Note: In addition to backing up or downloading website files using the backup feature in cPanel detailed in this article below, you can also manage and download files using FTP (HelpDesk article: FTP in cPanel)
For a variety of reasons, you may want to create a full or partial backup of your web hosting account. Backups made from cPanel can include the home directory file folder (the top level file folder which should contain all of your website files), MySQL® databases, email forwarder configurations, and email filter configurations.
To create a backup of your web hosting account in cPanel:
- Login to cPanel in a browser (see how to here: Login to cPanel)
- In the top search field, type "backup"
- Choose "Backup" or "Backup" Wizard. (both options can accomplish the same thing, it is just a different interface).
- Choose which type of backup you would like to do:
- You can do a "Full Backup" to include all the available backup files in a compressed tar.gz file, saved on an online server. This will include the home directory file folder (the top level file folder which should contain all of your website files), MySQL databases, email forwarder configurations, and email filter configurations. This full backup file can be saved in your web hosting home file directory (you can find the file in the cPanel file manager, and download the file onto your computer from there. See the article: Access File Manager in cPanel), to a remote FTP server (active mode), to a remote FTP server using "passive mode", or to "Secure Copy (SCP)" (this uses secure copy protocol (SCP) to store the backup file on a remote server).
- You can do a "Partial Backup" to separately download a compressed .gz file directly onto your computer of the home directory file folder (the top level file folder which should contain all of your website files), MySQL databases, or email forwarders and filters. File types will vary based on the type of backup, but they will ultimately be .gz files.
Note: To backup a WordPress website to be able to easily restore later, you can use a WordPress plugin. Some information on a specific WordPress plugin that can be used for this can be found in the knowledgebase article: Transfer Website to mywebhostingaccount.com (WordPress or HTML)
To restore a backup in cPanel:
- Login to cPanel in a browser
- In the top search field, type "backup"
- Choose "Backup" or "Backup" Wizard. (both options can accomplish the same thing, it is just a different interface).
- Choose the restore option to restore the home directory (all files for all websites on the web hosting), MYSQL database, email forwarders, or email filters separately. The "Full Backup" file generated in cPanel can not be directly restored via a file upload, only the separate backup files can be directly restored via a file upload (these separate backup files can be extracted from the full backup file).
- Choose the appropriate backup file from your computer to upload, then click "Upload".
- The backup file will be restored. Existing web hosting files will not be deleted, but existing files of the same name will be overwritten by the new backup file when restored.
Restore specific folders or websites contained within backup file
cPanel backups can be restored from the cPanel "Backup" or "Backup Wizard" section only if you are restoring the whole home directory, which would be every website contained on your web hosting. Otherwise, specific website cPanel backups can be manually restored from within the cPanel "File Manager". There will be a few different ways to go about restoring a backup from the cPanel "File Manager". A backup file made for cPanel will be a compressed tar.gz file. Ultimately what needs to be done is to extract the contents of the tar.gz file (by right-clicking the file in the cPanel file manager), and after extraction, put those contents in the correct folder. So if you backed up the whole account or the home directory of the web hosting, you can extract that main tar.gz file (which upon extraction would default to going into the same folder it is already in, or you can choose another folder to extract it into), then find the specific website's folder contained in it after it has been extracted. Once you have the folder you need, you will just need to move or copy the files in that folder into the correct place. This can be done by going into the folder, selecting the files and folders, then dragging them from the right-hand side to one of the folders on the left-hand panel. You can also move or copy files by right-clicking the selected files and/or folders. Here is a HelpDesk article about moving and copying files and folder in the cPanel file manager: Move or Copy Files in cPanel . If the website is the primary domain on the account, then the folder contents will go into the "public_html" folder. If it is not the primary domain, but is an addon domain, then most likely the website files will go into a folder of the website name (like the folder name of "example.com"). To find where the "Document Root" is for a specific domain in cPanel, you can go to the "Domains" section. If it's a WordPress website, and you are not using a plugin to backup and restore the website, but are using the cPanel backup feature, you will need to install a blank instance of WordPress first using the "Softaculous" installer on cPanel. Then you can restore the website files to the proper folder as described about. Then you will need to restore the website's database also. You will have the database if you previously used the "Full Backup" option, or if you did a partial backup of the database specifically. If the database file is housed in your cPanel file manager, you can download the database file to your computer by right-clicking the file from the cPanel file manager. A database can be restored by uploading the file from your computer when in the cPanel "Backup" or "Backup Wizard" section.
Note: Backup documentation directly from cPanel can be found here:
Note: Web hosting with mywebhostingaccount.com also features an automatic "Server Rewind" backup feature in cPanel, where the website files and databases are automatically backed up daily and saved off-server for the last 30 days on a best-effort basis. The "Server Rewind" feature can be accessed in cPanel to restore files and databases (type in "Server Rewind" in the cPanel search bar, and it will pop up). HelpDesk article: Restore Automatic "Server Rewind" Backups in cPanel
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