This tutorial covers how to backup and restore a Joomla website. We will adopt the following outline:
- How to create a full Backup of your Joomla website
- How to Restore a full Backup of a Joomla website
- How to Backup Joomla Database via phpMyAdmin
- How to Backup Joomla Database via cPanel
- How to Restore Joomla Database via cPanel
Further reading:
How to Speed Up Your Joomla Website
How to manually update a Joomla website
How to create a full Backup of your Joomla website
This section of this tutorial will review the process of generating a full backup of your Joomla website and the database it is using. This is a good practice as it will ensure that if something goes wrong with your website, you will have a working copy of it. This way, you can always restore your website to it’s working state.
To create a full Backup of your Joomla website, you need to:
Backup Files
In order to create a backup of the files of your Joomla website, you will have to download the entire Joomla directory on your personal computer. You can do so using your favourite FTP client or directly via the File Manager service within your cPanel account. The choice is entirely yours as the effect would be the same.
Working with FTP
To learn more on how to install a FTP client and access your hosting account via FTP, please visit our step by step FTP tutorials.
It is important to locate the directory that contains all of the files and folders of your Joomla installation. For example, if you are accessing your website via the following link:
http://www.example.com/
where example.com should be the actual domain that you are using on your website, this indicates that the Joomla installation is located directly within the public_html/ directory of your account. However, if you are accessing your website via the following link instead:
http://www.example.com/joomla/
where example.com is your domain name and “joomla” is a subfolder on your account, this will indicate that the Joomla installation is located in a folder, called “joomla30” within the public_html directory of your account.
Once you are sure about the location of your Joomla website on your account, you need to download the whole folder, using your FTP client.
Backup Database
Joomla configuration file
To create a backup of your database, you first need to confirm it's exact name. You can see such information within the configuration file of your Joomla website.
The restore of a full Joomla website backup might be required if something goes wrong with your website and you want to reverse the changes to the last point, when it was fully operational. The full process involves 3 steps.
To restore a full Joomla Backup, you have to:
Step 1: Restore the Files
Step 2: Restore the Database
Step 3: Link the Files and Database
Restore Files
The first step that you need to complete is to upload the backup of your Joomla content on your account. This can be done using your favorite FTP client or directly via the File Manager service within your cPanel account. Choose carefully the directory, where you would like your Joomla website to appear and make sure that you remove any previous content that is located within the same directory.
Working with FTP
To learn more on how to install a FTP client and access your hosting account via FTP, please visit our step by step FTP tutorials.
Restore Database
First you need to create an empty database on your account and user for it. This user must have All Privileges to your database. Log into your cPanel account and navigate to the Databases tab and select MySQL Database Wizard.
Enter the name of your database and click on the ext Step button.
Enter the name of your database user as well as the password for it.
Select All Privileges.
Once you create the new database on your account, you will have to upload the dump backup of your Joomla website. This is achievable via the phpMyAdmin feature within your cPanel account. To access it you need to locate the Databases tab again and then phpMyAdmin.
Select the database that you have just created from the list on the left-side of the screen.
Click on the Import button from the top-menu.
In the File Import section, you need to select the dump backup file of the database that you wish to restore. When you complete that, simply click on the Go button at the bottom of the screen.
Link Files and Database
By completing the steps above, you should have a location on your account, which contains all of the files and folders of your Joomla website. You should also have a database, which contains the backup of your Joomla database. Now, it is time to configure them together.
Joomla configuration file
You need to edit the Joomla! configuration file on your account and correct the details for your database.
Further reading:
A Comprehensive Guide to Joomla Article Creation and Editing
Basic Documentation on Joomla Website Administration
Fixing Problems: Notices, Warnings and Errors on Your Joomla Website
How to Restore a full Backup of a Joomla website
This tutorial will provide detailed information on how to create a dump backup file of your database. This is a good practice and you may consider creating a backup of your Joomla database on a regular basis. This way, if something goes wrong on your website, you will be able to restore it back to a working state.
Joomla configuration file
To create a backup of your database, you first need to confirm it's exact name. You can see such information within the configuration file of your Joomla website.
Now to access the phpMyAdmin service within your cPanel account. It will allow you to review the database set on your website and take a backup of it. To do so, you need to log into your cPanel account. Locate the Databases section and click on the phpMyAdmin service.
Select the database that you wish to create a backup for. It will be located on the left-side of the screen.
Click on the Export button from the top-menu.
In most cases, the Quick Export Method will work just fine. You must also select the format which in this case would be SQL.
Click on the GO button, which will complete the process and export the database backup on your personal computer.
How to Backup Joomla Database via cPanel
This tutorial will review the process of creating a backup of your Joomla database directly via your cPanel account.
