Beginner’s Guide: How to Restore WordPress from Backup

Over the last 16 years managing our own websites and brands, one best practice we have learned is the importance of regularly backing up your websites. Backups help you restore your site in case something goes wrong, like a cyber attack, accidental data deletion, or other unplanned events.

However, restoring WordPress from a backup file is not easy for beginners. Whether you’re using a plugin or manually restoring backups, there can be errors. Luckily, we have plenty of experience helping users with WordPress and backups.

So, in this article, we will show you how to safely restore WordPress from a backup step by step.

Understanding Backups and Restoring WordPress

There are different ways to create backups for your WordPress site. In our opinion, the best way to do this is using a WordPress backup plugin.

That said, you can also create a manual backup of your WordPress database and download your WordPress files using an FTP client.

Restoring WordPress from backups depends entirely on how you created the backup. For example, backups created using Duplicator Pro can be restored using the same plugin. Similarly, manual backups need to be manually restored.

A lot of WordPress users don’t back up their entire websites. Instead, they only back up their WordPress theme, uploads directory, and WordPress database. This reduces their backup size but increases the steps needed to restore the site.

No matter how you create your backup, the basic steps are the same.

Now, let’s take a look at how to restore your WordPress site from backup. Here’s a quick overview of what we will be explaining in this article:

What to Do Before You Restore WordPress From Backup

Before we go over the different ways you can restore WordPress from a backup, let’s discuss the steps you need to take first.

Naturally, you should already have a pre-existing backup of your WordPress website ready to go. You can learn more by following our guide on how to back up a WordPress site.

If your backups are stored in a remote storage location like Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive, then you can download your backup files from those locations to your computer.

Besides that, you may also need to delete old WordPress files and do a fresh install. This way, if your site was infected by malware, had corrupt files, or something was missing, then it will be automatically removed and cleaned.

Keep in mind that you should only do this if you are sure your backup is up to date and you have all your customizations and uploads saved.

You can delete files using cPanel or FTP. If you have the option, we recommend using cPanel because it’s faster.

Simply log in to the cPanel of your hosting dashboard. Then, under the ‘Files’ section, click the ‘File Manager’ icon.

The file manager interface will now open in a new browser tab.

You will need to select all WordPress files and delete them. Once all the files are selected, simply click the ‘Delete’ option.

You can also delete files using FTP clients, but this process is much slower.

If you haven’t used FTP before, then please see our guide on how to use FTP to upload files to WordPress.

For this approach, simply connect to your website using an FTP client. Next, select all files in your WordPress root directory, then right-click on the screen and select the ‘Delete’ option to remove them.

After your files are deleted, you need to install WordPress again and log in to your website. The installation process depends on your hosting provider. For more details, please see our guide on how to install WordPress the right way.

Keep in mind that the installation process will depend on which method you are using, but it should be very straightforward for any non-manual approach. We will briefly go over the steps for installing WordPress when restoring your backup manually later on.

Now, you’re ready to restore WordPress backups.

Restoring WordPress Using Duplicator Pro

Duplicator Pro is one of the best WordPress backup plugins. It makes it very easy to migrate and back up your site.

First, you need to make sure that you have a complete backup of your WordPress site created by Duplicator.

Next, you have to download the backup archive file to your computer. This will be a complete copy of your WordPress files, which includes themes, plugins, settings, and more.

Once your backup files are ready, the next thing to do is install and activate the Duplicator Pro plugin. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can head to Duplicator Pro » Import Backups from your WordPress dashboard. Next, you can upload the archive file by simply dragging and dropping or clicking the ‘Select File’ button.

The plugin will now upload the archive file and show you the details.

You can review the details and then click the ‘Continue’ button.

Next, you’ll need to set a recovery point to quickly restore your site to a prior date.

Once that’s done, you can click the ‘Set’ button.

After that, you’ll get a recovery URL that you can store for safekeeping to use anytime in the future.

From here, you can scroll down and click the ‘Launch Installer’ button.

Next, you will need to deploy the package. The plugin will give an overview of the installation details, and it will let you choose between ‘Full install single site’ and ‘Restore single site.’

