Backups and Restores: A Practical Routine

The rule to follow

Keep three copies of your data on two different media with one copy off-site. In hosting terms: the live site, an on-server automated backup, and a downloaded or remote-destination copy that survives even if the account itself is compromised.

Server-side backups protect against your mistakes. Off-server copies protect against everything else, including a compromised account where an attacker deletes the local archives.

Taking backups

1 In cPanel open Backup. Use Download a Full Account Backup before any major change such as a PHP upgrade or a theme swap.
2 Use partial backups for a single home directory or a single database when you only need that piece.
3 For automation, configure a remote destination (FTP/SFTP or cloud) so archives leave the server on a schedule.
4 For WordPress, add an application-level plugin backup as a second layer — it understands the database and files as one restore point.

Restoring

One file — use File Manager or the JetBackup/File restore browser to pull just that path.
Database only — import the .sql file through phpMyAdmin, or restore the partial backup.
Whole account — open a ticket so we can restore server-side, which is faster and preserves permissions and mail.
After any restore, clear all caches and re-check scheduled tasks and API keys.

Retention that makes sense

Daily copies for a week, weekly copies for a month, and monthly copies for a year covers almost every real recovery scenario, including slow-burning problems like a malware infection you only noticed three weeks later. Retention matters more than frequency: a single nightly backup overwritten every night is useless against anything you discover late.

Frequently asked questions

Are backups included with hosting?

Automated server backups are maintained on our platform, and you can also download your own at any time. We strongly recommend keeping an independent off-server copy regardless.

How do I restore just yesterday's database?

Download the relevant partial backup, then import the .sql file over the existing database via phpMyAdmin — after taking a fresh backup of the current state first.