Have you ever had a fatal problem with your WordPress?
Fatal problems are not uncommon in WordPress. The entire content management system has a log of more than 2,400 vulnerabilities. Out of 2,400, there are almost 1,600 unique issues in the site, plugins, and themes.
This, however, does not mean WordPress is terrible. All you need is good security!
If you’re one of the people who experience site issues, we have the easiest solution. Restore WordPress.
Backing up your data on a continuous interval is essential. This lets you get back to the closest working state of your website without trashing it.
When things go wrong, it’s the backup that you come running back to. So, today we’ll teach you how to restore WordPress backup.
There are several ways that you can go about the process. It’s up to you what’s most comfortable.
Before we start teaching you how to restore WordPress backup, let’s set a few rules of thumb. These can help make sure that we reduce any downtime from your site. If you’re a beginner, these are some best practices as well.
For starters, you would want to keep at least three copies of your backup. You can use an external hard drive, your computer, a NAS drive or a Cloud backup. This depends on your preferences.
Also, you would want to adjust your backup schedule. You can determine this according to how often you post.
If you don’t have much content, weekly backups to twice a month backups should be enough.
If, however, you do eCommerce, it’s best to back your data up at the end of a workday. Have a slew of content posted daily? Back up to at least every three days.
You would also want to consider the chances of a hacker. They might attempt to infiltrate your website through vulnerabilities.
There are various ways to back your data up. There are also ways how to restore WordPress from backup.
The easiest way is to use specific plugins for WordPress. These will take care of backups to an off-site location with the touch of a button. Some of these plugins are free, while many of the top ones are premium plugins.
Another way is manual WordPress backup and restore. This is free, but it is tedious and very hands-on. This assures you that your data is 100 percent as secure by how much you back up.
The first step to restore WordPress site data is to backup your data. If you’re using a data backup service/plugin, follow the instructions for the specific plugin. Most of the time, this is a single button press.
If you are doing the manual method, make a backup of your WP. You need to reckon two core components: the site files and database.
The site files are available in cPanel’s File Manager. The database files are available from the phpMyAdmin of your host.
For this guide, we’ll use cPanel as it is among the most common servers in the world. If your server is using a different platform, navigate around for similar applications.
In your backup location, create a folder. Add the name of the site, date of the backup and two different subfolders. Name the subfolders as site files and database.
To start restoring WordPress, login to the admin UI of your server. Put in your credentials or the ones that your client provides.
Check your “Databases” option, then click to reveal four database options. Choose phpMyAdmin and scan your interface. From here, you will see the databases that you have on the left-hand side.
Choose the correct name database and take a look at your right-hand side’s tabs. Click Export, and you will see some options. If you want to restore WordPress from backup, do the following from the Export options:
Once you finish, you will receive a file with a .sql extension. Copy the file to your database subfolder.
The second part of creating a backup, to restore WordPress site information, is to export your site data.
If you’re using cPanel, you would want to go to your Dashboard. Click the Files drop-down accordion and click File Manager.
At this panel, the console will present your site folders on the left-hand side and data inside each folder on the right interface.
Look for a file on the right-side interface with the name “public_html.” If it’s not present, browse around the folders on the left side until you find it. Click the file once and click “Compress” on the top left corner.
Once you click Compress, a popup will show up for the options available to you. Choose Zip Archive, rename the file if you need to and click the “Compress File(s)” button.
Once the compression finishes, click the zip file once and pick the Download option on the top menu.
After you complete the download, delete the generated zip file. Move your file to the WP backup and put it on the database subfolder.
If you want to keep the website live whilst exporting the files, you may also use FTP. FTP, or file transfer protocol, which allows your computer and a live website to interact.
The best FTP client around is Filezilla, so all you need is download the software and install it on your computer.
To connect your computer to your live site, you would need to go to your cPanel interface. Find the FTP Accounts option on the files tab.
Copy your FTP login credentials. If you don’t have them, it’s best to contact your service provider.
Fire up FileZilla and familiarise yourself with the position of the windows. The left side windows are the local folders on your computer. The right side, called the remote site, will show the contents of the service you will connect to.
