Website Backups

Losing your website data is no joke, so it pays to have contingency plans in place to get your website back if the worst happens. To help you keep your website safe, Publii includes a backup and restore feature that lets you save a copy of a Publii website into a .tar archive, ready to be loaded back up later if needed.

Backing up your website

To create a backup of your website, click on the Tools option in the main menu to view the available tools in Publii, then click on Backups to go to the backups screen. Here you will see a list of available backups, which will of course be empty if you've yet to create your first.

To make a new backup of your current website, click Create backup. A pop-up will open allowing you to enter a name for your backup; this defaults to the site's name followed by the date and time. You can change it using letters A–Z, numbers, hyphens and underscores, then click Create backup to continue. Once the process finishes, your new backup will be added to the list. Larger websites may take longer to back up.

Publii's backup manager showing saved backups with their file sizes, creation dates and Restore buttons — Create backups and manage existing copies of your website from the Backups screen.

Click a backup's filename to locate it on your computer. You can change where new backups are stored under App settings → Files location → Backup location. Keep a copy on another device or in cloud storage so you can still recover your website if your computer or drive fails.

Restoring your site

To restore an existing backup of your site, click on Tools in the main menu, then click on Backups to open the backups screen. In the list of available backups, find the one you wish to use and click the Restore button to the right of the listing. A pop-up will appear asking for confirmation and showing the name of the selected backup.

Double-check that you have selected the correct backup, as restoring it will replace your local website with the saved version. Local changes made since that backup will be lost. If you want to keep the current version, create a new backup before continuing. Once ready, click Restore backup; a confirmation message will appear once the website is restored.

Restoring a backup does not change the website published on your server. Preview the restored site, then click Sync your website when you're ready to publish it.

Restoring backups on a new Publii installation

If you've switched to a new computer and want to restore your site backup to a new Publii installation, you can do so on the website creation screen. When you have no websites yet, Publii displays this screen so you can create your first site. Instead of filling in the website name and other details, click on the Install from backup tab at the top:

Select Install from backup, then drop your backup file into the box or click Choose file.

A box will appear where you can drag and drop your .tar backup file, or click on Choose file to select it from your computer. Once Publii has checked the file, a dialogue box will open where you can enter the site name; this will default to the original site name, but you can change it if you wish. Next, click Create website to restore your site. Once the process is finished, the restored website will automatically be opened, ready to modify.

If you wish to restore a site from a backup into an existing Publii installation, click the current site's logo at the top of the left sidebar to open the website selector, then click Add new website. Select the Install from backup tab and follow the same steps.

If the chosen name matches an existing website, Publii will ask whether you want to replace it or choose another name. Choose another name if you want to keep both versions.

On a new computer, reinstall any plugins your site uses and check your deployment credentials before syncing.