In this article you will learn:
- Why back up your website and how often
- How to make a manual backup
- How to restore a website from a backup
- Common problems
- Frequently Asked Questions
Backup basics
A website backup can save you in a situation where someone attacks your website, you accidentally delete part of your site, or it is damaged by a problem with the installation or update of the editorial system.
Advances VEDOS
Regular web hosting (NoLimit, LowCost), we backup once a week. These backups are used for data recovery in case of server crash, so they are not intended for restoring at the customer's request.
Webhosting Extra backs up once a day. Backups are available up to 5 days in advance, we restore data on request for free.
For more detailed information about backups from our side, see the article Backup ⧉.
We do not provide advances older than 1 week.
Requests for advance payment should be sent in an authorized manner via the contact form ⧉. Please include the following in your request:
- Web hosting name or service/order number
- Subject of recovery: FTP, database, both
- The date from which you require a backup (the technician will provide you with the specific dates and times of available backups)
- Method of recovery: overwrite all current data on FTP with data from the backup, or upload data from the backup to a separate folder on FTP. Upload the database export to FTP unless otherwise arranged with the technician.
- Agreeing to the renewal price according to the current price list.
Own advances
Our system performs backups automatically, regardless of whether or not you are currently making adjustments. Therefore, if you are going to make a major intervention on the site, for example deleting files or installing (updating) a new editorial system/plugin, back up the system manually. This will prevent a situation where our backup is too old and does not contain, for example, changes made recently, or is too new and we no longer have the original working site.
Make your own backups in case the site is hacked. You may discover an infection weeks or even months after uploading malicious files or overwriting clean code with malicious code, and our backups will be infected as well.
We recommend storing the 3 most recent backups in case the last one gets corrupted or attacked.
Manual backup
To perform a complete site backup, you usually need to save:
- FTP files, i.e. the code, stylesheets, scripts and media that make up your site. Every website has FTP files.
- Data from the database. Databases are used by most websites, including those built on content management systems (WordPress, Joomla, etc.).
FTP backup
Follow these steps to create an FTP backup of your files:
- Create a folder on your computer to hold the backup. We recommend that you include the date in the name for easy sorting or tracking, for example backup_domain-tld_221231.
- Connect to FTP and search for the directory where your website is located - usually www, or www/domains/(your website domain).
- Download the site files to the prepared folder:
- WebFTP ⧉: Select the site directory or all files and click the download button.
- Desktop client: select the site directory or all files and drag them into the prepared folder.
The WebFTP client wraps the files in an archive before downloading, but due to its limited performance (it is a web application) it is not suitable for large sites or sites containing a large number of files. In this case, we recommend the FileZilla client.
After downloading the files, we recommend running a virus scan on the backup folder.
Database backup
To create a backup of the database files, follow the instructions for exporting the database in the article Webhosting - Importing and exporting the database in phpMyAdmin.
Save the exported file to the backup file folder. If you do not have these files in an archive (zipped), we recommend saving the database file to an easily identifiable custom folder.
Restoring a site from backup
If you require a restore from a VEDOS backup, you can request an overwrite of the original site files. The database backup is uploaded to FTP by the technician.
To restore your site from a manual backup, follow these steps:
- Connect to FTP and check that it contains a basic directory structure.
- Search for the directory where the broken website is located - usually www, or www/domains/(the domain of your website). If this directory does not exist, create it.
- If the directory with the broken site contains the original files, delete them.
- Upload your backup files via the WebFTP interface or desktop FTP client.
- Import the database according to the database import instructions in the article Webhosting - Import and export database in phpMyAdmin.
- Clean your browser cache and check the functionality of the site.
Common problems
Common backup problems include:
- Unavailable FTP
- Deleted Webhosting service
- Non-functioning VEDOS backup
- Non-functional website after restoring from own backup
Unavailable FTP
Problem: I can't log in to FTP at Webhosting.
Cause: the FTP is unavailable most often with disabled services.
Solution: If your Webhosting has expired 5 days ago, FTP can be enabled by customer support to get a backup. Please send a request for a temporary turn-on via the form ⧉ and include the name of the webhost. Support may refuse to temporarily turn on the Webhosting at their discretion or charge a fee.
If the service is working, follow the FTP troubleshooting guide.
Deleted expired Webhosting
Problem: I don't see the Webhosting service in my account. How do I access my data?
Cause: if you don't see the service in your account and the site expired 30 days ago or more (7 if you terminated it), the service and all its data is completely deleted by us.
Solution: you can re-establish the service, but we cannot restore the data from our side. So restore your own backup, if you have one, or create a new site.
Non-functioning VEDOS backup
Problem: The technician performed a restore from backup, but the site is still not functional.
Cause: Technicians usually perform data recovery by overwriting the original files to FTP (unless a recovery option to a separate folder is requested) and uploading a backup of the database to FTP as well. Importing the database is usually not part of the recovery.
Also, the source of the problems on the site may have been active before the backup was taken, so the restore did not solve the problem.
Solution: Make sure that the original data was overwritten by the backup data, and that you imported the database backup uploaded by the technician to FTP. If the site is properly restored but not functional, the problem was unfortunately already part of our backup. So use an older custom backup, or address the problem with a professional (we do not handle anti-virus or repair of infected or otherwise damaged sites from our end).
The fee for restoring from a backup, even if it did not solve the problem, is non-refundable.
Non-functional website after restoring from own backup
Problem: We deleted all FTP content, uploaded a backup, but the site still doesn't work.
Cause: deleting FTP has damaged the basic directory structure of Webhositng.
Solution: Make sure you have the basic Webhosting directory structure correct. If problems persist, set up temporary FTP access for support as instructed and request assistance via the ⧉ form. Requests are normally dealt with directly by support or the CMS department within 1 working day, but this is an intervention beyond normal support, so response times can be significantly longer.
Frequently Asked Questions
We had a backup on WEDOS Disk, but it was deleted. Can you restore it for us?
No, we do not back up the data on the WEDOS Disk. Disks set up free of charge for a hosting service (Webhosting, VPS) are deleted by the system at the same time as the data of this service (typically on the 30th day after expiration, or on the 7th day if the service expires).