Full and Partial Restore Procedures
If your website has been compromised, data was accidentally deleted, or you need to roll back to a previous state, you can restore from a backup in DirectAdmin. The restore process lets you recover your entire account or select specific components.
Restoring from a Server-Stored Backup
- Log in to DirectAdmin.
- Navigate to Advanced Features → Create/Restore Backups.
- Under the Restore Backup section, you will see a list of available backup files stored on the server.
- Select the backup file you want to restore from (identified by date and time).
- Choose which components to restore:
- Home directory / Files: Restores all website files.
- Databases: Restores MySQL/MariaDB databases. This will overwrite current databases.
- E-mail data: Restores email messages and accounts.
- E-mail settings: Restores forwarders, filters, and autoresponders.
- Click Restore to begin the process.
Warning: Restoring a backup will overwrite the selected components with the data from the backup. Any changes made after the backup was created will be lost for the restored items. Consider creating a fresh backup of your current state before restoring.
Restoring from an Uploaded Backup
If your backup file is stored locally (on your computer), you need to upload it before restoring:
- Upload the
.tar.gzbackup file to the/home/username/backups/directory using FTP or the File Manager. - Navigate to Create/Restore Backups in DirectAdmin.
- The uploaded backup file should now appear in the list of available backups.
- Select it and follow the restore steps above.
Partial Restore Tips
- Files only: Deselect databases and email options to restore only website files without affecting your current databases.
- Database only: Deselect files and email to restore just the database. Useful if a database was corrupted or accidentally modified.
- Single file recovery: If you only need specific files, download and extract the backup archive on your local machine, find the files you need, then upload them individually via FTP.
After Restoring
After a successful restore, verify your website is functioning correctly. Check that pages load, forms work, and database-driven content (such as a CMS) displays properly. Clear any caching plugins or CDN caches to ensure you see the restored content.