Restore & Migrate

Restore backups, import archives, move to a new host, and migrate sites safely.

Restoring a Backup

Choose a backup from history, select components to restore, and confirm.

Restore from Remote Storage

If a completed backup still lives on a configured remote destination (Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, FTP, SFTP, or a Pro OAuth provider), you can start a restore without downloading every part to your computer first. The plugin retrieves the archives from that provider using your saved credentials, then runs the same restore pipeline as for local backups.

Import Backup

Dashboard → Import Backup uploads an archive from your computer into this site and registers it in Backup History, ready to restore. Single and multi-part (split) archive sets are both supported — select every part of the set. After the import finalizes, start the restore from the imported entry like any other backup.

Make sure upload_max_filesize and post_max_size support your chosen chunk size.

Moving to a New Host or Rebuilding a Site

This is the recovery path when the original site is gone or you are moving it somewhere else: a crashed server, a host migration, or a new domain. The destination does not need any of the old site's data first — a plain WordPress install is enough.

  1. Install WordPress on the new host, then install and activate BackupRidge.
  2. Get the backup archive onto the new site using one of the three routes below.
  3. Restore it from Backup History, then check the site.

Route 1 — upload it in the browser. Use Dashboard → Import Backup and select the archive (all parts, if it is a split set). This is the simplest route and it is the right one whenever the parts fit inside the host's PHP upload limits.

Route 2 — copy the files in over FTP/SFTP, then discover them. Upload the archive parts into wp-content/uploads/backupridge/backups on the new site, then use Discover local backups on the Dashboard. BackupRidge scans that folder, groups the parts back into their original backup, and adds it to Backup History. Use this route for large archives, or when the host's upload limits make a browser upload impractical.

Route 3 — restore straight from the storage the old site used. If the old site uploaded its backups off-site, configure that same destination on the new site under Remote Storage, then use Find backups in this storage to list what is actually there. Where an archive's name matches this site's own naming, click Add to Backup History to add it in one step. Where it doesn't — a different domain, a renamed site, or custom filename settings on the old site — click Adopt from another site… instead; it does the same thing, with an extra confirmation step since the name alone can't vouch for the archive. Either way, the backup lands in Backup History ready to restore, without passing through your computer first. A listed entry that can't be adopted — still uploading, left over from a failed run, or missing parts — isn't a usable restore point regardless of route. If you would rather not reconnect the old storage credentials here, downloading the archive yourself and bringing it in via Route 1 or Route 2 still works.

Changing domain at the same time? Nothing extra is required. The old site's URLs are replaced with the new site's URLs automatically during the restore — see URL Search & Replace below.

Pre-Restore Safety Export (Optional)

Before overwriting the database, you can enable an optional pre-restore database export in the restore dialog (off by default). When enabled, a SQL snapshot is written under your BackupRidge server folder (for example under wp-content/uploads/backupridge/) with a name such as pre-restore-*.sql. It does not appear in Backup History as a normal backup job; it is a safety net if you need to roll back the database step.

Site Migration

Moving a site with a backup archive (free): Back up the source site, download the archive, then bring it into the destination site with Dashboard → Import Backup and restore it. Split archives are supported, and the source site's URLs are replaced automatically during the restore, so this works across domains as well as within one. See Moving to a New Host for the full step-by-step, including the FTP route for large archives.

Receiving a direct push (free): A destination site accepts an incoming migration by generating a one-time key on the Migrate admin page and sharing it with the source site. The key expires after 24 hours and is removed once the migration completes. Receiving is free; the site doing the pushing needs Pro.

Pushing a site (Pro): Pushing a migration directly from one BackupRidge install to another — including staging clones — is a Pro feature and does not require manually moving an archive between sites.

URL Search & Replace

Every restore replaces the backed-up site's URLs with the current site's URLs automatically — you do not need to run a separate tool or plan for it when moving between domains. The replacement is serialized-safe, so serialized option and meta values are rewritten without corrupting their length prefixes.

It covers the site address and home address separately when they differ, rewrites http and https variants of each so mixed-content references are corrected, and extends to BackupRidge's own tables so the plugin's data stays consistent after the move. When the backup's URLs already match the current site, the step is skipped and noted in the job log.