# Restoring from a backup **URL:** \ **Category:** Elements Hosting\ **Created:** [March 19, 2026, 9:42pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/restoring-from-a-backup/55210 "2026-03-19T21:42:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jeffinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@Jeffinn](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Jeffinn)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2026, 9:42pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/restoring-from-a-backup/55210/1 "2026-03-19T21:42:40Z")
If I choose to restore my website from a backup, does it apply the backup to my local files or just to the online website? Thanks. Jeff ---
**Author:** ![differentdan](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/differentdan/32/33530_2.png) [@differentdan](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/differentdan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2026, 10:20pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/restoring-from-a-backup/55210/2 "2026-03-19T22:20:20Z")
Hi @Jeffinn Are you talking about restoring from a backup in Elements Hosting? Or downloading a backup from the Elements app \>\> Publishing Settings \>\> Download Backup? ---
**Author:** ![Jeffinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@Jeffinn](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Jeffinn)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2026, 10:38pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/restoring-from-a-backup/55210/3 "2026-03-19T22:38:50Z")
Elements hosting backup ---
**Author:** ![differentdan](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/differentdan/32/33530_2.png) [@differentdan](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/differentdan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2026, 11:09pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/restoring-from-a-backup/55210/4 "2026-03-19T23:09:34Z")
Awesome, so this is one of many cool things about Elements Hosting. 😁 So in your Elements app, you have the Backup Frequency set to "Every Time I Publish” I’m assuming, so your project file is getting backed up to your Elements Hosting account. Then, we make daily backups of your account and store them off-site per the below: ![restore-backups](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/realmacsoftware1/original/3X/0/7/07c1465ae0b9abb2f5486e77d5f63933e253f061.png) So, if you restore one of those backups to your Elements Hosting account, it will restore the site as it was at the time of the backup, including that backup of your project file that gets uploaded when you publish the site. After the Elements Hosting restoration, you can then restore that older project file backup into the Elements app from your Publishing Settings \>\> Download Backup, which will download that project file version into your Elements app, so everything matches. 🙂 It’s part of the multiple redundancies we have in place with Elements and Elements Hosting to protect your website, project file, and data against data loss or inadvertent changes. 🙂 Let me know if anything above doesn’t make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Jeffinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@Jeffinn](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Jeffinn)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2026, 11:33pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/restoring-from-a-backup/55210/5 "2026-03-19T23:33:44Z")
Excellent! That’s what I was hoping for! Thanks Daniel, much appreciated. Jeff ---
**Author:** ![Jeffinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@Jeffinn](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Jeffinn)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 1:39am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/restoring-from-a-backup/55210/6 "2026-03-20T01:39:02Z")
That is without a doubt one of the coolest features ever! Easy to use, quick to implement and does exactly what it’s supposed to. A big thank you to the folks who developed the backup restore functionality!!😀 Jeff ---
**Author:** ![handshaper](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/handshaper/32/27373_2.png) [@handshaper](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/handshaper)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 6:11am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/restoring-from-a-backup/55210/7 "2026-03-20T06:11:10Z")
Aloha Dan, Can you clarify how this works if you have multiple sites, as I do? It appears that when you restore from a backup, it restores ALL of the sites, as the backup is for all of the sites in the account. Is that correct? ---
**Author:** ![differentdan](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/differentdan/32/33530_2.png) [@differentdan](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/differentdan)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 5:38pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/restoring-from-a-backup/55210/8 "2026-03-20T17:38:16Z")
That’s a good point @handshaper. On the Starter package, all addon/subdomains are housed under 1 primary website in separate folders, so yeah, if you do a backup restoration it’s going to restore all of them, not just 1 website. On the Freelancer and Business packages, you can create multiple websites that are separated from each other (and hosted on different servers if you wish), so on those you can restore a singular site via the backup restoration feature. I’ll make sure to document that in the Hosting docs. Thanks! 🙂