Backups on Flywheel

Flywheel automatically backs up your WordPress site every night. If something goes wrong (a bad plugin update, accidental content deletion, a hack), you can restore your site to a previous state quickly and easily.

How Flywheel backups work

Flywheel runs automatic backups every night. Each backup captures:

Your site's own files: the wp-content folder (your theme, plugins and media uploads) and anything else unique to your site. Flywheel says its backups leave out the default WordPress files.
Your WordPress database: all your content, settings, users, and page data.

Flywheel stores backups on different servers from your live site. It keeps each backup for 30 days, then deletes it permanently. To keep a backup for longer, download a copy.

Viewing your backup history

Log in to Flywheel and open your site dashboard.

Click the Backups tab on your site's dashboard.

View the list of backups. You'll see the backups from the last 30 days, with details about each one and any description added when it was made.

Restoring a backup

Restoring overwrites your current site

Restoring a backup replaces your current live site with the backed-up version. Any changes made after the backup was taken will be lost. A restore can't be cancelled once it starts, and your site is offline while it runs. If in doubt, contact us before restoring.

A restore puts back the whole backup copy, so anything that happened after it goes with it: the problem, which is the point, and your own work in between, which is the cost. That is why we often try a more targeted fix first, and why we tell you the cutoff date before we restore.

Read this as text

Take an example. A backup is taken two days ago. Yesterday you publish a blog post. Today something goes wrong with the site.

A full restore is not always the first response to that. We often try a more targeted fix first, for smaller problems, like a single deleted page or a broken plugin, that may be all it takes. A restore is the right call when a problem is serious enough to warrant it: an update that broke the site and cannot quickly be undone, content deleted at scale, or a hack.

A restore returns your site to the backup copy, so everything after the backup was taken is undone: today’s problem, which is the reason a restore fixes anything, and yesterday’s blog post, which is what it costs. That post is what you re-add afterwards, and we tell you the cutoff date before we start so you know what there is to re-add.

Open the Backups tab in your Flywheel site dashboard.

Find the backup you want to restore. Choose the most recent one before the problem occurred.

Click Restore next to that backup.

Confirm the restore. Flywheel asks you to confirm, since this overwrites the current site. Tick the confirmation box, type your Flywheel password, then click Restore backup.

Wait for the restore to complete. How long it takes depends on the size of your site. Larger sites take longer. Visitors may see an error page until it finishes.

Check your site. Visit your live site in a fresh browser tab to verify it's working correctly.

Creating a manual backup

Before making significant changes (like a large update), it's good practice to take a manual backup:

Open the Backups tab in your site dashboard.

Click Create new backup. Add a short description when asked (it helps you tell backups apart later), then click Create Backup.

Wait for it to complete. A progress bar shows how it's going. When it's done, the new backup appears in your backup list.

Downloading a backup

You can download any backup in your list. This is useful if you want to keep a local copy or move your site to another host. On the Backups tab, hover over (or tap) the three-dot menu next to the backup and choose the download option. Flywheel then emails a download link to the address in your Flywheel profile. A small site's backup usually arrives within a few minutes. Larger sites take longer.

Common questions

How far back do backups go?

Flywheel keeps each nightly backup for 30 days, then deletes it permanently. The 30 days is the same on every plan.

Are backups included on all Flywheel plans?

Yes. Nightly automatic backups are included on all Flywheel plans. They cover your live site only: Flywheel doesn't back up staging sites.

Do I need to do anything to enable backups?

No. Flywheel's automatic backups run without any configuration. They're on by default.

What if I need a backup from more than 30 days ago?

Flywheel deletes backups after 30 days, so a backup that old won't exist. This is one reason we recommend downloading occasional manual backups for important milestones (like just before a major redesign).

Learn more

Flywheel help: Backups on Flywheelgetflywheel.com