Backing up your Hosting Websites and Databases

Note: Our backup feature is currently not available for our Site Builder. If you need assistance with our Site Builder products, please contact our support team for further assistance. Your website must be hosted with us for this feature to be available. We do not offer backups for domain names with third-party hosted websites.

Bravenet now supports the ability to back up your website and database files directly from your account. We recommend routinely backing up your website, especially before making changes or updates to your website to ensure you have a working copy of the website files to revert to. Whether you are planning on taking regular backups to prevent future problems, or if something has already happened and you are looking to recover your files from a previous state, we will discuss how you can achieve this.

We now offer a backup plan that will allow you to download snapshots of your website and database files in your account that are recorded on a weekly and monthly basis. This will begin as soon as you purchase your plan and is available until your hosting ends for a small monthly fee (see our ‘Services Price List’ wiki for current pricing). This plan can offer invaluable recovery data for all your websites and databases hosted with Bravenet. Please see the ‘Registering for the Backup Plan’ section for further instructions on how to enable this useful feature.

Registering for the Backup Plan

1. Login to your Bravenet account.
2. Visit the ‘Web Hosting’ tab in your account.
3. Click ‘Manage’ next to your website.
4. Click the ‘Backup/Export’ button found on this page.
5. Under the Backup Plan heading, click ‘Purchase Backup Plan’.
6. Your Backup Access plan will now be in your cart. Follow the prompts to check out.

Once you have completed your purchase, your backup plan will automatically be enabled and can be utilized by visiting the ‘Backup/Export’ button described in Step 3 above. Please see the ‘Downloading a Backup to your Computer’ section for further steps on how to download a backup.

Downloading a Backup to your Computer

You will need to download the backup to your computer or external storage location in order to access your snapshot files. Please ensure you have plenty of adequate space on your computer or external storage location for the backup before downloading. All website snapshots can be downloaded in ZIP file format so you will need to extract the ZIP file on your computer to view the contents. Database snapshots are offered in SQL format which you can import to PhpMyAdmin in your Bravenet account.

Step 1: Locate your backup snapshots.

1. Login to your Bravenet account.
2. Visit the ‘Web Hosting’ tab in your account.
3. Click ‘Manage’ next to your website.
4. Click the ‘Backup/Export’ button found on this page.

You will now see all available snapshots under the ‘Available’ tab.

Step 2: Locate the correct type of snapshot.

All backup snapshots will list the date it was recorded under the ‘Date’ field and the type of snapshot under the ‘Type’ field. If you are looking for a website snapshot, these are listed as ‘monthly’ and ‘weekly’. If you are looking for a snapshot of your database files, these are listed as ‘Weekly SQL’ under the Type field. Once you have located the correct type of snapshot and the correct date, click ‘List Files’ next to the entry.

Step 3: Export and download your snapshot.

Click ‘Export’ next to the name of the website or database you are looking to recover. Depending on the size of the export, this may take a few minutes to process. Once this is processed, you will see your export listed under the ‘Downloads’ tab as a ZIP file or a SQL file. Click ‘Download’ next to your entry to download this to your computer, this may take some time to complete depending on the size of the backup.

Step 4: Restore your website or database from backup.

If you are restoring a database, please see ‘How to Backup and or Restore your MySQL Database Using phpMyAdmin’.

You can recover your website by uploading your files to your website through your SFTP account (see our SFTP article if you do not have an SFTP account yet). You can upload missing files or the entire backup folder to recover an entire website. Note you will want to select the option to ‘Replace’ existing files in your SFTP manager if you are looking to replace your existing website with the backup files.

FAQ

1) When should I back up my site?

Routine weekly or monthly backups are recommended. If you are altering any content on your website, updating plugins or extensions, or upgrading code it is especially important to obtain a backup beforehand to ensure you have a good working copy to revert to in case anything happens. Even if you do not plan on changing your website anytime soon, it is still important to back up your website as a security measure. Websites created with popular CMS builders such as WordPress can sometimes be vulnerable to hacks so always having a recent backup on hand can be useful to recover these types of websites. Signing up for our monthly backup plan allows you to access these snapshots for download at any time.

2) How often do you take snapshots of my website(s) / database(s)?

We take monthly and weekly backups of your website content and offer these for download in ZIP file format. We take weekly backups of your database in SQL format.

3) How can I tell if my website is covered by your backup plan?

If your website is managed under the ‘Web Hosting’ tab in your Bravenet account, this is a good indication that your website is eligible for our backup plan. Websites that you manage through your SFTP account, the Bravenet File Manager, or WordPress admin can all be backed up.

If your website was created with our drag-and-drop website builder, it is not eligible for our backup plan. Our website builder websites are managed through the ‘Site Builder’ tab in your account. Additionally, if you have your domain name with us, but your website is hosted with a third-party company, we are not able to back up these websites. If you are unsure if your website is eligible for our backup plan, please reach out to our support team at any time.