You can create a full backup of your hosting account at any time and download it to your computer. It's a good idea to do this before big changes and to keep a copy somewhere safe.

Creating a backup

1. Log in to DirectAdmin.
2. Go to Advanced Features and click Create/Restore Backups.
3. Tick what to include. For a complete backup, tick everything: website data, email, FTP and databases.
4. Click Create Backup.

DirectAdmin creates the backup in the background and sends you a message when it's ready. Larger accounts can take a while.

Downloading the backup

1. Go to System Info & Files and click File Manager.
2. Open the backups folder.
3. Download the backup file to your computer.

You can also download it by FTP, which is more reliable for large files. See Connecting with FTP (FileZilla).

After downloading

Delete the backup from the backups folder. Backups stored on your account use your disk space. A copy on the same server also doesn't protect you if something happens to your account.

Good to know

• Download a complete backup at least once a month and before any big change to your website.
• Store your backups in at least one place other than your computer, such as an external drive or cloud storage.
• You can restore these backups yourself. See Restoring from a backup.
• We also keep daily backups of your account. See Our backup policy.