How to Quickly Restore a WordPress Backup With UpdraftPlus

Site crashes are a fairly common occurrence. However, if your site was built with WordPress and backed up, it’s easy to get it up and running again. To restore your business website, log in to your WordPress admin dashboard and go to “Settings” from the left-hand vertical menu. From there, select “UpdraftPlus” from the options to launch the Restoration Wizard.

Before you can restore a site, you need to back it up. If you haven’t done so already, learn how to backup a WordPress website.

Here’s more in-depth information on the steps to restore your WordPress website with the UpdraftPlus plugin:

1. Determine the Cause of the Crash

Websites can crash for all sorts of reasons, and often can be fixed without going through the process of restoring your site using a backup. Therefore, you’re going to first need to know what the cause of the crash is. For example, it could be as simple (and temporary) as server maintenance or conflicting plugins. A malicious attack, such as a virus or malware, on the other hand, would require you to take additional steps.

Here are the seven most common reasons for a website to crash:

Expired domain: Check with your web hosting provider or domain name registrar to see whether or not your domain has expired.
Plugin errors: If your site has crashed after installing a new plugin, then try deactivating that plugin. It’s not uncommon for plugins to crash sites, as not all plugins are compatible with one another.
Coding errors: If after writing new code your site goes down, then odds are it’s a coding error. In this case, you may want to restore your website to a recent version or backtrack and remove the recently written code.
A surge in traffic: Even if your web hosting plan includes unlimited bandwidth, that doesn’t mean that your site may not experience downtimes due to surges in traffic. Check with your web host to confirm if this is the cause, and if so, consider scaling up your resources so that your plan has ample resources for your site and its traffic volume.
Web hosting issue: There are a number of web hosting errors that can occur. However, if you’re using a reliable and reputable web hosting provider, the most common reason for downtime is due to server maintenance (and yes, it’s often unannounced).
DNS errors: An error with your DNS records may be a sign of an attack. If you’re not sure how to check this, reach out to your web hosting provider’s support team for help.
Malicious attacks: Hackers are constantly looking for sites to attack—especially if your site has valuable, sensitive information. If your site has crashed due to an attack, restore your site and deploy web security measures to help prevent it from happening again.

If you believe your site requires a restore, continue to the next step.

2. Log In to WordPress & Navigate to Your Backup Plugin

Log in to your WordPress account. From the admin dashboard, find and select “Settings” from the vertical left-hand menu. A menu will appear after clicking the “Settings” tab. Find and select “UpdraftPlus” from the options to open the plugin.

Find UpdraftPlus in WordPress settings menu

3. Select a Backup to Restore

Find and click on the “Existing Backups” tab from the horizontal menu on the main screen. This will show you a list of your most recent backups.

Existing backups in UpdraftPlus to restore a WordPress site

From the list of existing backups, find the backup that you would like to restore—this will likely be the most recent backup. Once you have decided which backup to restore, click the blue “Restore” button to launch the restoration wizard.

Restore WordPress site with UpdraftPlus

4. Complete Restoration Wizard

Next, a pop-up will appear. Click the blue “Restore” button, then choose which site elements you would like to restore, including “Plugins,” “Themes,” “Uploads,” “Others,” and “Database.” If you would like to complete a full restoration, keep all options selected.

There are some instances when you would not want to restore all site elements. For example, if your site suffers from corrupt plugins, you would only want to select “Plugins” from the list available on this page. If you are not sure which specific elements to restore, contact your host to determine which site files have been corrupted or deleted.

Once you have chosen all appropriate site elements for restoration, click the “Restore” button in the bottom right-hand side of the pop-up box.

Select elements to back up with UpdraftPlus

You will then see a screen that shows each element of your site being prepared for restoration, including the progress of that preparation. Click the “Restore” button in the bottom right at any time to continue the restoration process; if you do so before preparation is finished, the wizard will finish preparing files, then move to the next screen.

UpdraftPlus restore backup WordPress website

UpdraftPlus restore WordPress website

Following file preparation, another pop-up screen will appear with possible file warnings. Review the warnings that are listed, if any. If there are no warnings, click the “Restore” button in the bottom right to complete the restoration process.

If you do have a warning, fix the elements noted in the warning before completing the restoration process. If you have questions about how to resolve a warning, visit the UpdraftPlus support page.

Confirm WordPress restore on UpdraftPlus

Once the process has completed, a screen will pop up confirming that your restoration has been completed. If you have any issues with the restoration and your site fails to restore successfully, you can still back up your site manually. Refer to the UpdraftPlus help forum to learn how to complete a manual backup.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the best WordPress backup plugins?

There are a number of great backup plugins, but those that are consistently deemed the best WordPress backup plugins are UpdraftPlus, Duplicator, BackWPup, VaultPress by Jetpack, and WP Time Capsule. Each backup plugin will work a bit differently, so while they’re all top choices, which is best for you will depend on your individual needs. Get the complete breakdown of the best WordPress backup plugins to determine which is the ideal solution for you.

Which web hosting providers are the most secure?

Generally, all of the top web hosting providers are going to provide high-quality and secure hosting. However, every host offers different hosting plans, each with varying degrees of web security (e.g., shared vs dedicated) and security features (e.g., automatic daily backups). These include top-rated providers such as SiteGround, DreamHost, Inmotion, and Bluehost. Learn more about the best web hosting companies.

How do I build a secure WordPress website?

Building a secure WordPress website is no easy feat. However, there are a number of easy things you can do to help protect your site, the information it collects, your revenue, and your reputation. For example, start with a secure web host and install an SSL certificate. In addition, always use the latest version of WordPress, install a reliable and comprehensive security plugin, limit login attempts, change your login URL, and disable file editing and PHP file execution.

New to WordPress? Learn more about how to make a WordPress website.

Bottom Line

For as easy as it is to restore a crashed site using a backup from UpdraftPlus, that doesn’t mean it’s something you want to have to do again. While some crashes are a simple fix, others can be very damaging to a business. After restoring your WordPress website, be sure to take additional safety precautions to help avoid future crashes or malicious attacks.