Manually Restore Your Site from a Jetpack Backup File on WordPress.com

In most cases, you can restore your site with a single click using Jetpack VaultPress Backup. But if needed, you can also restore your site manually using a backup file you’ve previously downloaded.

If you manage a WordPress.com site whose Business or Commerce plan recently expired, first try following these steps, as your site’s backups may still be available for one-click restoration.

If you’re moving your site to a new domain (for example, if the backup files were originally used on a different domain), make sure to follow the instructions below for updating the domain in your database. If you’re restoring to the same domain, you can skip that step.

Transfer plugins, themes, uploads, and database files

If you are using Studio by WordPress.com, we recommend taking a look at the Studio Sync feature before proceeding with the manual steps.

You can manually restore your WordPress.com site using either a Jetpack .tar.gz backup file or a Studio .zip backup. Just follow the steps below, or watch the video for a detailed walkthrough.

1. To proceed, you must have an active WordPress.com Business or Commerce plan.
2. Start by retrieving your Jetpack backup or Studio export file.
3. Enable SFTP credentials on your site. You will need to connect to SFTP using an SFTP client, such as FileZilla.
4. Unzip your Jetpack backup .tar.gz or Studio .zip file. The unzipped folder, regardless of Jetpack or Studio, will contain your site data in the sql and wp-content subfolders.

5. Navigate to sql folder.
6. Jetpack: You’ll see several .sql files. Delete the wp_users.sql and wp_usermeta.sql files.
7. Studio: You’ll see a single .sql file. Open it in your code editor, then search for the wp_users table and delete that entire section. The screenshot below highlights exactly what needs to be removed.

8. Studio: Search for the wp_usermeta table and also and delete that entire section. The screenshot below highlights exactly what needs to be removed.

8. Studio: Save the .sql file after editing it.
9. Once FileZilla is connected to your site, go to the /srv/htdocs folder. Within that folder, open wp-content.
10. Open the plugins folder, and you’ll see a list of plugins currently installed on your site.

11. Check the plugins folder from your backup and compare it to the plugins folder you have in FileZilla. Any plugin can be restored by dragging the entire plugin folder from your backup to FileZilla, provided the plugin is not symlinked. Skip any symlinked plugins, and transfer any others you wish to restore on your site.
12. Repeat this process with your themes and uploads folders.
13. Next, you’ll need to restore your database files. Drag the sql folder from your backup into the htdocs folder on FileZilla. 
14. Open our preferred terminal application and connect to your site using SSH.
15. Once connected, run the command cd htdocs/sql.
16. Run ls | xargs -I % wp db import %. This lists every file in the folder, wraps the files, and then runs wp db import all with one command.
17. Run wp cache flush. You must flush the cache every time you make changes to your database.
18. Run wp plugin activate jetpack. This is necessary to make sure that the connection to Jetpack on your WordPress.com site works as expected after you do the database import.
19. Run wp plugin install one-time-login --activate && wp user one-time-login <user>. Replace <user> with the email address associated with your WordPress.com account.
20. Open the link that appears in the terminal. Once logged into your site, navigate to Jetpack in the right sidebar. If Jetpack is not already set up, click “Set up Jetpack” and follow the prompts.
21. Run wp plugin delete one-time-login.
22. If you run into any further issues on your site after import, contact support from your WordPress.com site for further help.

Any plugin or theme settings you had enabled at the time of your backup should now be enabled on your site, but double check on the live site to confirm. If not, activate as you would normally.

Update your domain in the database

When restoring your site to a different domain, you’ll need to update all mentions of your old domain in the database. If you’re restoring your site files to a site with the same domain, you should skip this section. 

You can edit your newly-imported database using phpMyAdmin or WP-CLI.

Update siteurl and home values with phpMyAdmin

To update your siteurl and home database values in the wp_options table using phpMyAdmin:

1. Visit your site’s wp-admin dashboard and navigate to Hosting → Overview (or Settings → Hosting Configuration if using the default interface style) if you haven’t already done so.
2. Click the Settings tab.
3. Click on the Database tab in the sidebar.
4. Click the “Open phpMyAdmin” button.
5. To view your siteurl and home values, click the SQL button in the top toolbar, and run the following queries:

/* Run these queries to get your current site URL */
SELECT * FROM `wp_options` WHERE `option_name` = 'siteurl';
SELECT * FROM `wp_options` WHERE `option_name` = 'home';

4. To update your siteurl and home values, click the SQL button in the top toolbar and run the following queries, replacing NEW-DOMAIN with your new domain:

/* Run these queries to update your site URL to your new domain */
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = 'NEW-DOMAIN' WHERE wp_options.option_name = 'siteurl';
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = 'NEW-DOMAIN' WHERE wp_options.option_name = 'home';

Search and replace with phpMyAdmin

To ensure that images load as expected, you should also run search-replace queries to update any references to your old URL:

1. Visit your site’s wp-admin dashboard and navigate to Hosting → Overview (or Settings → Hosting Configuration if using the default interface style) if you haven’t already done so.
2. Click the Settings tab.
3. Click on the Database tab in the sidebar.
4. Click the Open phpMyAdmin button.
5. Click the SQL button in the top toolbar, and run the following queries, replacing OLD-DOMAIN with your old domain name and NEW-DOMAIN with your new domain name:

/* Run these queries to update the old domain to your new domain */
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = replace(post_content, 'OLD-DOMAIN', 'NEW-DOMAIN');
UPDATE wp_posts SET guid = replace(guid, 'OLD-DOMAIN','NEW-DOMAIN');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = replace(meta_value,'OLD-DOMAIN','NEW-DOMAIN');
UPDATE wp_links SET link_image = replace(link_image, 'OLD-DOMAIN','NEW-DOMAIN');

Update siteurl and home values with WP-CLI

To update your siteurl and home database values in the wp_options table using WP-CLI:

1. Open the Terminal on your computer and connect to your site via SSH.
2. Once connected, type cd htdocs/sql, then press return/enter on your keyboard.
3. To view your siteurl and home values, run the following commands one at a time:
   • wp option get siteurl
   • wp option get home
4. To update your siteurl and home values, run the following commands one at a time, replacing NEW-DOMAIN with your new domain:
   • wp option update siteurl NEW-DOMAIN
   • wp option update home NEW-DOMAIN
5. Run wp cache flush, then press return/enter on your keyboard.

Search and replace with WP-CLI

To ensure that images load as expected, you should also run a search-replace command to update any references to your old URL:

1. Open the Terminal on your computer and connect to your site via SSH.
2. Run the following command, replacing OLD-DOMAIN with your old domain name and NEW-DOMAIN with your new domain name:
   • wp search-replace OLD-DOMAIN NEW-DOMAIN --skip-columns=guid
3. Run wp cache flush, then press return/enter on your keyboard.

What if something goes wrong?

If something unwanted happens to your site as a result of actions in SFTP, in phpMyAdmin, or with WP-CLI, you can restore a recent backup of your site. If you’re still having trouble, connect with our Happiness Engineers here.