Manually Restore a Jetpack VaultPress Backup

Manually restore a Jetpack VaultPress Backup to any host on any server anywhere. 

Have you tried an automatic restore?

Before getting started with a manual restore, it is often possible to restore your site with a click of a button, using Jetpack VaultPress Backup. If you haven’t already attempted our one-click restore, please check out our documentation about Restoring with Jetpack VaultPress Backup.

Jetpack Support Scope doesn’t cover assisting with manual restores beyond the guidance provided in this documentation. If you need further assistance, please contact your hosting support for help.

Manually restore your site

To manually restore your website from a backup, please follow these steps:

1. Make sure that WordPress is installed and functioning on your server.
2. Go to the Jetpack Activity Log for your site, either via WordPress.com → Jetpack → Activity Log or cloud.jetpack.com → Activity Log.
3. Locate the backup you would like to download. You can do this by using the filters at the top of the Activity Log.
4. Click Download or Actions → Download Backup. The download will be a compressed file with a tar.gz file extension.
5. Unzip the file. On Mac OS you can double-click the file. In Windows, use an archiving tool such as 7-Zip. The resulting folder will contain your data, divided into the following sub-folders: wp-content (plugins, themes, and uploads) and .sql.
6. Transfer your plugins, themes, and uploads folders via FTP or a File Manager tool to the wp-content folders on your WordPress site.
7. Import your .sql files into your MySQL database in a few different ways. It’s easiest to use something like phpMyAdmin or a desktop tool like Sequel Pro. If you have direct access to MySQL via the command line, you can run the following command:

mysql --user="username" --password="password" --hostname="mysql.yoursite.com" database_name < file_name.sql

8. If you’re restoring to an empty database, it’s often easier to join the .sql files into a single file.
   • In OS X: Launch Terminal.app and run the following command: cat *.sql > backup_db.sql
   • In Windows: Use the command prompt and run the following command: copy /b *.sql newfile.sql

You may see 2 files for each table in the sql folder: something like wp_posts.sql and wp_posts-updates.sql. If you are importing one-by-one, you should do the primary table first (wp_posts.sql) then the table labeled -updates.  If you’ve concatenated them all together as explained in step 7, there’s no need to worry about this.

Manually restore your site to a new domain

When restoring your site to a new domain, you’ll need to update the siteurl and home values in your wp_options table. You can either edit the SQL (.sql) export file, or import the SQL and edit your database using phpMyAdmin or a desktop tool like Sequel Pro.

Troubleshoot problems with downloading a backup

If you are having any issues with downloading a backup, please contact support directly, with details of any errors you see.