Back up and restore a WordPress site

A WordPress site is two parts: files (core, themes, plugins and uploads) and a MySQL database (posts, pages, settings and users). A useful backup always contains both from the same moment. MdmHost takes daily JetBackup backups, and this guide shows how to use them and when to add your own.

Before you start

• Access to cPanel from MdmHost dashboard → Services → Login to cPanel.
• The database name, from the DB_NAME line in wp-config.php.

Use the daily JetBackup restore points

JetBackup keeps several days of restore points for your account. You do not need to configure anything; just know where to find them:

• cPanel → JetBackup → File Backups: files and folders.
• cPanel → JetBackup → Database Backups: individual MySQL databases.
• cPanel → JetBackup → Full Account Backups: everything, including email and DNS.

Take a manual backup before big changes

1. Open cPanel → Files → Backup.
2. Under Partial Backups click Home Directory to download your files.
3. Under Download a MySQL Database Backup click the WordPress database to download a .sql.gz file.
4. Store both files off the server, for example on your computer or in cloud storage.

For a single site you can instead zip just the site folder in File Manager and export the database in phpMyAdmin.

Add a plugin for off-site copies

For business-critical sites keep an extra copy outside MdmHost. Plugins such as UpdraftPlus can send scheduled backups to Google Drive, Dropbox or S3-compatible storage. Schedule the database daily and files weekly, keep at least two weeks of history, and exclude cache folders to keep archives small.

Restore with JetBackup

1. Open cPanel → JetBackup → File Backups, pick a date and click Change Files Selection to choose only the site's folder, or restore it all.
2. Click Restore and confirm. The job appears in Queue.
3. Open Database Backups, choose the same date, select the WordPress database and click Restore.
4. When both jobs finish, purge the LiteSpeed cache and check the site.

Restore a manual backup

1. Upload the ZIP of your files in File Manager and extract it over the site folder.
2. In phpMyAdmin select the database, check all tables and choose Drop (or create an empty database), then use Import to load the SQL file.
3. If the database name or user changed, update wp-config.php.

Test your backups

A backup you have never restored is a hope, not a plan. Once a quarter restore a copy to a staging subdomain and click around. This also shows you how long a real restore takes.

Troubleshooting

• Import fails with a size error: upload the compressed .sql.gz, or import over SSH with mysql.
• Site shows a database error after restore: the credentials in wp-config.php do not match the restored database.
• Old pages still show: purge the LiteSpeed cache and your CDN.

Next steps

• Update WordPress safely
• Create a staging site
• Recover a hacked site