You can select the ‘Restore single site’ option and scroll down to click the ‘Validate’ button.

Once the validation is complete, you’ll need to click the checkbox to accept the terms & notices.

After that, simply click the ‘Next’ button.

A new window will now pop up with installation confirmation.

You can click the ‘OK’ button to continue.

The installer will now extract your backup archive files. Once it’s done, you should see the install results.

You can simply click the ‘Admin Login’ button to finalize the installation of your backup.

Go ahead and log in to your WordPress dashboard.

That’s it! You have now successfully restored your WordPress site from a Duplicator backup.

Restoring WordPress From UpdraftPlus Backup File

UpdraftPlus is another popular premium WordPress backup plugin. If you used UpdraftPlus to create backups, then this section is for you.

UpdraftPlus offers a very convenient way to restore WordPress from a backup. You need to log in to your WordPress website and go to the Settings » UpdraftPlus Backups page.

From here, you can go to the ‘Backup / Restore’ tab in the plugin settings.

Next, you’ll need to scroll down to the ‘Existing backups’ section.

If you already have a backup file from UpdraftPlus, then you should see it in this section. Simply click the ‘Restore’ button for the backup you wish to install. Alternatively, you can also select upload backup files from your computer or cloud storage.

After that, you’ll need to select the components you want to restore. These options include plugins, themes, uploads, must-use plugins, and others.

Simply click the ‘Next’ button after you make your selections.

The plugin will then process the backup file.

Once it’s ready, you can click the ‘Restore’ button.

The plugin will then start to restore the components you selected previously.

Once the process is complete, you will see a ‘Restore successful!’ message. The plugin will also show an activity log so you can track the restored files.

Simply click the ‘Return to UpdraftPlus configuration’ button to continue.

When you return to the plugin page in the WordPress dashboard, you’ll see that the backup has been restored.

UpdraftPlus will also give you the option to delete old folders from the previous WordPress install. You can simply remove these folders by clicking the ‘Delete old folders’ button if you haven’t already done so.

That’s it. You’ve successfully restored a backup using UpdraftPlus.

Restoring WordPress Database From Backup Using phpMyAdmin

When restoring a backup you created manually, you may come across two possible choices. You can either create a new database and import your backup into it, or you can empty your existing database and import the backup.

If you are cleaning a hacked WordPress website, then it is very important to change your MySQL username and password before creating a new database or importing it into an existing database.

To create a new database, log in to the cPanel dashboard of your WordPress hosting account and click on the ‘MySQL Databases’ icon.

Next, you will be asked to provide a name for your database.

Once that’s done, click the ‘Create Database’ button.

After creating the new database, you need a MySQL user associated with that new database.

Simply scroll down to the ‘MySQL Users’ section and add a new user.

Next, you need to add this user to the MySQL database.

Scroll down to the ‘Add User To Database’ section, select the user along with the database from the dropdown menus, and then click on the ‘Add’ button.

Now your new database is ready. You can use it to restore your WordPress database backup.

Head over to the cPanel dashboard again and then click on ‘phpMyAdmin‘ under ‘Databases.’

Next, you will see the phpMyAdmin screen.

Go ahead and click on the ‘Import’ tab at the top of the screen.

Then, simply click on the ‘Choose File’ button to select your WordPress database backup file. After that, click on the ‘Go’ button at the bottom of the page to continue.

phpMyAdmin will now upload your backup and import it into your database. You will see a success message upon completion.

That’s it! You have successfully imported your WordPress database.

The next step is to install WordPress using your new database. If you have already installed WordPress, then just add your new database settings to your wp-config.php file, and you will be good to go.

Restoring WordPress Database Backup Using cPanel

If you manually create a WordPress database backup using the cPanel in your shared hosting, then you can also restore that database using cPanel itself.

To get started, log into your cPanel account. Under the ‘Files’ section, click on ‘Backup.’

On the backups page, scroll down to ‘Restore a MySQL database backup.’

Next, click on the ‘Choose File’ button and select the backup file from your hard drive. Once done, just click on the ‘Upload’ button.

