New to the community? Start here

Had to reinstall WordPress, but want to restore my site

Hi – I had Upfront crash on me a couple days ago, and after some troubleshooting, found that my only obvious solution was to reinstall WordPress with a restore of my site from before the issue occurred. I’ve backed up my entire site in my FTP, and have installed a fresh version of WordPress, as well as reuploaded WPMUDev and my Scribe theme.

My questions is: what files do I need to copy onto this fresh WP install in my FTP? Just the wp-content folder? Any other steps I’m missing?

Wed, 27 Apr 2016 18:17:00
  • Kasia Swiderska
    • Support nomad

    Hello Richard,

    My questions is: what files do I need to copy onto this fresh WP install in my FTP? Just the wp-content folder? Any other steps I’m missing?

    You should copy wp-content and you should also restore database – all Upfront settings and your custom changes are kept in database, also in database is your whole content and plugins settings.

    Wp-content contain files: your images and files you uploaded, your themes and plugin files.

    kind regards,

    Kasia

  • Kasia Swiderska
    • Support nomad

    Hello Richard,

    Did you export your database before installing new WordPress? Or did you used some plugin to backup database?

    I just realize that you wrote that you backuped only your files through the FTP and installed new WP in the same place – did I get this part correctly?

    Or do you still have access to your old files and database where your first WP was installed?

    Importing and exporting database can be done in the PhpMyAdmin panel (you would need to ask your hosting provider what is url of phpmyadmin).

    When you choose database the you will see tabs Import and Export. So in old database you have to export your WP tables and in new database you have to import them (it is possible that you will need to remove tables you already have from fresh installation of the prefix for tables is the same).

    But I think I could give you better advise if you tell me if you installed WP on new place and used new database.

    kind regards,

    Kasia

  • Richard
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    Kasia – thanks so much for your help on this. I just got off the phone with my hosting provider, and they said they successfully restored my database from Monday morning (the same date/time I backed up my FTP files from). That was the morning before the conflict occurred.

    To answer your question: I uninstalled and reinstalled WP in the same location (on my main http://www.howtofailasaleader.com domain) AFTER saving the Monday morning back up of all my WP files in a different folder.

    Currently, I’m still seeing the default Scribe theme on my page. My hosting provider mentioned the database changes could just take a little bit to populate, so I’m hoping that is the case and my site will be back up shortly. However, if I don’t have such luck, I’ll try what you advised about myPHPadmin myself. At this point I’m almost thinking I should just start over, because I could have redone the site by now in the time it’s taken to try and restore it!

    Any other advice you might have would be GREATLY appreciated!

  • Kasia Swiderska
    • Support nomad

    Hello Richard,

    Looks like your site is back from backup – its no longer default theme page. So it was like your hosting provider said – bit more time to populate.

    If you want in future to avoid those situation I suggest using backup plugin – like snapshot https://wpmudev.com/project/snapshot/ – it will allow you to backup your files and database, and restore it without accessing PhpMyAdmin to dump and the importing databases. So it will be easier for you then to get back your site.

    kind regards,

    Kasia