DirectAdmin tutorials
DirectAdmin Backup and Restore: How to Back Up Your Website and Bring It Back
By ProWebHosting team. Published 13 September 2026. 8 min read.
To back up your site in DirectAdmin, open Advanced Features, click Create/Restore Backups, tick the items you want (website files, email, FTP accounts, databases) and create the backup. The .tar.gz file lands in the backups folder of your account, where you can download it with File Manager. To restore, return to the same page, pick the file and choose what to bring back.
A backup is the difference between a bad afternoon and a lost business. A broken plugin update, a hacked theme, a deleted folder or a wrong click in phpMyAdmin can all be undone in minutes if you have a recent copy of the account. DirectAdmin includes a backup tool that does not need any technical setup, and this guide shows you how to use it well.
What a DirectAdmin backup contains
The user-level backup in DirectAdmin packages everything you control into one compressed .tar.gz archive. You choose which parts to include each time you run it. The full list of options is below, grouped the way DirectAdmin presents them.
| Group | Option | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Site Backup | Website Data | The domains folder for every domain on the account: public_html, private_html and everything in them |
| Site Backup | Subdomains Lists | The subdomain configuration for each domain |
| E-mail Accounts List for all domains | The mailbox names, passwords and quotas | |
| E-mail Data | The actual messages: inbox, IMAP folders and webmail data | |
| E-mail Settings, Forwarders, Autoresponders, Vacation Messages | Filters, catch-all, forwarding rules and auto-replies | |
| FTP | FTP Accounts and FTP Settings | Extra FTP logins and their folder restrictions |
| Database | Database Settings and Database Data | Database users, permissions and the full contents of each MySQL database |
| Trash | Deleted Trash Data | Files sitting in the File Manager trash |
For a WordPress site the two items that matter most are Website Data and Database Data. Together they hold every page, image, theme, plugin, user and setting. Include the E-mail groups if you keep mail on the server; skip E-mail Data when mailboxes are large and you only need a quick copy of the website.
Create a backup
Back up your account from DirectAdmin
- 1
Open Create/Restore Backups
Log in to DirectAdmin, expand Advanced Features in the left menu and click Create/Restore Backups.
- 2
Tick what to include
Select the groups from the table above. Choosing everything is fine for a monthly full copy; choose only Website Data and Database Data for a quick pre-update snapshot.
- 3
Start the backup
Submit the form. DirectAdmin queues the job and runs it in the background, so you can close the page.
- 4
Wait for the message
When the job finishes, a notification arrives in the DirectAdmin message system. Small sites finish in under a minute; accounts with large mailboxes take longer.
- 5
Find the file
The archive is saved in the backups folder of your home directory, named in the pattern backup-Month-Day-Year-N.tar.gz. It also appears in the list at the bottom of the Create/Restore Backups page.
Leave the filename as it is, since DirectAdmin relies on it when restoring. If you take two backups on the same day, the trailing number is the only difference between them, so write down which one was taken before a change and which after.
Download the backup to your computer
A backup that lives only on the hosting server protects you from your own mistakes, but not from losing the account or the server. Move a copy off the server every time. Open File Manager under System Info & Files, go to the backups folder, right-click the archive and download it.
For files of several gigabytes, an FTP client is more reliable than the browser because it can resume if the connection drops. Our File Manager and FTP guide covers connecting with FileZilla. Once downloaded, keep the file in at least two places, for example a laptop and a cloud drive, and delete the copy in the backups folder to free up storage.
One quick check after every download: compare the file size on your computer with the size shown in File Manager. A mismatch means the transfer was cut short and the archive will not extract when you need it.
Restore from a backup
Restoring puts the selected items back exactly as they were when the backup was made. Anything changed since then is overwritten, so before restoring a live site, take a fresh backup first. That way you can undo the restore if you picked the wrong file.
Restore all or part of your account
- 1
Put the archive in the backups folder
If the file is still on the server, skip this step. Otherwise upload it to the backups folder in your home directory using File Manager or FTP. Do not rename it.
- 2
Open Create/Restore Backups
Go to Advanced Features, Create/Restore Backups, and find the restore section, which lists every archive in the backups folder.
- 3
Pick the file and the items
Select the archive, then tick only what you need. To undo a broken plugin update, Website Data and Database Data are enough; leave E-mail Data unticked so no recent mail is lost.
- 4
Run the restore
Submit the form. The job runs in the background and a message confirms when it is done.
- 5
Check the site
Open the website and the WordPress admin. If the restore replaced the database, log in with the password that was in use on the backup date.
Restoring only the database is a common and useful case. Because the backup contains a standard MySQL dump, you can also extract the .tar.gz on your computer and import a single table through phpMyAdmin if you need something more surgical. Our MySQL and phpMyAdmin guide shows how.
A backup routine that takes ten minutes a month
DirectAdmin does not schedule user backups from this page, so the routine has to be yours. The good news is that it is short. The schedule below suits most small business sites; a busy store or a site that publishes daily should shorten each interval.
| When | What to back up | Where to keep it |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly, same date each month | Everything | Download, store on a laptop and a cloud drive, delete from server |
| Before any WordPress, theme or plugin update | Website Data and Database Data | Keep on the server until the update is confirmed working, then delete |
| Before a migration, redesign or domain change | Everything | Download and keep until well after the change |
| Twice a year | Test one downloaded backup | Extract it locally and open a file or two to confirm it is readable |
Keep the last three monthly archives and delete older ones unless a particular version matters, such as the state of the site before a redesign. Name the folders on your computer by date so the right file is easy to find during an emergency.
Things to know before you rely on it
- The DirectAdmin backup is yours to run and keep. Treat it as your own copy rather than something someone else will produce for you, and do not assume any other backup exists unless you have confirmed it.
- A restore overwrites files with the same names but does not delete files that were added after the backup was taken. A hacked site may need the public_html folder cleared first, then restored.
- Email data is only restored if it was included when the backup was created. Check the tick boxes both times.
- Very large mailboxes make backups slow and archives huge. Ask staff to archive old mail locally, or exclude E-mail Data from the monthly copy and back it up separately.
- Backup files in the backups folder are readable only by your account, but downloading and deleting them promptly is still the safer habit.
Need hosting that just works?
Unsure whether your last backup is complete? Send us a WhatsApp message and we will check the archive with you during office hours.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the backup option in DirectAdmin?
Expand Advanced Features in the left menu and click Create/Restore Backups. The same page creates new backups and lists existing archives for restoring.
What does a DirectAdmin backup include?
Whatever you tick when creating it: website files for all domains, subdomain lists, email accounts and messages, email settings and forwarders, FTP accounts, database settings and data, and trash. A full backup with every option ticked is a complete copy of your account.
Where does DirectAdmin save my backup file?
In the backups folder of your home directory, as a compressed archive named like backup-Sep-13-2026-1.tar.gz. Download it through File Manager or FTP and then delete the server copy to save storage.
Can I restore just the database from a DirectAdmin backup?
Yes. On the Create/Restore Backups page, select the archive and tick only Database Data before running the restore. Website files and email stay untouched.
Can DirectAdmin run my backups automatically?
The Create/Restore Backups page has no schedule option, so run it by hand at least monthly and before every major update. A WordPress backup plugin can add automatic copies of the site to a cloud drive in between.
Will restoring a backup delete recent emails?
Only if you tick E-mail Data when restoring. Leave it unticked to restore the website and database without touching mailboxes.
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