Every Beginner and Standard hosting plan includes Acronis hourly backups. Those copies live on a separate server and do not use your disk quota. You should still keep your own copy before a deploy, a plugin update, or a redesign.
This article is for shared hosting (files, MariaDB, and mailboxes you create in cPanel). Open cPanel from the portal. Do not guess a hostname.
It does not cover LochStudios Mail (Axigen). Those mailboxes live on the mail service. Open that service in the portal and open a support ticket if you need a restore there.
On a VPS you manage snapshots and copies yourself. Game servers have their own steps: Back Up and Restore a Game Server World or Save.
Two kinds of backup
Hourly copies we keep. Acronis takes them automatically. Restore points sit in a 30-day window (details below). You do not turn this on. To put the account, a site, or a database back from one of those points, open a support ticket.
Copies you make in cPanel. Use Backup or Backup Wizard when you want a file on your computer. Those archives live in your home directory until you download and delete them, and they do count toward disk. See Check Disk Usage.
Keep both. Ours cover a mistake or a bad deploy. Yours cover a copy you can store off the account.
Open cPanel
- Sign in at the portal.
- Open the hosting service for the site.
- Click Log in to cPanel.
You do not need a server hostname to get in.
Create a backup
In the Files section, open Backup. Some themes also show Backup Wizard, which walks the same choices one screen at a time.
Full account backup
A full backup is a .tar.gz of the account: home directory (sites, mail, cron, settings), MariaDB databases, email forwarders, and email filters.
- Open Backup.
- Click Download a Full Account Backup.
- Under Backup Destination, choose Home Directory unless we have already set up a remote destination with you.
- Leave Email as your contact address if you want cPanel to mail you when the archive is ready.
- Click Generate Backup.
Large accounts take several minutes. When it finishes, the file sits in your home directory (the folder above public_html), usually named like backup-MM.DD.YYYY_HH-MM-SS_username.tar.gz.
cPanel will not restore a full archive for you. Download it for safekeeping. If you need the whole account put back from that file, open a support ticket and tell us the filename. For most restores, ask us to use our hourly copies instead.
Partial backup
Use a partial backup when you only need one piece, and you want to restore it yourself later.
From Backup, under Partial Backups, you can download:
- Home Directory (website files, mail stored on the account, and most account files)
- MySQL Databases (each MariaDB database as its own file; the button still says MySQL)
- Email Forwarders
- Email Filters
Click the item you want. Your browser downloads it.
Download a backup
- If you generated a full backup to Home Directory, open the File Manager and go to the home directory (click Home in the toolbar so you are not inside
public_html). - Select the
.tar.gzfile and click Download. - Store the file somewhere that is not this hosting account: your computer, an external drive, or storage you control.
If the file is large and the browser does not finish, download it with FTP from the same home directory, or open a support ticket and we will help you get a copy.
After you have the file off the server, delete the archive in File Manager and empty Trash. Leaving it in the home directory fills the plan. Our hourly copies stay in place.
Restore a home directory, database, or email settings
You can restore the partial backups from the same Backup screen. Each restore replaces what is there now. A home-directory restore overwrites site files. A database restore replaces that database. Only continue if that is what you want.
1. Open Backup.
2. Scroll to the matching restore block:
- Restore a Home Directory Backup
- Restore a MySQL Database Backup
- Restore Email Forwarders
- Restore Email Filters
3. Choose the file (one you just downloaded, or one you upload from your computer).
4. Confirm the restore.
Backup Wizard does the same work: choose Restore, then the type, then the file.
Do not use these restore boxes for a full account .tar.gz. That format is not a partial restore. Open a support ticket if that is the only copy you have.
Restore individual files or one database
If you only need a few files or a single database from an archive you already downloaded:
- Open the
.tar.gzon your computer with an archive tool (7-Zip, The Unarchiver, or similar). - Find the files or the
.sqldump you need. - Put files back with the File Manager or FTP. Website files for the main domain belong in
public_html(or the addon / subdomain document root). - Import a database dump in phpMyAdmin: select the database, open Import, choose the
.sqlfile, and run it.
If you are not sure which folder or database name to use, stop and open a support ticket. Restoring over the live site is hard to undo without another copy.
For a WordPress site, prefer a copy from WordPress Toolkit or Installatron when those tools already manage the install. See Install WordPress and Back Up and Migrate a WordPress Site.
Restore from a backup you downloaded earlier
- Open Backup.
- Use the Restore block that matches the file (home directory, MySQL, forwarders, or filters).
- Upload the file from your computer and confirm.
If the file is a full-account archive, or you want us to roll the account back to a date in the last 30 days, open a support ticket instead.
Hourly copies we keep
You do not schedule these. Every shared hosting account is included.
Acronis stores the copies off the hosting server, so they do not count toward disk. Restore points are merged across a 30-day window:
| Window | What we keep |
|---|---|
| Last 12 hours | One copy per hour |
| Last 3 days | One copy per day |
| Last 4 weeks | One copy per week |
| Current month | One monthly copy |
To restore from these:
- Open a support ticket.
- Tell us the domain, what to restore (whole account, one site folder, one database, mail), and the date and time you want to go back to.
- Wait for us to confirm before you keep editing the live site, so we do not overwrite new work.
Ask before a planned change if you want a restore point confirmed. Do not wait until the only good copy is older than 30 days.
Before you change a live site
- We already have hourly copies. Take your own cPanel copy as well if you are about to update WordPress, change PHP, or replace a theme.
- Download that copy, then delete the archive from the account.
- Test on a subdomain when you can, instead of restoring over the live document root first.
- After a restore, check the site and mail. If a name needs a certificate again, open SSL/TLS Status in cPanel. AutoSSL issues one once the name points at this hosting.
Best practices
- Download your own copy before a major update. Do not rely only on the server.
- Store it off this account. A copy that only exists in
public_htmlis not a backup. - Label the file with the domain and the date.
- Keep more than one generation (for example the last two weeks of your own copies, plus ours).
- Do not leave archives on the account. They count toward disk and can be fetched if the site is compromised.
- Say so in a ticket if you need a restore and you are unsure which type of file you have. We would rather look than have you overwrite the live site.
If you are unsure about any restore step, open a support ticket before you click Restore.