Restoring a Joomla website from a backup

The easy way and the hard way

As with creating backups, restoring a Joomla site from a backup done with the help of an extension or manually.

We’ll look at both methods here, but the path you take will most likely depend on whether your backup was created with an extension or manually.

Backup restoral with Akeeba Backup

Akeeba Backup is the most popular extension on the JED. It's also the easiest method to backup/restore a Joomla website. 

Assuming you have a backup file created using Akeeba, restoring it is pretty straightforward.

Part 1: File/directory restoral

1. Go to Components > Akeeba Backup
2. Click on Manage Backups

   

3. Select the backup you wish to restore and click Restore

   

4. Click Start Restoration
5. Wait for the archive to be extracted

   

6. Once the archive has been extracted successfully, click Run the restoration script

   

Part 2: database restoral

1. Now your database will be restored: click Next

   

2. The next screen requires you to enter your database credentials. If an existing  Joomla installation is recognised, these fields may be prepopulated – if not you'll need to enter the following details:
   
   Database type: MySQLi
   Database server host name: localhost
   User name: your database username
   Password: your database password
   Database name: your database name
   Database table name prefix: leave it as it is
   
   

   

3. Don't touch the stuff to the right, just click on Next
4. After a few moments, the database should be restored successfully

   

5. Next up - Site Setup. Everything should be correct without any intervention. Click on Next

   

6. Don’t worry, almost done. Click on Remove the installation directory

   

7. Click on Finalise Restoration

   

8. Congrats, you're back in the game!

Restoring a manual Joomla backup

Restoring a site manually is a bit more work, but shouldn’t present a big problem. Of course, this implies you've made a manual backup and have all of the relevant files.

Ready for more screenshots? Let’s go!

1. Restore your Joomla files
   • Before anything, make sure you have a backup ready in case things go wrong
   • Delete all current files and folders from your server
   • Transfer all of the backed up Joomla files and folders from your local drive to the server
2. Restore your database
   • Go to phpMyAdmin
   • Choose Databases, select the checkbox for your database and click Drop

     

   • Once the database is deleted, it's time to make a new one
   • Click New, enter your database name and in the dropdown, select utf8_general_ci
   • Click Create to create a new, empty database

     

   • Now, select your database from the list on the left
   • Click Import, select the SQL backup on your local computer and click Go

     

   • Your database is imported and ready to use!

     

If the backup was created correctly, your site should now be restored. Hopefully, this is the last time you'll have to do so.

If none of the above worked, we recommend you ask someone else to do it for you. You can also contact us at mail@joom.team for help.

Requesting backup restore from your host

If all else fails, most hosting providers also make regular server backups which they can restore for you on request. 

To find out more, try asking the support team of your web host for more information. This solution is typically pretty painless, however often hosts charge for this service, and remember that this will affect your entire web server – not just your Joomla installation!