Restoring from a backup puts your site back to exactly how it was at the moment that backup was taken — which is the right fix for accidental data loss, a bad update, or content that needs reverting, but is not, on its own, a cleanup for an active security compromise, since a backup taken before an attacker got in is safe, while one taken after may restore the same vulnerability right along with it.
Confirm which backup, and why, before we restore
If you’re restoring because of a hack or suspected compromise, tell us that specifically rather than just requesting a restore — we need to choose a backup confidently predating the compromise, and a restoration alone won’t close whatever let the attacker in the first time, which needs its own, separate hardening step afterward.
Restore from backup - single site
A restore to a known-good point — and if it's hack-related, a plain note that closing the door is a separate step.
- Full backup taken before we start
- If we can’t fix it, you get your money back
- We never ask for your own password
This or something else?
| You need to restore your site to a previous, known-good state, for a reason other than an active compromise | This fix covers it |
| You’re restoring specifically because of a hack, and want to confirm this closes the security gap too | This fix restores content; closing the actual entry point needs separate hardening — see the caution above |
| You want to first verify a backup can be restored, without committing to an actual restoration yet | Backup restore test & verification report |
| Your backups themselves are failing, so there’s nothing valid to restore from yet | Backup failure diagnosis |
What you are seeing
- Content, orders, or configuration that needs to be reverted to a previous state
- A bad update or change that needs undoing entirely
- Data loss from an accidental deletion or overwrite
- Uncertainty about which specific backup point to restore from
Common causes
- An update or plugin change that broke something, better undone than repaired forward
- Accidental deletion of content, orders, or configuration
- A migration or manual change gone wrong
- The need to revert to a state predating a security compromise, as part of a broader recovery
- A test or staging change applied directly to the live database by mistake
What we do
- Confirm exactly which backup point is the right one to restore from, and why
- Perform the restoration carefully, verifying the process as it happens
- Check the restored site’s content, database, and functionality thoroughly
- Confirm nothing legitimate created after the backup point is unexpectedly lost, where avoidable
- If this restoration follows a security incident, flag clearly that hardening is a separate, necessary next step
- Provide a written summary of what was restored and from which point
What is included
- A careful, verified restoration from your chosen backup point
- Thorough post-restoration testing of content and functionality
- A written summary of what was restored
- The pre-restoration state backed up separately, in case anything needs to be recovered from it
Not included
- Malware removal or forensic cleanup, if the restoration is part of recovering from a hack — that’s separate, specialist work
- Hardening the site against whatever caused the original problem — a distinct, necessary follow-up if this restoration relates to a security incident
- Recovering content created after the restored backup point, which a restoration inherently doesn’t include
- Diagnosing why a backup failed, if that turns out to be the actual issue
Questions about this fix
If my site was hacked, does restoring from a backup fix the hack?
Not on its own — it puts your content back to an earlier state, but if the same vulnerability that let the attacker in the first time is still present, restoring alone doesn't close it, and the same or a similar compromise can happen again.
How do you choose which backup point to restore from if I'm not sure?
We ask what you're trying to undo and roughly when it happened, and work backward from there — for a security concern specifically, we err toward a backup confidently predating any sign of compromise.
Will I lose anything that happened after the backup point?
Yes, by definition — a restoration returns the site to that exact moment, so anything genuinely new since then (an order, a comment, a content edit) won't be part of the restored state unless separately recovered.
What if I don't know exactly when something went wrong?
We can help narrow it down based on what you do know, though pinpointing an exact moment isn't always possible — sometimes the practical choice is the most recent backup before symptoms were first noticed.
Should I get hardening done at the same time as a hack-related restoration?
Strongly worth considering, yes — restoring content without addressing how the compromise happened in the first place leaves the same door open for it to happen again.
Related fixes
If this is the second time this year
A bad update breaking the site is a symptom of updates not being tested first. Care plans run every update on a staging clone before it reaches your live site, which is the actual fix for this happening again.
Your access, your rules
Create a separate admin account for us and delete it when we are done. For anything else, we get in touch and agree a method — never a form field on this site, never by reply to an email.
We back up first, always
Before anything is touched we take a full backup and keep it for 30 days. If a fix goes wrong, we put the site back exactly as it was.
If it is not what you bought
If the problem turns out smaller than what you ordered, we refund the difference. If it is bigger, we stop and send a quote before doing any extra work.
If we cannot fix it
You get back what we received. Diagnosis is on us — you only pay when the problem is actually solved. The payment processor takes its fee before the money reaches us, so we never hold it and it is not ours to return. That is true here as everywhere else.
If it comes back
Reply within seven days of delivery and we put it back on the bench at no cost. The fix is not finished until it holds.
What we are responsible for
If something goes wrong with a fix, our responsibility is limited to what you paid for it. We take a full backup first so mistakes can be undone, and we tell you before doing anything outside what you bought.