The database of your cPanel contains all of your website's content including pages, posts, and any user data. In a previous tutorial, we covered how to create and manage databases in cPanel. In this guide, we will go through how to restore databases and email backups in your hosting account using the JetBackup feature. If you need to restore more than just databases or email files, this guide explains how to restore full account and file backups via JetBackup for a broader recovery option.
How to download database and email files in jetbackup
- The first step is to log into your cPanel.
- Once you have logged in to cPanel, go to JetBackup.
- Click on the Database Backups icon to restore files or folders on your account.
If your goal is to create a complete backup first, you may want to start with a full account copy. Here’s how to create and download full backups in cPanel before working with individual database or email backups.
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You will see all the databases in the next window.
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Choose the desired restore date.
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After you have picked the restore date, the next step is to click on the Generate Download button. Ensure you proceed with caution to prevent deleting important website files or if you have made any changes in the days between the restore point.
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Click on Add to Download Queue button.
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Once the database backup is initiated, you can view the progress from cPanel's dashboard.
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Wait for the restore job to finish.
Just like in full account backups, you can instruct JetBackup to create a compressed file containing your database to be downloaded to your computer using the Generate Download option. For a full website-focused walkthrough, you can also follow this full website backup step-by-step guide to understand how files, databases, and configurations fit together in a complete backup.
How to download Email Backups
JetBackup makes the process of downloading or restoring copies of your mailbox very easy and straightforward. This comes in handy especially if you are migrating your emails from one server to another. If you ever need to restore the whole website instead of only email or database files, this guide on restoring a full website backup with JetBackup5 in cPanel will be more useful. Follow these steps to restore email backups;
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Log into your cPanel.
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Go to JetBackup and click on the Email Backups icon.
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Choose your desired restore point in the next window containing email addresses.
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Click the Generate Download button. Note that any new email sent or received after the restore date will not be available.
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Click on Add to Queue tab.
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After the email backup is initiated, you can view the progress from the Queue icon.
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Wait for completion.
Ultimately, backing up your website data such as emails and databases beforehand, allows you to avoid the time-consuming process of restoring lost data. While we do incremental backups regularly, storing your own backups is important if you want older versions of your website files, since we only keep the latest two or three backups. If you get you get a failed queue status, you can contact our support team via live chat or send an email to support@hostafrica.com for further assistance. If your hosting account uses DirectAdmin instead of cPanel, the backup process is different. Follow this guide on how to create and restore backups in DirectAdmin so you’re using the right control panel instructions.