Joomla configuration file
To create a backup of your database, you first need to confirm it's exact name. You can see such information within the configuration file of your Joomla website.
Once you get the name of your database, you will have to download it on your personal computer. cPanel offers an automated backup solution and to use it, you need to log into your cPanel account. Then locate the Files tab and then click on the Backups option.
Scroll down to the Download a MySQL Database Backup section. It will display all of the available backups on your account.
Simply click on the database set on your Joomla website, which will allow you to download it on your personal computer. In our case, the database is called example_jla.
How to Restore Joomla Database via phpMyAdmin
This tutorial will provide detailed information on how to restore a backup of your Joomla database via the phpMyAdmin service within your cPanel account. If there is an issue on your website due to recent changes that you have made on it, you can restore an older backup of the database, which will resolve that and get your website fully operational again.
To restore a Database via phpMyAdmin, you will need to:
Step 1: Create a New Database
Step 2: Restore the Database
Step 3: Link the Files and the Database
Create a New Database
First, you will need to create a new database which will be populated with the tables and information from the backed up .sql dump of your initial database.
Create MySQL Database
For more information on how to create a MySQL database and username, please check our cPanel tutorial on How to create MySQL Database.
Restore Database
The next step is to restore the database of your Joomla website via the phpMyAdmin service within your cPanel account. To do so, you need to log into your cPanel account. Then locate the Databases section and click on the phpMyAdmin service.
Select the new database, created in the first step of this tutorial. It will be located on the left-side of the screen. In our case, the database name is example_newdb.
Click on the Import button from the top-menu.
Select the database backup from your personal computer and click on the Go button to import it to the new database.
Upon completion of the restore, you will be presented with a successful message, which informs you on the number of queries that has been executed.
Link the Files and the Database
By completing the steps above, you should have a location on your account, which contains all of the files and folders of your Joomla website. You should also have a database, which contains the backup of your Joomla database. Now, it is time to configure them together.
Joomla configuration file
You need to edit the Joomla! configuration file on your account and correct the details for your database.
How to Restore Joomla Database via cPanel
This tutorial will review the process of restoring a Joomla database using the cPanel backup feature. In order to achieve that, there are two things that you need to make sure of. The backup of your database must be created using the backup feature of cPanel and you need to make sure that a database with the same name is not present on your account.
Warning
If you already have a database on your account, which is using the same name as the one of the database backup, you will first have to remove it from your cPanel account. You can do so via your cPanel ? Databases tab ? MySQL Databases.
To restore the database backup file via cPanel, you need to log into your cPanel account. Then navigate to the Files tab and then Backups.
Locate the Restore a MySQL Database. From there, you will be able to select the backup from your personal computer. When you do so, simply click on the Upload button to initiate the restore.
The next step is to set the new database within the main configuration file of your Joomla installation.
Joomla configuration file
You need to edit the Joomla! configuration file on your account and correct the details for your database.
Joomla Tutorial
Joomla is an open source application, designed as a CMS (Content Management System) platform. However, it provides a much greater functionality and the ability to create community forums, online store, social network or even a blog. There are thousands of components, modules, plugins and templates that you can use to extend the functionality of your website and make it look the way you need for your business.
Joomla also has one of the largest online communities in the world. It is currently counting more than 630,000 registered users and a total of almost 3,000,000 posts. Surely, if you are experiencing any difficulties with the use of Joomla, there is a great chance that you will find what you need in their community forum.
Useful Resources:
Also, one of the greatest advantages of Joomla is that after their 2.5.x release, the upgrade process of the script is automated. This means that you can upgrade to the latest stable version in order to get the latest features of the product automatically and keep your website up to date.
The new Joomla 3.x series provides a wonderful look, easy user-interface, a lot of functionalities, large range of specifically developed and specialized components, modules, plugins and templates. It doesn't matter whether you are a hard-core developer or a beginner in the web development field – Joomla will definitely provide what you need to show your ideas to a wide range of people around the world.
System requirements:
The requirements for the latest release of Joomla 3.x are slightly different from the old releases.
Recommended
- Web server: Apache version 2.x+ (with mod_mysql, mod_xml and mod_zlib), NginX version 1.1 or Microsoft IIS 7
- Software: PHP version 5.4+ (with disabled magic_quotes_gpc)
- Databases: MySQL version 5.1+ (with InnoDB support), MSSQL version 10.50.1600.1+ or PostgreSQL version 8.3.18+
Minimum
- Web server: Apache version 2.x+ (with mod_mysql, mod_xml and mod_zlib), NginX 1.0 or Microsoft IIS 7
- Software: PHP version 5.3.1+ (with disabled magic_quotes_gpc)
- Databases: MySQL version 5.1+ (with InnoDB support) or MSSQL version 10.50.1600.1+ or PostgreSQL version 8.3.18+
