How to make a full backup of your website in cPanel
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How to make a full backup of your website in cPanel

As great as technology is, unfortunately it can never be relied on 100%. Inevitably computers are one day going to fail and the loss of data can ultimately be the downfall any business. A website can be the lifeblood of some companies, especially those who trade on the internet, so any downtime can be a nightmare.

That is why here at Digital Developments we keep multiple backups of your website in different locations so that in the unlikely event that something breaks we can get a copy of your website back up in a flash.

In the extreme unlikely event that all of us here at Digital Developments fall off the face of the earth, you may not be able to access our backups so that’s why it is best to make backups of your own, every so often.

How do I do that?

It’s actually not as hard as you think, thanks to the magic of cPanel. If you have web hosting with us you can quickly and easily make a backup of your entire website through the cPanel system. All you need is your cPanel login details and you’ll be ready to go. If you don’t have these login details please contact us and we will supply them to you.

Step 1.
First thing to do is open your web browser. This will be something like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome etc. In the address bar type our yourdomain.com.au/cpanel replacing yourdomain.com.au with your own domain name.

Step 2.
This will bring up the cPanel login page. Enter your username and password and click the login button. Once again, if you don’t have these login details please contact us and we will supply them to you.

Step 3.
Once you have logged in you will be brought to the main cPanel page. If a popup appears asking “Do you need help getting started?” simply click the ‘No, I’m fine. Thanks!’ button to continue.

Step 4.
You will need to find the icon labelled ‘Backups’ which is located in a box called ‘Files’. Click on this icon to proceed.

Step 5.
You will now be at the ‘Backups’ section ready to create a new backup. You will notice there is a ‘Full Backup’ box with a few buttons. Simply click on the big button labelled ‘Download or Generate a Full Backup’.

Step 6.
This will bring you to the ‘Full Backups’ interface with a few options to choose. The drop down box marked ‘Backup Destination’ can be left on the option ‘Home Directory’. Under it is a box marked ‘Email Address’. You can fill this out with your own email address. As the backup may take a little bit of time to generate, the system will send you an email when it has finished. Once you are ready to go click the ‘Generate Backup’ button to start the process.

Step 7.
You will be taken to a section telling you that your full backup is in process. It’s best to keep this window open while you check your emails. Generally the backup will be created in under a minute and you will receive an email letting you know it is completed (ignore all the gibberish in the email itself).

Step 8.
Once you receive the email, go back to the ‘Full Backup In Progress’ screen and click the ‘Go Back’ button. This will return you to the ‘Full Backup’ section in Step 6. You will now notice that under the heading ‘Backups Available for Download’ there will be a link with a green tick next to it. All you need to do is click the link to start downloading the full back to your computer.

Please Note

  • This will download a zip file that you can extract your website data and databases from. You may need help from a web developer to restore this at any stage.
  • Creating a backup will use disk space on your hosting plan, so you will need to make sure there is enough space free before generating it. It is also a good idea to remove any backups from your hosting once you have downloaded them to your computer. I will write a separate article on how to do this.