Restoring Your Database From Backup

Using phpMyAdmin

phpMyAdmin is a program used to manipulate databases remotely through a web interface. A good hosting package will have this included. For information on backing up your WordPress database, see Backing Up Your Database.

Information here has been tested using phpMyAdmin 4.0.5 running on Unix.

The following instructions will replace your current database with the backup, reverting your database to the state it was in when you backed up.

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Restore Process

Using phpMyAdmin, follow the steps below to restore a MySQL/MariaDB database.

1. Login to phpMyAdmin.
2. Click “Databases” and select the database that you will be importing your data into.
3. You will then see either a list of tables already inside that database or a screen that says no tables exist. This depends on your setup.
4. Across the top of the screen will be a row of tabs. Click the Import tab.
5. On the next screen will be a location of text file box, and next to that a button named Browse.
6. Click Browse. Locate the backup file stored on your computer.
7. Make sure SQL is selected in the Format drop-down menu.
8. Click the Go button.

Now grab a coffee. This bit takes a while. Eventually you will see a success screen.

If you get an error message, your best bet is to post to the WordPress support forums to get help.

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Using MySQL/MariaDB Commands

The restore process consists of unarchiving your archived database dump, and importing it into your MySQL/MariaDB database.

Assuming your backup is a .bz2 file, created using instructions similar to those given for Backing up your database using MySQL/MariaDB commands, the following steps will guide you through restoring your database:

1. Unzip your .bz2 file:

user@linux:~/files/blog> bzip2 -d blog.bak.sql.bz2

Note: If your database backup was a .tar.gz file called blog.bak.sql.tar.gz, then

tar -zxvf blog.bak.sql.tar.gz

is the command that should be used instead of the above.

1. Put the backed-up SQL back into MySQL/MariaDB:

user@linux:~/files/blog> mysql -h mysqlhostserver -u mysqlusername -p databasename < blog.bak.sql

Enter password: (enter your mysql password) 
user@linux:~/files/blog>