How to Back Up Your Website in cPanel or DirectAdmin

You can back up your website by using the Backup Wizard in cPanel or the Create/Restore Backups tool in DirectAdmin, depending on which control panel your hosting plan uses. Both tools let you save copies of your website files, databases and email data so you can restore them if something goes wrong.

If you're not sure which control panel your account uses, check your welcome email or log in to the client area to find your login details.

How to back up your website

cPanel

1. Log in to cPanel. If you need help with this, see the article on logging in to cPanel.
2. Under Files, click Backup Wizard (a simpler version, called Backup, is also available).
3. Click Back Up, then choose Full Backup or a partial backup.
4. For a full backup, choose a Backup Destination: Home Directory saves the file on the server, or you can choose a remote FTP or SCP location for offsite storage.
5. Enter an email address if you want a notification when the backup finishes, or tick the box to skip this.
6. Click Generate Backup. When it's ready, a download link appears under Backups Available for Download — click it to save the file to your computer.

For a partial backup, choose Home Directory, MySQL Databases or Email Forwarders & Filters instead of Full Backup. Each of these can be downloaded and restored separately through the Backup Wizard.

Note: a full backup file cannot be restored directly through cPanel. You need to download it, decompress it, and then upload and restore the individual parts (such as the home directory or a database) separately.

Restoring a partial backup in cPanel

1. Go to Files > Backup Wizard and click Restore.
2. Choose the type of backup you want to restore: Home Directory, MySQL Databases or Email Forwarders & Filters.
3. Upload the backup file and click Restore.

DirectAdmin

1. Log in to DirectAdmin.
2. Go to Advanced Features > Create/Restore Backups.
3. Select what you want to include, such as website files, databases, email accounts and email data.
4. Click Create Backup. You'll see a message confirming the backup has been added to the queue.
5. Once finished, the backup file is saved with a name such as backup-[date]-1.tar.gz. Download it to your computer to keep a copy off the server.

Restoring a backup in DirectAdmin

1. Go to Advanced Features > Create/Restore Backups.
2. Click Restore and select the backup file you want to use.
3. When the restore finishes, you'll see a confirmation message and receive an email notifying you that your files have been restored.

Restoring a backup generally overwrites the current data for whatever you select, so check what you've chosen before confirming.

Backing up a WordPress website with Softaculous

If your site was installed with Softaculous, you can also back it up separately from the rest of your account.

1. In cPanel, open the Softaculous Apps Installer and click WordPress.
2. Under Current Installations, click the Backup icon next to your site.
3. Choose whether to include the website files, the database, or both (both are included by default). You can add a note to describe the backup.
4. Click Backup Installation. This usually takes a few minutes, depending on the size of your site.

Softaculous backups are stored in a folder called softaculous_backups in your cPanel account.

Restoring a Softaculous backup

1. On the Softaculous WordPress page, click the Backups and Restore icon.
2. Click the Restore icon next to the backup you want to use.
3. Choose your restore options: keep Restore directory ticked to restore your website files, and tick Delete existing files/folders to remove anything added since the backup was made. You can also choose whether to Restore database — note that this will overwrite any database changes made since the backup.
4. Click Restore Installation and confirm in the pop-up that appears.

Automatic backups included with hosting

All Hostking hosting plans include daily backups as part of the service. WordPress Hosting plans keep two copies of your daily backups automatically. These automatic backups are a useful safety net, but it's still worth downloading a copy of your website to your own computer or a remote storage location from time to time, since backups stored only on the server don't protect you if there's a problem with the server itself.

Troubleshooting

• Backup fails to generate: this can happen if your account is near or over its storage quota, since the system may not be able to write the files needed to complete the backup. Check your storage usage in your control panel and free up space if needed.
• Restoring only files, not the database: if you're restoring a WordPress backup to fix an error, you can often exclude the database and restore only the files. This is enough to fix many issues, and you can restore the database separately afterwards if you still need to.
• Missing files in a home directory backup: a home directory backup includes files you own and files you have access to, but not files you don't have access to. If something seems to be missing, check the file's ownership and permissions.
• Not sure which control panel you use: check your welcome email or log in to the client area to see your account details.