How to back up and restore your website in cPanel

When to use this

Use this guide when an update broke your site, files were deleted, or you want a copy of your site before making changes. There are two kinds of backup to think about:

1. Backups you make yourself in cPanel and download to your computer or cloud storage.
2. The host's backups. ODHOST shared plans list weekly backups. See website backups for what that covers.

ODHOST note: Whether you can restore ODHOST's weekly backups yourself from cPanel, and how many past copies are kept, is not published. Confirm with support before you rely on them, and keep your own downloads.

Make a backup you control

1. Open Files > Backup in cPanel (or Backup Wizard for a guided version). Menus vary by version and host configuration.
2. Click your home directory under Download a Home Directory Backup. This saves a .tar.gz file of your website files and mail folders.
3. Click each database name under Download a MySQL Database Backup. Each saves a .sql.gz file.
4. Download the email forwarders and filters files if you use them.
5. Store the files off the server, ideally in two places such as your computer and a cloud drive.

The Download a Full Account Backup option creates a complete archive too, but cPanel cannot restore it for you; only the host can, from WHM. It is still useful as a complete copy or for moving to another host.

Restore from your own backup

Restore website files

1. Open Files > Backup and find Restore a Home Directory Backup.
2. Choose your .tar.gz home directory file and click Upload.
3. Wait for the confirmation. Large files can exceed the upload limit; in that case, upload the archive with FTP and ask support to restore it, or extract only the folders you need in File Manager.

To restore a single file, open the archive on your computer, find the file under homedir/public_html/, and upload it with File Manager.

Restore a database

1. Open Files > Backup and find Restore a MySQL Database Backup.
2. Choose your .sql.gz file and click Upload. The database must already exist with the same name; if not, create it first using creating a MySQL database in cPanel.
3. Use phpMyAdmin's Import tab as an alternative for smaller files.

For WordPress and other database driven sites, restore the files and the database from the same date. Mixing a new database with old files, or the other way round, often causes errors.

If your cPanel has a restore tool

Some servers add a restore interface, such as cPanel's File and Directory Restoration or a third party backup tool, that lists host backups by date. If you see one, pick the date before the problem, restore a single folder first to test, then the rest.

Request a restore from ODHOST's weekly backups

1. Decide exactly what you need: the whole site, one folder, one file, one database, or email.
2. Pick the date: the most recent date before the problem started.
3. Open a ticket from the client area, following how to open a support ticket.
4. Include:
   • The domain and the cPanel username
   • What to restore, with exact paths or database names
   • The date and time you want (IST), and when the problem began
   • Whether to overwrite current files or restore into a separate folder such as public_html/restored/
5. Avoid changes to the affected files while the restore is in progress.

How to confirm it worked

• The site shows the content from the date you chose.
• You can log in to the admin area and recent orders or posts you expected are present.
• No new errors appear in Metrics > Errors or error_log.

If it still fails

Reply on the same ticket with the URL that looks wrong, what you expected to see, and any error messages. If you restored it yourself and it failed, include the backup file name, its size, and the exact message cPanel showed. Never send passwords in the ticket.