Categories
Web Hosting WordPress WP Engine

WP Engine Backups: How to Create, Restore, and Download a Backup

WP Engine keeps 30 days of daily backups. Here is how to make a manual backup, restore one, download a ZIP, and do a database-only restore when you need it.

Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you sign up through them I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Backups are the feature you ignore until the day you need one in a hurry. On WP Engine they are automatic, but there are a few details worth knowing before something breaks: what a restore actually overwrites, how to grab only the database, and how long a download link sticks around.

How WP Engine backups work

  • Automatic: WP Engine takes a daily backup checkpoint of every environment.
  • Retention: backups are kept for 30 days.
  • Manual: you can create a backup any time from the User Portal. Do this before every plugin update, theme change, or launch.
  • Per environment: production, staging, and development each have their own backup list.
  • Exclusions: cache folders, logs, and old backup files are left out.

One rule trips people up: only one backup, restore, or copy can run on an environment at a time. If a button is greyed out, something else is still running.

How to create a manual backup

  1. Log in to the User Portal and open Sites.
  2. Select the environment (production, staging, or development).
  3. Open Backups. You may need to expand Manage in the left menu.
  4. Click Create backup and type a description you will recognize later, like “before WooCommerce 9 update”.
  5. Add a notification email if you want to know when it finishes, then click Create.

The description matters more than it seems. Thirty daily checkpoints all look the same in a list, so a named manual backup is the one you will reach for first.

How to restore a backup

  1. Go to Sites, pick the environment, and open Backups.
  2. Find the backup, click the three-dot menu, and choose Restore.
  3. Decide whether to include the database.
  4. Click Restore.

A restore can take a few minutes or a few hours depending on site size. It is destructive: files that were not in the backup get removed. If you added uploads after the backup was taken, download them first.

Restoring only the database or one folder

The portal restore is all or nothing for files. For anything more surgical you work from a downloaded ZIP:

  • Database only: download the backup, unzip it, and find wp-content/mysql.sql. Drop the current tables in phpMyAdmin (or over SSH), import the file, then purge the cache.
  • One folder: download and unzip the backup, then upload the folder over SFTP or SSH. Reset file permissions and clear the cache.

WP Engine does not support restoring individual database tables. If you only need one table, import the full dump into a local site (I use Local for this) and copy the rows across.

How to download a backup

  1. On the Backups page, open the three-dot menu next to a backup.
  2. Choose Prepare ZIP.
  3. Pick a full backup or a partial one: database, themes, plugins, media uploads, or other files.
  4. When the ZIP is ready, click Download ZIP.

Prepared ZIPs stay available for 7 days. WP Engine does not push backups to outside storage on a schedule, so if you want an off-host copy, download one now and then or use a plugin that sends backups to S3 or similar.

Using a backup to copy between environments

You can push a backup to another environment with Copy Environment and the “Push to” option. This is the normal way to move a tested staging site to production, or to pull production down to staging before you start work.

My backup habits on WP Engine

  • Manual backup before every update day, even with automatic updates on.
  • Named backup right before a launch, alongside the Go Live Checklist.
  • A downloaded database dump once a month for anything that sells online.
  • Check that notification emails are not landing in spam. They often do.

Not on WP Engine yet? Every plan includes daily backups with 30-day retention, one-click restores, and staging environments.

See WP Engine plans

FAQ

How long does WP Engine keep backups?

WP Engine keeps 30 days of backups. Daily checkpoints run automatically, and you can create manual backups whenever you want.

Can I restore just the database on WP Engine?

Not from the restore button. Download the backup ZIP, take the mysql.sql file from wp-content, and import it through phpMyAdmin or SSH after dropping the current tables.

How long are backup downloads available?

A prepared ZIP is available for 7 days, then it expires and you have to prepare it again.

Related

Tell me why I'm wrong...