The Fast Way to Restore Your WordPress Site to a Previous Date

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were one-click solutions for everything? 

Get in a fender bender? “Click” and the damage is gone. Forget your credit card at the grocery store? “Click” and it’s back in your wallet.

Unfortunately, things don’t work like that… unless you need to undo a broken or hacked website.

The Jetpack plugin provides a suite of tools designed specifically for WordPress, including Jetpack Backup — a security solution that saves copies of your site so you can restore it to a specific moment in time should anything go wrong. It’s like a time machine for erasing website problems. 

Why avoid a manual backup?

You can manually back up your WordPress site as often as you’d like, and it’s “free” in that it doesn’t cost money. However, there are many reasons that most people prefer an automated solution like Jetpack Backup: 

• Time: How quickly you’re able to copy and back up your files is largely based on your internet connection speed, as well as the capability of your computer’s processor and, of course, the number and size of your files. Depending on the combination of those factors, making manual backups is often a long and frustrating process. 
• Disconnects: Another frustrating (and all too common) issue with manual backups is frequent disconnections from the server. Whether your backup is 20%, 50%, or 98% complete, a server disconnect can crash the entire process, requiring you to start over after hours of waiting for your backup to complete.
• Website lag: Downloading and copying all your files and data can create a heavy load on your server, leading to lag times, timeouts, and frustration for your customers and website visitors. 
• Data loss: Website backups are not a “close enough is good enough” endeavor. A single corrupted or misplaced file in a backup can lead to serious glitches — even complete site failure — if you use it to restore in the future.

Above all, manual backups aren’t usually recommended for people without development experience. Here are just some of the steps involved:

1. Back up your site’s files via cPanel, accessible through your hosting account, or using SSH, SFTP, or FTP. 
2. Go to your hosting account’s cPanel to back up the site’s database using phpMyAdmin. 
3. Move the saved SQL file to the database backup folder to store it. 
4. Encrypt your data, try out a restore on a staging site, and save multiple copies of your backup off-site on Google Drive or Dropbox.

You now have safely stored backups for today’s version of your WordPress website — assuming everything went smoothly. Change some content? Time to repeat the entire process.

Jetpack backups, headache free

No matter what you’re working on, seeing your hard work disappear is frustrating and demoralizing. If it happens to you, Jetpack’s backup service is an ideal solution, balancing quality and efficiency. 

• Backups are automated. Choose between daily or real-time backups.
• Restore from an extensive archive of backups — either 30-day or unlimited.
• Get your site back online with one-click site restores and simple site migration.
• Enjoy an extra layer of security with redundant backups to multiple secure Jetpack servers.
• Turn to expert email support for any questions or concerns.

If your website only changes periodically, try the daily backup plan with a 30-day archive. It’s great for restaurants, blogs, or informational sites — any site that only updates a few times each day or week. If your website is constantly changing — an eCommerce store, membership site, or popular forum — real-time website backups save new posts, comments, sales, and other changes as they occur. This is the most complete option, providing backups of each specific change to the site. 

Jetpack Backup also includes an activity log, which records every change that occurs on your site, like:

• A login attempt
• A published or modified post or page
• A comment or reply
• Installation or deletion of a plugin or theme
• A settings change

The need for a backup often results from one of these six actions, so you can use the log to filter events by date range and activity type and quickly find the exact point in time you’re looking for — and then restore your site with a few clicks. 

A powerful combination of thorough backups and an easily-searchable record of website changes give you the power to identify problems fast and return your site to normal in minutes, not hours.

Protect your work today

When things go wrong, a high-quality website backup system gets things back to normal quickly. And with Jetpack Backup, restoring your site doesn’t require the technical knowledge, hassle, or time commitment of manual backups. And there’s an unrivaled support team to help along the way. 

Now you can focus on doing what you do best: building your business. 

Get started with Jetpack Backup today.

---