It’s as simple as that!

Manually Restoring WordPress Files Using FTP

To manually restore WordPress using FTP, you need to download a fresh copy of WordPress from WordPress.org and extract it to your hard disk.

After that, you can launch your FTP client and then upload all WordPress files to your server.

Once you have uploaded WordPress files, you can upload a wp-config.php file from your backup (only if you are sure that it is clean and not compromised).

Alternatively, you can rename the wp-config-sample.php file in your freshly uploaded WordPress files to wp-config.php file. After that, you will need to edit the wp-config.php file and enter your database information.

Don’t forget to save the file and upload it back to your website.

Next, you need to upload other files from your backup. We recommend that you only upload your images in the /wp-content/uploads/ directory.

After you have uploaded these, visit your website to check that everything is working fine.

Next, you need to log in to your WordPress admin area and start installing the plugins you had on your site.

Now, you can move on to installing your theme. If you have customized your WordPress theme or were using a child theme, then you can restore it from a backup. However, make sure that those files are clean.

Lastly, go to Settings » Permalinks and adjust permalinks settings to match your site, and then update permalinks.

Troubleshooting WordPress Backup Restore Issues

If you carefully follow the instructions we outlined above, you hopefully won’t have any issues restoring your WordPress backup.

However, there are some common problems that you may come across when restoring your WordPress website. Here are our guides on how to fix a few of them:

• How to Fix the Error Establishing a Database Connection in WordPress
• How to Fix the WordPress White Screen of Death (Step by Step)
• How to Fix the 500 Internal Server Error in WordPress
• How to Fix WordPress Login Page Refreshing and Redirecting Issue
• How to Fix WordPress Posts Returning 404 Error (Step by Step)

Otherwise, you may want to check out our ultimate guide to the most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.

Things to Do After Restoring Your WordPress Site

Once you have successfully restored your website, we strongly recommend that you improve your website security.

If you haven’t done so already, make sure that you regularly create a backup with one of these WordPress backup plugins.

To secure your website after a hacking incident, we also recommend that you immediately change your WordPress password. If you are running a multi-user website, then it’s also a good idea to ask all users to update their passwords as soon as possible.

You can also install a website firewall to protect your site from future cyber attacks.

At WPBeginner, we use Cloudflare to protect our website, but if you run a smaller site, then Sucuri might be able to get the job done.

For more details, you can see our guide on why we switched from Sucuri to Cloudflare.

FAQs About Restoring WordPress Backups

Here are some common questions users have about restoring WordPress backups:

1. How do I restore my WordPress site from a backup?

This will depend on how you created your WordPress backup. If you used a backup plugin like Duplicator Pro, and you have access to the WordPress admin dashboard, you should be able to restore it in just a few clicks.

However, if you created the back up manually or you don’t have access to your site’s back end, you will need to restore it manually using your hosting provider’s control panel or the file transfer protocol (FTP).

If you are restoring your website after a hacking event or cyber attack, you may also need to delete all your website’s corrupt files and re-install WordPress before restoring a clean backup.

2. Where are my WordPress backups stored?

If you are using a backup plugin, then it will create a default location on your hosting server where the files will be stored. Usually, this is in the wp-content folder. However, depending on your backup tool, you can sometimes choose different cloud storage services like Google Cloud, Dropbox, or One Drive to save your backups.

3. Does WordPress save backups?

Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t offer any automatic backups. You can manually create WordPress backups using your hosting provider’s cPanel or an FTP client. Or, if you’re looking for a simpler approach, you can use a backup plugin. Some hosting providers also offer the option to automatically create backups.

4. Can I recover an old WordPress website?

Yes, you can restore specific parts of your WordPress site, such as individual pages or the database. If you regularly create complete website backups using a plugin, then you can even restore an old version of your entire site. You’ll simply need to choose the specific time and date for when you’d like to restore WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to restore WordPress from backup. You may also want to see our ultimate step-by-step guide on how to back up a WordPress site to Dropbox and how to connect Google Drive to your WordPress media library.

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