How To Restore Your Akeeba Backup
This article continues from our 'How To Take A Backup With Akeeba Backup' article.
Your site has been hacked, lucky for you, you took a backup a couple of days before using 'Akeeba Backup Professional' and fortunately you had downloaded the '.jpa' file which Akeeba Backup produced. Restoring your website from the backup is a quick and simple process. To do this we will be using 'Akeeba Kickstart', Akeeba Kickstart can be downloaded for free by clicking here.
Restoring with Akeeba Kickstart - Part 1
We first need to upload the '.jpa' to our web-space, depending on how big your website is will depend on how long the '.jpa' file take to upload. If your website is large there may be a number of files, extension ending '.jpa','.j01','.j02' etc.
We also need to upload Akeeba Kickstart to our web space. The files that we will upload are 'kickstart.php' and the specific language file that we need, in our case we will also upload 'en-GB.kickstart.ini' file.
Files we need uploading to our web space:
- All the files that Akeeba Backup produced of our website and database
- 'kickstart.php'
- language file 'en-GB.kickstart.ini', yours may be different
Click here to see our web space with the files that we need in place
Restoring with Akeeba Kickstart - Part 2
Now the files have made it to our web space we now need to go to the following location:
By going to the above URL you will inisiate the extraction process.
Once you have read the information and clicked the 'Click here or press ESC to close this message' you will then see the below screen.
Click here to see the next screen after you have closed the message
Since we are using the Professional version of Akeeba Kickstart we have the option to import our files from Amazon S3. We wont need to use that option as the file is already on the server.
Click here to see the first part of the main screen
Click here to see the second part of the main screen
Restoring with Akeeba kickstart - Part 3
We then need to click the 'Start' button located at the bottom of the first main screen. This will then start the extraction process, this extracts all of the files from our '.jpa' file and also adds an installation folder which we will then use for the next part of the extraction.
Click here to see the extraction progress screen
Once the extraction process has been completed we then see step 6, 'Restoration and Clean Up' screen with the 'RUN THE INSTALLER' button.
Restoring with Akeeba Kickstart - Part 4
Once you click the 'RUN THE INSTALLER' button a new tab will open within your browser that starts the installation process.
Click here to see the new tab with the first part if the installation process
The first part of the installation process show all of the recommended settings and the actual settings that are configured on your server.
Click here to see the settings screen
After clicking the 'Next' button located at the top right of the screen we will be taken to the database restore step. We will then need to enter the database details, these will either be the same details as you enter for the installation process (if you are restoring the backup on the same server) or the will be different if you have transferred your website to another server.
Click here to see the Database screen
A dialog box will 'pop up' with the status of the database import process.
Click here to see the database progress screen
The next screen lets us configure some of the site settings, mainly the 'Site Name, Site e-mail address, Live site URL' and others. The majority of the time you wont need to edit of these settings so you can just click the 'Next' button located in the top right of your screen.
Click here to see the 'Site Settings' screen
You have now completed the restoration process, you can now close your current tab and go back to the original tab. Now go back to the original tab and click the 'CLEAN Up' button, this will remove the 'installation' folder and your website is back to normal.
Click here to see the 'Clean Up' screen
Once you click the 'CLEAN UP' button you will get the option to visit the 'Front End' or the 'Administrator area' of your website.
Click here to see the two options
Click here to view the front end of our website