Download a full copy of your website

Definitions

To download a full copy of your website, you will need to take a copy of your website files and website database.

Before you start

✅ All your website files are located in your file manager and your database in phpMyAdmin.

⚠️ Depending on the size of your website, you can download your website files using your file manager or SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol).

❌ If you use the Kopage website builder, you cannot download a copy of your website files and database as website builder software is proprietary.

ℹ️ If you get stuck during this process, consulting with a website developer is highly recommended

Download your website files

File manager method

The file manager method only works if your website size is relatively small. If you get an error using the file manager method, use the SFTP method instead.

1. Log in to your hosting control panel

2. Click on the File Manager button

3. Double-click the domains folder

4. Find your website folder and double-click it

5. Inside your website folder, double click the public_html folder

6. In your public_html folder, click the box to the left of the Name column to select all folders and files

7. Do a right-click and select Add to Archive from the dropdown

8. On the Compressed Files popup, change the name to backup-files

9. On the Compressed Files popup, click the down arrow ▼ on the Type field

10. Select zip from the Type dropdown

11. Click the Compress button and let the compression run

12. Once the process completes, you will see a Files Compressed Success message at the bottom right of the screen

🚨 IMPORTANT: If you get an error at this step, it means your website is too large to compress via the file manager. Stop here, and use the steps under the SFTP method further below instead.

13. Return to the Name column at the top, and deselect all of the folders and files by unchecking the Selected box

14. Once all of the folders and files are deselected, find the ZIP folder called backup-files.zip

15. Click to select the backup-files.zip folder

16. Once selected, right-click on the backup-files.zip and click Download from the dropdown

17. Your website files will now download to your computer, normally this will be downloaded directly to your desktop or downloads folder. Make sure to find where it downloads on your computer so you can save the file where you’d like.

18. Once the file is downloaded and saved, return to the public_html folder. Right-click again on the backup-files.zip and select Remove from the dropdown.

19. On the Remove File popup, toggle OFF the To Trash

20. Click the Remove button

SFTP method

You can use this method to download a copy of your website files regardless of the size of your website.

1. On your computer, create a new folder called backup-files on your desktop

2. Open and complete all the steps in this guide: Use SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) to manage your files

3. At this point, you’ve connected to your file manager via SFTP. Now, find the backup-files folder on the side of your session connected to your computer, normally this is the left screen.

4. Now, go to the side of your screen connected to your file manager, and double-click on the domains folder

5. Find your website folder and double click on it

6. Find your public_html folder and double click on it

7. Now, select all of your files inside of the public_html (except for the cgi-bin) and drag them to your backups-file folder on your desktop to start copying them over. Here is an example of the process:

8. Let the SFTP session complete. You’ll know it’s completed when your Queue is empty. Depending on the size of your website and the quality of your internet connection, this could take up to 24 hours to complete.

⚠️ Note: You can continue to use your computer for other tasks while this process runs, but avoid heavy use, and keep your computer active and file transfer protocol application open the entire time.

Download your website database

To download a copy of your website database, use the steps below.

1. Open and complete all of the steps in this guide: Find your WordPress website database name

⚠️ Note: If you have a non-WordPress website, you can use the guide linked above as a general guideline to navigate to the specific configuration file of your website software.

2. Once you’ve located your website database name, take note of it somewhere secure

3. Go to your hosting control panel main page

4. Click on the phpMyAdmin button

5. When phpMyAdmin opens, your databases will be displayed on the left-hand side. If you have multiple databases, they will be listed one after another on this panel. Now, you need to find the database that is an exact match to the database name you found in the step above.

6. Click directly on your database name. In our example, the database name is cloudhelpcenter_66

7. From the top, select the Export button

8. On the next page, make sure the format is set to SQL

9. Click the Export button

10. Your website database will now download to your computer, normally this will be downloaded directly to your desktop or downloads folder. Make sure to find where it downloads on your computer so you can save the file where you’d like.