WordPress backups: what to keep and how to prepare a restore

“We have backups” starts the conversation. You still need to know what they contain, where they are, their dates and whether someone can restore them. A store receiving daily orders has different needs from a site edited once a month.

Verify both parts

WordPress uses files and a database. Photography and components are in files; content, settings and many records are in the database. An incomplete backup may recover appearance without data, or the reverse. The official backup documentation distinguishes these parts.

Ask for a simple inventory: location, date, included components, retention and the person responsible for restoration. Keep at least one protected copy outside the environment that could fail.

Base frequency on tolerable loss

Ask how many hours of changes you could reasonably recover manually if the site failed now. A store receiving continuous orders may need a different policy from an information page. Also establish restoration time and any hosting dependencies.

A dashboard saying “daily backup” does not mean nothing can be lost. There is still an interval between copies.

Before restoring

1. Identify a date before the fault and confirm the copy is accessible.
2. Preserve the current state for investigation without mistaking it for a clean backup.
3. List later orders, enquiries and edits that need to be retained.
4. Test recovery in an isolated environment without real emails or payments.
5. Agree the intervention window and acceptance checks.

If the website was compromised, an older copy may already contain the problem. Restoring without addressing the cause can expose it again. See our compromised website guide.

Afterwards: verify the working site

Check images, administration access, forms and important functions. For a store, reconcile orders and payment states with the provider’s records before resuming operations.

When requesting help, share the date of the last known backup and whether the site receives orders or bookings. Do not upload full backups through the form: they may contain credentials and personal information. We arrange necessary access after assessment.

Need help with this case?

Feitura support starts from €10 per hour of work. Suggest your hours or choose “I cannot estimate”. You can also propose a different budget; we agree the scope and price before starting. Request an assessment or explore website maintenance.