How to Download the Backup of Your Application

This article will instruct you on how to download the backups of the application(s) to your local computer.

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Written by Cloudways Product
Updated over a week ago

Table of Contents

This article will instruct you on how to download the backups (web files and database) of the application(s) from the local backups directory of the web application(s) to your local computer. Local backups are also known as on-site backups.

How to Download the Backup of Your Application

Here are a few simple steps to download the backups to your local computer.

Step# 1

First, you need to enable the Local Backups functionality from the Cloudways Platform, so log in to your Cloudways Platform and click on the Servers tab from the top menu bar and select your target server.

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Step# 2

Click on the Backups option from the left menu bar first.

  1. Toggle on the Local Backups. Activating this option will create a local copy of an application backup (web files and database) in the local_backups directory of your target application deployed on the Cloudways server.

  2. Then, hit Save Changes.

  3. [Optional] Click on Take Backup Now if you want to have a local backup available immediately. Otherwise, local backups will be created at the same time and frequency as the standard automated backups.

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Step# 3

Now, you need to connect to your server via SFTP so that you can download the backup file from the server to the local computer.

Tip

If you would like to know what is SFTP and why it is used, then Click Here to find out. In this example, we are using Master Credentials to access the server remotely.

You will see a screen like this after a successful connection with the server via SFTP.

Then, go to the following path and drag and drop your backup file from the server to your local computer.

/applications/<your_application_name>/local_backups

Tip

Your application's name is available under the application settings.

Only the last backup will be available locally. For example, if you took a backup at 4:00 PM and then again at 4:35 PM, only the 4:35 PM backup will be available for download. The off-site backup feature will continue to work as usual at the set frequency and instructions.

How to Remove the Local Backups

If you would like to remove local backups, then you can click on the trash, as shown below.

Important

This is just the on-site backup stored on the server. Your automated off-site backups will remain unaffected, as well as the regularly scheduled backups you have configured.

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That’s it! We hope this article was helpful. If you need any help, then feel free to search your query on Cloudways Support Center or contact us via chat (Need a Hand > Send us a Message). Alternatively, you can also create a support ticket.

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