. In that case the backups card says "Backed up automatically on a schedule", and older automatic backups are cleaned up after a while.

Create a backup

Sign in to the panel, open Apps and click your app.
Find the Backups card.
Click Create backup.

The new backup appears in the list once it is complete. Your app keeps running while the backup is made.

Make a backup before you change something you cannot easily undo: before an update, before installing plugins or themes, and before a large import.

Restore a backup

Restoring replaces your app's current data with the data from the backup. Everything that changed after the backup was made is lost.

On the Backups card, find the backup you want and click Restore.
Read the Restore backup? dialog and confirm.

Not sure the backup is the right one? Create a fresh backup of the current state first, so you can return to it.

What happens during a restore

The app is taken offline and stays offline until the restore is finished.
The card shows the current step: checking the backup, stopping the app, restoring files, restoring the database, starting the app.
Restoring files is usually quick. Restoring a database can take ten minutes or longer.

While the restore is still queued or in an early step you can stop it with Cancel restore.

When a restore fails

The card tells you what state the app is in.

Nothing was changed. The restore stopped before it touched your data. Your app is as it was, and you can try again.
The app was left stopped. The restore failed after it started replacing data, so the data may be only partly restored. The app stays stopped on purpose, so it does not run on half-restored data. Click Retry restore to run the restore again.

If a retry fails as well, contact support and mention the app and the backup you tried to restore.

Sites deployed from an archive or GitHub

For a static site whose content comes from an uploaded archive or from GitHub, backups cannot be restored: the content is replaced by your next deployment anyway. To go back to an earlier version, deploy that version again.

Good habits

Make a backup before every update.
Keep the most recent working backup until you have checked that the app runs well after a change.
Test a restore once, on an app where it does not hurt, so you know how long it takes.

Want your app on your own address? See Connect your own domain to an app.