Restoring a backup is not a neutral action. It returns the site to a moment in time, which means everything created since that moment — orders, form entries, comments, content — is gone unless it is preserved separately. Done properly, a restore starts by working out what would be lost and deciding whether that is acceptable. Done carelessly, it solves one problem and creates a worse one.
Before you buy, please do not restore it yourself
This is the one place where acting quickly usually causes the damage.
Host snapshots and one-click restores roll the database back too, which silently discards every order, enquiry and comment received since the snapshot. On a store, that can mean money taken with no order to fulfil.
If the site is broken but online, leave it. A broken site is recoverable. A restore over live data often is not.
Emergency rollback to last known-good backup
Something has gone badly wrong and you want the site back as it was. We restore from the most recent good backup and tell you exactly what the restore point costs you.
- 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 want the site back as it was | This fix covers it |
| One plugin update broke it | Failed update rollback |
| You want it fixed, not reverted | White screen of death, or the matching fix |
| The site was hacked | Security remediation — restore alone is not enough |
| No backup exists anywhere | We check first, and say so honestly |
What you are seeing
- Something has gone wrong badly enough that fixing forward looks slower than going back
- You may have a host backup, a plugin backup, or both, with different dates
- You may not know what would be lost by restoring
- The site may be down entirely, or working but wrong
Common causes
- A fix attempted elsewhere made things worse than the original problem
- A hack or defacement that’s faster to roll back from than to clean forward
- A bulk change — an import, a migration, a mass edit — that cannot easily be undone piece by piece
- An update broke something central enough that no single-component rollback covers it
- Data corruption discovered too late to trace back to one clear cause
What we do
- Establish what backups exist, where, and how recent each one is
- Take a backup of the current broken state before anything else
- Work out exactly what would be lost at each restore point, and tell you
- Restore to a staging environment first and verify it is actually good
- Preserve orders, entries and content created since the restore point where possible
- Push the verified restore live and confirm the site works
What is included
- A working site restored from a verified backup
- A written account of what the restore point cost, agreed with you beforehand
- Data created since the restore point preserved where it could be
- A backup of the broken state, kept for 30 days, in case anything is needed from it
Not included
- Recovering data that no backup contains
- Cleaning a compromise — restoring a hacked site usually restores the hack too
- Setting up an ongoing backup system, which is a separate service
- Design changes or content work
Questions about this fix
How much will I lose?
We tell you before restoring, not after. That is the first step and the reason this is not a one-click job. If the cost is too high we look at fixing forward instead, and often that turns out to be the better option.
My host has a one-click restore. Why not use that?
Because it restores everything, including the database, with no warning about what that discards. On a store taking orders, a snapshot from this morning can mean payments received with no order record. The button is fast and that is exactly the problem.
The site was hacked. Will restoring fix it?
Not on its own. Restoring returns you to a point that was probably already compromised, and even if not, the way in is still open. Restore has a role in recovery but the cleanup and hardening have to happen too.
What if there is no backup at all?
We look properly first — hosts often keep them without telling you, and plugins store them in places people forget. If there is genuinely nothing, we say so before charging you and talk about fixing forward instead.
How do you decide which backup to restore from if there are several?
We look at what each one actually contains, not just its date — a more recent backup is worthless if it's already carrying the same problem. Sometimes the right choice is older than you'd expect.
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.