How to make a website backup: a full Plesk guide

A website backup is a copy of all your files and your database that lets you restore your site when something goes wrong. Making a website backup yourself does not have to be complicated. This guide walks you through creating, downloading and restoring a backup step by step in the Plesk control panel you use at LJPc hosting. You will learn how to make a manual and a scheduled backup, export your database separately with phpMyAdmin and fetch your files over FTP.

Why a website backup is essential

A website can break in many ways. Think of a failed update to WordPress, a theme or a plugin, a hack or malware, a wrong click that deletes your files, or a server outage. Without a recent backup you can lose hours or days of work in an instant.

With a good backup you can roll your site back to the state just before the problem in a few minutes. A backup is therefore part of good website maintenance, alongside updates, security and speeding up your website.

On LJPc web hosting we also make a server backup every day. Even so, your own backup is always worth having: it sits apart from the server, you can restore it yourself, and you still have it if you delete something by accident.

What belongs in a complete backup?

A working website has two parts. You need both of them to be able to restore everything.

• Files: the code, your themes, plugins and all uploads. On most sites these live in the httpdocs folder.
• Database: the content and settings, such as texts, pages, users and comments.

If you restore only your files without the matching database, or the other way around, your site often stops working properly. Always back them up as a pair, from the same moment in time.

How to make a website backup in Plesk, step by step

LJPc hosting uses the Plesk control panel. The screen names below are the English labels Plesk shows by default. If your Plesk is set to another language, look for the equivalent option in the same place.

Step 1. Create a manual backup

1. Log in to Plesk and go to Websites & Domains.
2. Open Backup Manager and click Back up.
3. Choose what to include. The domain configuration is always part of the backup. For a complete website backup, leave Mail messages and Databases ticked.
4. Under Store in, choose where the backup is saved: on the server (server storage) or on remote storage.
5. Under Type, pick Full (a complete backup) or Incremental (only the changes since the previous backup).
6. Click OK. Plesk now creates the backup. On a large site this can take a while.

Step 2. Schedule automatic backups

Manual backups are fine for one-off moments, but a scheduled backup is one you never forget.

1. Go to Backup Manager and open the Schedule tab.
2. Tick Activate this backup task.
3. Under Run this backup task, set how often and at what time Plesk makes the backup, for example every night.
4. To save space, tick Use incremental backup and decide how often a full backup is made.
5. In Keep backup files for, enter how long Plesk keeps the backups. If you skip this, they pile up and your disk space fills.
6. Click OK to save the schedule.

Step 3. Download a backup to your own computer

A backup that only sits on the same server is also lost if the server fails. Download it to your own computer or to external storage.

1. Open Backup Manager and select the backup you want to keep.
2. Click Download.
3. Set a password if Plesk asks for one. This is recommended, because a backup holds sensitive data. Remember this password, because you need it to restore the backup later.
4. Store the file somewhere safe. After downloading, you may remove the backup from the server to free up space.

Step 4. Restore a backup

1. Go to Backup Manager and click the backup you want to restore.
2. Choose whether you restore everything (All objects) or only certain parts (Selected objects), such as a single database or just the files.
3. To keep the site offline during the restore, tick Suspend domains until the restoration is completed. Visitors then briefly see an error page (503).
4. Click Restore.

Note: objects with the same name are overwritten without warning, and any changes made after the backup are lost. If in doubt, make a fresh backup of the current state before you restore.

Backing up only your database with phpMyAdmin

Sometimes you only want to safeguard your database, for example just before a big change in WordPress. Plesk offers two ways to do this.

The quickest is the built-in export. Go to Websites & Domains > Databases, choose your database and click Export Dump. Tick Automatically download dump after creation to save the dump straight to your computer. Plesk turns it into a dump file (an SQL file) that you can keep.

For more control, use phpMyAdmin:

1. Open phpMyAdmin for your database from the Databases section.
2. Click the Export tab at the top.
3. Leave the export method on Quick for a complete backup, or choose Custom to select tables yourself.
4. Set the format to SQL and click Export (or Go). The file downloads to your computer.

You restore a database backup later through the Import tab in phpMyAdmin, or in Plesk through Import Dump.

Downloading files over FTP

Besides a full Plesk backup, you can also fetch your website files on their own with FTP. Handy when you quickly want a copy of your files on your own computer.

1. Find your login details in Plesk under Websites & Domains > FTP Access. Set a new password there if needed.
2. Install a free FTP program, for example FileZilla.
3. Connect with your host name (your domain or the server name), your username and your password. Use a secure connection (FTPS or SFTP) where you can.
4. Your website files live in the httpdocs folder. Drag that folder to your computer to download everything.

If you use this to make a complete backup for, say, a move to another hosting provider, combine the files with a database export from the previous step.

Troubleshooting

Stuck while making or restoring a backup? These common problems usually have a simple fix.

With a manual or scheduled backup in Plesk, a separate database export and a copy on your own computer, your website is well covered. Cannot work it out? Contact support and we will take a look with you.