A restore is the difference between “bad hour” and “bad month”. Here’s how to do it calmly, and what your options are if there’s no backup to restore.
Before you restore anything
Take a backup of the current broken state first. It sounds absurd, but if the restore goes wrong or you later need something created after the backup point (an order, a form entry), you’ll be glad you did.
Restoring with a backup plugin
If you have UpdraftPlus, Duplicator or similar: go to the plugin’s page in wp-admin, find your list of backup points, and click restore on the newest one from before the problem. You’ll usually choose what to restore — files, database, or both. If the site is too broken to reach wp-admin, most backup plugins document a manual restore via FTP; it’s slower but well-trodden.
Restoring from a hosting backup
Many hosts take automatic snapshots. Look for “Backups”, “JetBackup” or “Restore points” in your control panel. Host restores are simple but blunt — typically the whole account rolls back, so anything changed since the snapshot (new orders, emails on the same account) rolls back too. Check what’s included before you click.
Partial restores
Deleted one page? Don’t roll back the whole site. Restore the backup to a temporary/staging location, copy out the missing piece, and paste it into the live site. First check the Trash in wp-admin — deleted pages sit there for 30 days.
No backup at all?
- Ask your host anyway — many keep internal snapshots even if you never configured backups.
- Google’s cache and the Wayback Machine can recover your written content and images for manual rebuilding.
- Your own devices — old design files, exported product lists, email attachments. Painful, but sites have been rebuilt from less.
Never be here again
Daily, automatic, stored off the server, tested occasionally. That’s the standard. Every WP Hero plan includes daily backups and one restore per month — the restore that would have saved you today.