It’s not a bad idea learning how to backup your website using cPanel. It can be a maze of features and functions, but it can be beneficial for managing your website. Unfortunately, if you don’t know what to do, then it can be quite confusing. In this user-friendly guide you will learn how to create and download backups of your websites using cPanel.
Step #1 – Login to cPanel
The first step is to login to cPanel. If you’re not sure how to login to cPanel, then quickly read this guide about accessing cPanel. Make sure you have your username, password and the correct login URL.
Step #2 – Find the Backups Section
Once you’ve logged into cPanel, you will need to find the “Backups” section. The quickest and easiest way to find it is by typing “Backup” in the search box at the top. Alternatively, you could use CTRL+F on Windows or CMD+F on Macintosh. When you’ve found the section, click on its icon and it should take you to a new page.
Step #3 – Generate a New Backup
This step is not necessarily required, but if there isn’t a backup already, then you will need to generate one. Alternatively, you can opt to choose to download a backup that the server automatically took. If you wish to do that, please skip this step and move onto #4.
Firstly, you will need to click on the button “Download a Full Website Backup”. This should load a new page like the image below.
After setting the backup destination to “Home Directory”, click on the “Generate Backup” button. This will generate a backup for your account, but please wait a few minutes for it to finish. Please keep in mind that bigger websites will take longer to generate a backup.
Step #4 – Download your Backup
There are two ways to download a backup;
– If you did Step #3, you can download your newly generated backup by clicking on “Download a Full Website Backup”. Once the page loads, you should see at the top a section called “Backups Available for Download”. Under that heading, you should see a blue link to your backup. Click on the link to start downloading the backup to your device.
– If you skipped Step #3, you can download a backup the server automatically took. The server does take at least one backup every 48 hours. To download this backup, you should see a heading “Account Backups”. Select a backup from that list then click on the blue “Download” button. This will start the download of the backup to your device.
Warning
When you generate a backup, you should make sure that there’s enough space on your account. If there isn’t, this could lead to email deliverability problems. If you’re unsure, drop an email to our support team (support@peakplex.com).
Conclusion
So, now you have learnt something new about cPanel. Taking your own backups guarantees a copy of your website is available to you, however, we automatically take backups of all accounts every 48 hours.
If you have any questions or problems, you can ask our support team who are ready to help you.