A Web.com Partner
Sign Up / Log In
Online Support Web Hosting

How to Create Full and Partial Backups of Your Website Files

Once you’ve signed up for our Web Hosting account, you have the option to do a full or a partial backup of your website files. We highly recommend doing this step before making any changes on your website. So you can use the backup files to restore to the last version of your website if in case a server error occurs after an update. Or if you are moving to a different hosting server.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to do both - Full and Partial backup of your website files via your Hosting Manager. Click the link below that corresponds to your preferred backup.

  • How to Create a Full Backup
  • How to Create Partial Backup

How to Create a Full Backup

To create a Full Backup file, follow the steps below.

  1. Access your Hosting Manager.
  2. Scroll down to the Files tab, then click the Backup option.
  3. On the Backup page, click on the Download a Full Website Backup.
  4. Under Generate a Full Backup, fill out the following fields:
    Backup Destination This is the space in your website that the backup file will be stored in.
    Email Address This is the email address the system will send its notification to about the backup file you requested.

    Note: You can opt to choose the Do not send an email notification option. If you wish not to get an email once the backup process is complete.

  5. Click the Generate Backup button.

A confirmation message will appear that the Full Backup is in progress. Click on the Go Back button to go back to the Backup page.

The next step is to download the copy of the full website backup file. Follow the steps in this linked guide to learn how to download the backup files via your Hosting Manager.

How to Create a Partial Backup

When creating partial backup you have two ways to do it, via Backup or via Backup Wizard.

If via Backup


Follow the steps below to learn how to access the Backup option and to start creating a partial backup.

Step 1. Access your Hosting Manager.
Step 2. Scroll down to the the Files tab, then click on the Backup option.
backup option to partial backup website files via hosting manager
Step 3. Scroll down to the Partial Backups section of the page. Click the Home Directory button to start downloading a backup of your Home Directory.
download home directory section of website files using backup feature
Step 4. A pop-up window will appear to download the file to your computer. Choose the Save File option, then click OK.

Your browser will automatically start downloading the Home Directory backup file.

You can also download other sections of your website files. Please visit this linked guide to download a copy of your MySQL Database, Email Forwarders, and Email Filters.

If via Backup Wizard


The Backup Wizard is an ideal option if you’re a new user or if you’ve just started with Web Hosting. It is easy to understand and navigate to backup sections of your website files. Follow the steps below.

Step 1. Access your Hosting Manager.
Step 2. Scroll down to the the Files tab, then click on the Backup option.
backup wizard option access via hosting manager
Step 3. On the Backup Wizard page, click the Backup button to initiate the process.
Or you can opt to click the Restore button, and follow the steps in this linked guide to learn how to restore your website backup files.
backup wizard page highlighting back up button
Step 4. Under Select Partial Backup, click on the button that corresponds to the section you want to download for back up. Or click the Full Backup button to download all website files.
backup wizard page highlighting sections of website files for partial back up
Step 5. On the Final Step page, click on the button of the section you wish to download.
final page for backup wizard highlighting button of the selected section to backup
Step 6. A pop-up window will appear to download the file to your computer. Choose the Save File option, then click OK.

To know the file extensions of each section of your website files, please refer to the table below.

Section of Website Files File Extension
Home Directory .tar.gz
MySQL Database .sql.gz
Email Forwarders .com.gz
Email Filters .yaml.gz

Once the download is complete, you can click the Go Back button to go to the Backup Wizard page.

You’re all set! You’ve successfully created a backup copy of your website files. Please let us know if you need any further assistance, or if you have any questions. We’d love to help!

Was this helpful? Yes No 89% of people found this helpful.