Go to File and pick Site Manager. On the popup window, click New Site. Fill up some details required to help when you’re restoring WordPress.
Add your FPS credentials like Host, User, and Password, then pick Normal as your Login Type. Click Connect. You will see all the folders from the website through the Remote Site window.
Click on the root folder and look for the “public_html.” This is the other half of files you need to restore WordPress from backup.
To backup your WP site files, navigate the root file and show the public_html folder on the remote site list. For the local site on the left, navigate your computer. Choose where you want to copy the file to your local computer.
Drag and drop the public_html folder from the right list to the left list. Let the transfer process run and complete the entire process. Confirm that the folder is available on your computer after transfer.
Now that you have your backup, we’re ready to learn how to restore WordPress backup files. If your site received a hack, it’s best to delete everything first.
We would need to restore the database file first, and then the site files. We would need to go back to using the cPanel phpMyAdmin.
If you want to start on the database, log-in to cPanel and type in your login credentials. On the Database section, click the phpMyAdmin option.
To restore WordPress from backup, pick the folder of the site database on the left-hand side. On the upper-right tabs, choose Import.
If your database is too big, you may compress the .sql file into a zip file. The format should be [filename].[format].[compression]. (i.e. database.sql.zip)
Once you pick import, choose Browse your Computer and Choose File. Upload the .sql file from your backup location.
Wait for the upload to complete. You will receive an upload success message after a while. This means you’re halfway to your in your WordPress backup and restore.
The next step is to work on restoring your site files using either FTP or cPanel’s File Manager.
To work on the cPanel File Manager, choose File Manager. Select the Import option on the top menu. On the popup window, pick the zip that contains the WP site files and press open.
The upload window will tell you how long it would take to finish the upload. The speed of this process is dependent on the speed of your internet connection.
Once the zip file upload finishes, you can click on the zip and choose Extract. This will extract all the data that you backed up.
From here, you can go to your website and everything should be fine and dandy.
If you want to restore through FTP, all you need to do is go to Filezilla and run a connection to your site. Navigate the left window to the folder where you store your backup. On the right side, navigate to your root folder.
Copy your public_html folder to the live site by dragging and dropping it to the right side window. If it is under compression, extract the contents. Refresh your site
Restoring WordPress, complete!
When you’re working around on how to restore WordPress backup data, there are a few things you would need to remember. These are some tips and tricks that can help you make the transfer easy.
When compressing folders and extracting your backups, delete all zip files in the root folder of your domain. Why?
A zip file on the root folder of your domain opens you to various exploits.
Some of them include:
To err on the side of caution, remove all compressed file folders once you’re done with your WordPress backup and restore.
If you are having issues with your URLs like 404 errors, you would need to update your Permalinks. Go to your admin console on WordPress and go to Settings > Permalinks and click Save Changes.
This should correct your issue 95 percent of the time.
If it does not, you might need to edit your .htaccess file. This handles all your permalinks.
Find a proper service provider that can help you correct this issue. Otherwise, follow guides on how to repair it.
If your issue came from a bad plugin, you might need to reinstall your plugins and test for compatibility.
Once you find the source of the problem, remove the entire plugin. Find similar installations from other publishers that do an equivalent job. You may also try to contact the publisher for a solution.
Were you hacked? If the reason for restoring WordPress was a hack, delete all existing data in the site before restoring from backup. Change all usernames and passwords.
Invest in good security for your website.
If you have sensitive information, never forget to copy your backups. Add a password to each one as needed. Keep at least three backups all the time to make sure you have redundancies.
For sites doing major security updates and patches, back up your data before doing so. This isolates any chance for your website failure through security updates.
Before going with a host server, consider if they are using cPanel as their primary admin interface.
The benefits of using cPanel are extensive. Other than the fact that a majority of hosting sites use it, it is easy to access and has clear navigation details.
If you reached this part of the article, congrats! You might be restoring WordPress or finished the entire process. Storing backups is a necessary part of keeping your website alive.
To restore WordPress, you have some routes available to you, depending on your skill level. Even then, all you need is to follow the instructions and you should be good to go.
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