How to Restore a Website Backup
To restore a Blue Arctic daily backup, open a support ticket with the date you want to go back to, and we'll restore it for you. On a VPS, we confirm the recovery point with you first.
Applies to: cPanel WordPress Blue Arctic Shared Web Hosting (cPanel), Managed WordPress Hosting and VPS Hosting
On this page
A restore puts your website back the way it was on an earlier day. Blue Arctic keeps daily backups for 30 days on Shared Web Hosting and Managed WordPress Hosting, and for 5 days (5 recovery points) on VPS Hosting. So a bad update, a hack or an accidental delete can usually be undone. The steps depend on your hosting service.
Warning
A restore overwrites the current files or database with the older copy. Anything added since that backup, such as new posts, orders, form entries or uploaded images, is lost. Before you start, download a copy of the site as it is now, even if it’s broken (see how to download a backup).
Before you ask for a restore
- Work out when the site last worked correctly. Choose a backup from before the problem started.
- Decide what you need back. A WordPress site has two parts: its files (themes, plugins and images) and its database (posts, pages and settings). It normally needs both from the same day. If only one file or folder is damaged, say so; restoring less keeps more of your recent changes. If you’re not sure, say that too.
Shared Web Hosting: restore a daily backup
Our daily backups cover your website files and databases. Keep your own copies of any email you can’t lose.
- Sign in to the Client Portal at my.bluearctic.com and open a support ticket (see our support page).
- Include your domain, the day you want to go back to, and what you need back: the whole site, or only certain files, folders or the database.
- From the time you send the ticket until we reply that the restore is finished, don’t change the site: don’t post, update plugins or upload files.
Shared Web Hosting: a backup you downloaded yourself
If you have a backup file you downloaded and want it put back, open a support ticket. Include the file’s name, the date it was made, and what you need back. Keep the file safe on your computer; don’t attach it to the ticket.
Managed WordPress Hosting
Open a support ticket and tell us which site and which day you want to go back to.
VPS Hosting
VPS backups are daily, with 5 recovery points, so the oldest copy you can go back to is 5 days old. To restore, open a support ticket with the date and time you want to go back to, and whether you need the whole server or specific files. We confirm the recovery point with you before anything is overwritten.
How to tell it worked
Open your site in a private browser window (one that doesn’t use saved data: Incognito in Chrome, InPrivate in Edge, Private Window in Safari or Firefox). The pages and content from the backup date are back, and the problem is gone. For WordPress, also log in at /wp-admin and check a recent post and your plugins.
Troubleshooting
- The restored WordPress site shows “Error establishing a database connection”: the database details in the restored files don’t match the database, for example because the database password changed after that backup. Open a support ticket and ask us to restore the files and database from the same day.
- The site looks unchanged: clear your browser cache and your site’s cache (see how to clear your WordPress cache), then check again.
- The backup you need is too old: Shared Web Hosting and Managed WordPress Hosting keep 30 days of daily backups, and VPS Hosting keeps 5. Older copies are gone. If you downloaded a copy yourself, open a support ticket about it.
Still need help?
Open a support ticket from the Client Portal at my.bluearctic.com (see our support page). Include your domain, your hosting service, the backup date you want, whether you need files, database or both, the exact error text and what you already tried. Never include your password.