How-to · Beginner · 10–30 minutes
How to Restore From a Backup
Put files, the database, or both back — calmly, and only as far as you need to — a practical, jargon-free walkthrough with the classic mistake flagged before you make it.
Straight answer first
In a line: put files, the database, or both back — calmly, and only as far as you need to — a beginner-level task that takes 10–30 minutes.
Below you get the exact steps, the classic snag, and a tip from the support desk. Where our platform handles a step for you, the guide says so rather than making you do the robot's work.
Written by the Hosting Seller staff · Checked 1 August 2026
Beginner
Skill needed
5
Stages to finish
Free
Help included
Tested
On our own kit
This guide assumes no expertise at all — just a hosting account, a browser and 10–30 minutes of attention. Every instruction works on our platform exactly as written, and carries over to any standard cPanel host.
One promise before you start: nothing in this guide is irreversible. Where a step could bite, we say so and give you the undo.
The route, start to finish
From start to finish, you will work out what actually broke, choose the restore point on purpose, run the restore from the panel, check the site properly afterwards and deal with the cause as well.
Each stage is a few minutes of steady clicking — the time it takes depends mostly on how familiar the control panel already feels. The detailed steps sit further down this page; skim the whole route once before you begin.
The classic snag
Restoring everything to fix a database problem. The full restore also rewinds days of file changes that were fine, so one problem quietly becomes two. Scope the restore to the half that is actually broken.
It is worth learning because it is not some rare edge case — it is the single most common reason this task turns into a support ticket. Knowing it up front turns the whole job from risky into routine.
The tip we hand out to everybody
Write down the time the moment something breaks. Hours later, the question 'which backup predates this' is answered by that note, and not at all reliably by memory.
It costs a minute now and pays that back every time the job comes round again — which, like most hosting jobs, it certainly will.
What runs by itself here
We have automated the steps that do not deserve your time: certificates issue and reissue themselves, the installer handles application setup, the daily backup covers the what-if, and per-site settings live in a panel instead of a config file. The guide above covers what remains — the part that is actually about your site.
And when a step misbehaves anyway, support answers at any hour with the actual fix, not a knowledge-base link and a shrug. Half our best guides began life as a pattern in the ticket queue.
Why the job is simpler on our plans
Every walkthrough on our how-to shelf is tested on the platform we actually run — cPanel, LiteSpeed, NVMe, one-click installs — so the instructions match your screen instead of gesturing vaguely at it.
What you pay on day one is what you pay at renewal, so the year-two invoice holds no surprises worth opening early.
- Step by step, tested exactly as printed
- The snag flagged before you reach it
- The dull steps are already automated
- People on hand at any hour if you stall
Why Hosting Seller
On every plan, as standard
Help on the counter
Stuck on step three at midnight? Support answers at any hour, mid-guide included.
Scoped honestly
Put files, the database, or both back — calmly, and only as far as you need to is a beginner-level task — this guide budgets 10–30 minutes and says which steps the platform absorbs.
Works exactly as written
Every step tested on the platform we run — no 'your host may differ' hand-waving anywhere.
5 steps, no filler
Each stage is a few minutes of steady clicking, with the fiddly parts marked as fiddly.
No jargon toll
Terms are explained where they appear or linked to the glossary — nothing assumes you already know.
Written from real tickets
Our guides come off the support desk, so the snags flagged here are the ones people genuinely hit.
First Steps
From choosing to live
- 1
Work out what actually broke
A wrecked layout points at files. Missing content points at the database. Everything gone means both. Restoring the right half spares the half that was perfectly fine.
- 2
Choose the restore point on purpose
The most recent backup from before the trouble started. With something slow-burning like a compromise that may be several days back, because the newest copy carries the problem with it.
- 3
Run the restore from the panel
Pick the date and the scope — files, database or the lot — and start it. Restores finish in minutes, you run them yourself, and they work perfectly well at three in the morning.
- 4
Check the site properly afterwards
Front page, admin login, recent content, forms. You are confirming two separate things: that the problem has gone, and that the restore did not take anything good with it.
- 5
Deal with the cause as well
A restore treats the symptom. The plugin, the leaked password or the slip that caused it is still sitting there, still scheduled to happen a second time.
In the Box
Packed with every plan
- Staging copies so changes get tested before they go live
- PHP versions picked per site from the panel
- A backup taken daily, with restores you run yourself
- A 30-day money-back guarantee on every hosting plan
- WebP image optimisation built in and costing nothing
- Upgrades apply to the account in place, with no move between plans
- One-click installs for WordPress and 400+ other applications
- A free SSL certificate on every plan, reissued before it lapses
- A 99.9% uptime commitment, watched by monitoring day and night
- SSH, Git and Composer on the plans built for developers
Across the Counter
The questions we get asked most
Do I lose everything I have changed since the backup?
Within the scope you restore, yes — that is what restoring means. Keep the loss small by restoring only files or only the database, choosing the closest clean point, and re-applying by hand the handful of changes that genuinely mattered.
The site was hacked. Is restoring enough on its own?
No. Restore to a point before the break-in, then update everything, change every password and check the user list. Restoring while the vulnerable component is still installed simply books the sequel. The restore is step one of four.
Are backups included, and can I put one back myself?
A backup is taken daily on every plan, and the restore is yours to run from the panel in minutes — files, databases or both, at three in the morning without waiting on a ticket. Keeping your own copy offsite as well is never a bad habit, and nothing here stops you.
Who actually runs the company?
Hosting Seller is a trading name of Bohzo Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales — a real business with a public record and terms published under English law. Looking that up is worth doing about any host before you hand over your domain.
Is the SSL certificate genuinely free?
On every plan, with nothing held back. The certificate is issued the moment your domain points here and reissues itself well before expiry. The encryption is the same as a paid DV certificate — paid tiers exist only for wildcard coverage or organisation validation, which most sites never need.
Can I bring a domain I already own?
Yes, and transfers in are routine. Unlock the name at your present registrar, collect the auth code, then start the transfer from your client area. Whatever registration time is left comes across with it, and DNS keeps answering the whole way through.
Which control panel comes with the account?
cPanel, which the whole trade already knows. That means every tutorial online matches what you see, your backups restore onto any cPanel host anywhere, and what you learn here stays useful for life. Plesk and DirectAdmin are stocked on specific plans for anyone who prefers them.
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