How to Restore Your Site from JetBackup in cPanel

Sooner or later, most site owners have a bad day. A plugin update breaks the homepage, someone deletes the wrong folder, or an important mail folder vanishes. If your hosting uses JetBackup, you can usually undo the damage yourself from cPanel. This guide shows what you can restore, how to do it safely and how to check it worked.

How backups work on CheapHostIndia

Every CheapHostIndia plan, Starter, Growth and Pro, includes automated weekly backups (JetBackup). Weekly means a restore takes your site back to how it was when the last backup ran, not to five minutes ago. Anything you changed after that, such as new posts, orders, uploads or emails, will not be in that backup.

Keep that in mind before you restore, and read the section on taking your own backup below. You can read what else every plan includes on our features page.

What you can restore

JetBackup lets you restore your whole account or just the part you need. In cPanel these are listed as separate backup types, so you can pick the smallest restore that fixes the problem:

• Full account: files, databases, email and settings together. Use this only when several things are broken at once.
• Files (home directory): your website files, such as everything in public_html. You can restore the whole folder or only selected files.
• Databases: the database behind WordPress or another app, where your posts, pages, settings and orders live.
• Email: the contents of a mailbox, if mails or folders were deleted.

For a WordPress site, the files and the database work as a pair. If a plugin update broke the site, restoring the files alone may be enough. If content or settings went wrong, you will probably need the database too, from the same backup date.

Before you restore: three quick checks

• Pick the right date. Work out when the problem started, and choose a restore point from before then.
• Save what is new. If you have changed anything since that backup, copy it somewhere first, such as new blog post text, recent orders or an important uploaded file. A restore will overwrite it.
• Restore small first. If you only need one folder or one database, restore just that instead of the full account.

Step by step: restoring in JetBackup 5

The exact labels can vary a little between JetBackup versions, but the steps look like this:

• Log in to cPanel and click the JetBackup 5 icon, usually in the Files section.
• Open the Backups area. You will see the backups available for your account, each with a date.
• Use the filter or tabs to choose the backup type you need: Full Account, Home Directory (files), Databases or Email.
• Pick the restore point, meaning the backup dated just before the problem started.
• For files, choose whether to restore everything or browse and tick only the files or folders you need. For email, choose the mailbox. For databases, choose the database.
• Click Restore and confirm. Read the confirmation message carefully: it tells you what will be replaced.
• The restore is added to the Queue. Open the Queue page to follow its progress until it shows as completed.

Restores run in the background, and how long one takes depends on the size of what you are restoring. Do not start the same restore again while one is still in the queue.

After the restore: check that it worked

• Open your website in a private or incognito window, so you are not seeing an old cached copy.
• Click through the homepage, a few inner pages and your contact form.
• For WordPress, log in to the dashboard and check that your recent posts and settings look right.
• For email, open webmail and check that the missing folders or messages are back.
• If you use a caching plugin, clear its cache once the site looks correct.

If something still looks wrong, check the JetBackup queue or log entry for that restore to see whether it finished successfully.

If you get stuck

If a restore fails, you cannot find the backup type you need, or you are not sure which restore point to pick, raise a support ticket. Tell us your domain, what went wrong, roughly when it started and what you have already tried. That way we can look at the right thing first.

Take your own backup before big changes

Weekly automated backups are a safety net, not your only copy. Before anything risky, such as a theme change, a major plugin or WordPress update, or a big clean-up of files, take your own backup:

• In cPanel's File Manager, select your site's folder, use Compress to make a zip file, and download it.
• In phpMyAdmin, select your database and use Export to download a .sql file.
• Keep both files on your computer or in cloud storage, named with the date.

Our website move checklist explains these backup steps in more detail. It takes a few minutes and means you are never stuck waiting for the next weekly backup.

A few habits that make restores easier

• Note the date and time whenever you make a big change to your site, so you know which restore point to pick if it goes wrong.
• Remove plugins and themes you do not use. The less you have installed, the less can break.
• Keep mailboxes tidy, so email restores are smaller and simpler.
• If your site and mailboxes outgrow your plan's storage, raise a support ticket to upgrade to Growth or Pro.

Pick a plan, then pay

Every CheapHostIndia plan includes cPanel, free SSL, unmetered bandwidth and automated weekly JetBackup backups. Starter is ₹49/month for 1 site, 5 GB and 1 mailbox. Growth is ₹69/month for 5 sites, 20 GB and 5 mailboxes. Pro is ₹99/month for unlimited sites, 50 GB and unlimited mailboxes. Yearly is 10 times monthly. Compare them on our pricing page, pay, and your account is created automatically, with login details emailed to you.