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How to restore a site from a CloudPanel backup (files and database)

A backup is only worth something if you can restore it. This guide walks through restoring a CloudPanel site, step by step: getting the backup file, putting the files back and importing the database. If your backups aren't being created at all, start with CloudPanel backups not running.

What a CloudPanel backup contains
CloudPanel's remote backups (set up under Admin Area > Backups) contain each site's vhost and its entire home directory, except the

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.ssh

,

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logs

and

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tmp

folders. They're stored with your chosen provider (S3, Wasabi, DigitalOcean Spaces, Dropbox, Google Drive, Hetzner Storage Box, SFTP or a custom Rclone remote).

Before you start

• Back up the current state first, even if it's broken. If the restore goes wrong, you can return to where you started:
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  tar -czf /root/before-restore-$(date +%F).tar.gz /home/siteuser/htdocs/example.com
• Put the site into maintenance mode or warn visitors if it's live.
  
• Know the database name and user (site > Databases).
  

Step 1: Get the backup file
Download the backup for the right date from your storage provider (for example the Dropbox

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Apps/CloudPanel/

folder, your S3 bucket, or your SFTP server). You need the site's

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backup.tar

file.

Step 2: Upload it to the site's tmp folder

• Under 2 GB: open the site's File Manager, go to the
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  tmp
  folder and upload
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  backup.tar
  .
  
• Over 2 GB: upload it with SFTP as the site user into
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  ~/tmp/
  . See CloudPanel SSH, SFTP, FTP and File Manager.
  

Step 3: Extract it as the site user
Log in over SSH as the site user (not root, so file ownership stays correct):

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cd ~/tmp tar xf backup.tar ls -la

Look around the extracted folders until you find the site files (

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htdocs/example.com

) and any database dump files (

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*.sql

or

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*.sql.gz

).

Step 4: Restore the files
You can restore everything, or just what you need (for example one deleted folder). To replace the whole site:

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rsync -a --delete ~/tmp/PATH-TO/htdocs/example.com/ ~/htdocs/example.com/

Replace

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PATH-TO

with the path you found in Step 3. The trailing slashes matter. Leave out

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--delete

if you only want to add back missing files without removing newer ones.

Step 5: Restore the database
If you found a database dump, import it as root with clpctl:

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clpctl db:import --databaseName=my_database --file=/home/siteuser/tmp/PATH-TO/my_database.sql.gz

Both

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.sql

and

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.sql.gz

work. The import replaces the current tables with the ones from the backup.

No dump in the backup? Look for database dumps elsewhere in the site user's home folder (

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ls -R ~ | grep -E '\.sql(\.gz)?$'

). If there are none, start making them: a nightly cron job (the site user can run it) with

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clpctl db:export --databaseName=my_database --file=/home/siteuser/db-backups/my_database.sql.gz

keeps a fresh dump in the site's home folder, so every future backup includes your database. See clpctl cheat sheet.

Step 6: Check and clean up

• Fix ownership in case anything was copied as root:
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  chown -R siteuser:siteuser /home/siteuser/htdocs/example.com
• Purge the Varnish cache for the site.
  
• Test the home page, a login, a form and the admin area.
  
• Delete the extracted files and backup.tar from
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  ~/tmp
  . They take space and contain your database.
  

Test restores before you need them
The best time to learn this is on a quiet day. Restore a recent backup to a test subdomain once a month. If it works there, it'll work when it matters.

Sources: CloudPanel: remote backups · CloudPanel: clpctl db:import


More CloudPanel troubleshooting

• Installation failed: common install errors
  
• Can't log in: port 8443, password and 2FA
  
• Site shows 403 Forbidden or 404
  
• Too many redirects or mixed content after SSL
  
• PHP extension missing / enable ionCube
  
• WordPress asks for FTP or can't update plugins
  
• Varnish showing old pages or breaking logins
  
• SSH or SFTP login fails
  
• Node.js app shows 502 or keeps restarting
  
• Site hacked: find malware and clean up
  
• clpctl errors: not found, wrong user, quoting
  

Applies to CloudPanel v2 on Ubuntu and Debian, October 2026. In the commands, replace

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example.com

with your domain and

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siteuser

with your site's user name (shown on the site's Settings page).