How to restore your WordPress site?

"Restoring your WordPress backup can help you get your site back when something goes wrong. But the process is not always straightforward."

I offers to guide you, by showing you in the simplest way how to restore your WordPress site. I will also look at the difficulty you may encounter as advanced users.

WordPress backup and restore

Before I show you how to restore your WordPress backup, it's important to understand how your backup works and what's in it. A backup contains all the information of your website which is categorized into different folders and databases.

It is possible to make a backup using plugins such as "BlogVault" and "UpdraftPlus" for example. You can also opt for a backup via your web host or you can still perform a backup yourself by copying your data manually.

You are probably wondering how to make your backup, but first ask yourself "when". For example, if you made a backup a week ago, and you want to restore your site now, you will recover it as it was a week ago. All changes made in the meantime will be lost.

Therefore, I recommend to carry out regular and automatic updates.

How to restore a WordPress site through the web host?

Many web hosts provide a back-up system for your site as part of their service package. It is also possible to find this service as an option. These backups are made regularly such as photos of your site; thus it is possible for you to recover your site at certain points of restoration.

If you have taken this option, all you need to do is contact your host to retrieve a backup of your site at the desired time. Your host will assign you a technician to restore your site. This process can take several hours.

Otherwise, you will need to download the copy of your backup and restore your site manually, or use a plugin.

However, some web hosts offer options to restore your backup yourself by accessing your web host's account dashboard. The process may vary depending on the host and you will need to find out how to do it via the Frequently Asked Questions. The general process involves the following actions:

• Access your host's account
• Click on your site
• Select the option "backup" in the menu
• Choose the restore option
• Finally select the copy of the backup you want to restore

The length of the process will depend on the size of your website. Once the backup is done, you will be notified that you can proceed to restore your WordPress site.

Use a backup plugin to restore your WordPress site

There are many backup plugins available in the market, but obviously not all of them provide you with the same level of service.

A plugin is as good as the degree of restoration it offers and only certain plugins provide satisfactory service.

Some free plugins will do just fine, allowing you to restore your site, but you may not be able to do what you want with your backup and some options will be missing. While with premium (paid) backup plugins, you will have access to options, some of which you may not necessarily need.

One of the recommended plugins to restore your site is "BlogVault", which allows you to do it in a few clicks and 100%.

How to manually restore your WordPress website?

Trying to restore your website yourself involves certain difficulties and requires some technical knowledge. If you are not sure how the WordPress backoffice works, you risk doing something wrong. If you are new to WordPress, we therefore advise you to contact technology experts; but if you think you can do it yourself, let's see how to restore your website.

To perform this operation, you must first have separate backups of your wordpress files and your database.

Be careful, if your site has been hacked, it is advisable to reinstall WordPress to make sure that it does not contain infected files.

To perform the restoration, you must proceed in 2 steps:

• For WordPress databases - using phpMyAdmin / Cpanel
• For WordPress files - using FTP

1. Restore WordPress database from backups using phpMyAdmin or Cpanel

Step 1 : Log into your hosting account and navigate to your phpMyAdmin.

Step 2 : Click on “Databases” where you will see a drop down list of all tables.

Note: For hacked WordPress sites, it is best to first delete your infected databases before restoring the backup. We suggest that you make a backup of your database before deleting anything.

To delete the database, select it in the left section. Once you click on a specific database, all the tables are displayed. Click on the “Select all” option, all the tables are thus selected. Then click on “delete” to delete the set.

As mentioned above, only do this if your site has been hacked and you need to clean up your database. Otherwise, skip this step.

Step 3 : Select the database whose information you want to restore. Click on the “Import” tab (at the top).

Step 4 : A new window will open when you click on the "Browse" button

Step 5 : By clicking on the “Choose File” button, a new window will open. Import the necessary MySQL database from your files.

This is the location where your WordPress database backup is stored.

Step 6 : Then click on "format", select "SQL format" and click "go" at the bottom of the page. Even though the process only has a few steps, the recovery time is very long. Once done, visit your website to verify that it is restored.

2. Restore WordPress files from FTP backups

FTP allows you to transfer files between your local computer and the server on the Internet. To restore your archived backups using FTP, you need to install an FTP client, FileZilla, and have your FTP credentials ready.

Step 1: Open FileZilla. Enter your FTP credentials and click on "quick connection" to connect to the server. Make sure you have the latest version of FileZilla.

Step 2: Once connected to the server, you will see the local files on the left window of the screen and the deleted site on the right.

First, identify the WordPress files on the faulty site. In a recent WordPress installation, the WordPress files would be under the root of the "www" directory or a folder named after your site. Enter the file.

You will see folders like "wp-content", "wp-includes" or "wp-admin". You are in the right place.

Then on the left section, make sure the backup files are all in the backed up file on the local system. If your backup is stored in a compressed file, be sure to unzip it before manually restoring WordPress.

Step 3: Now drag and drop all files from local folder (left section) to WordPress folder on the faulty site (right section). You can choose to overwrite the files.

The process seems pretty straightforward, but it's important not to forget any crucial files or folders while loading.

If you are not sure of the process, call a professional.

Note: A complete restoration of your WordPress site can sometimes take up to several days using the manual method.

What you need to do after fully restoring your WordPress Restore site

Once you have restored your site smoothly, we recommend that you pay attention to the following tasks:

• Log into the WordPress administration and make sure everything is working properly. If you have been hacked, check user rights and make sure you recognize all users
• Activate the themes and plugins you need. Remove inactive plugins and those that are obsolete.
• Check the "front end" of the site. Make sure critical URLs are working properly.
• Make a new backup of your restored WordPress site. For simplicity, we recommend that you install a plugging to do this.
• Refresh the cache to reload the new data.
• Plus, backup and security go hand in hand. We therefore recommend that you install a security plugin to secure your site against hacking.