Wordpress toolkit Backup and Restore function expected behavior

[LevelupMedia]

Hi,

am I misunderstanding function of wordpress toolkit Backup and Restore on how it should work, I am expecting when I backup site and restore it, it should go back to that version, but what I am seeing is that for example if we install some plugin after backup, than restore earlier version, plugin is still there (but disabled). Why is that, and what happens on database level?

 

[MarcoD]

Hello,
that is exactly what I am asking as well. It would be great to investigate and to know, if there are other remains which could cause harm. Lets assume a hacked site with uploaded plugin, which would simply stay after a complete rollback and work as an ongoing backdoor..

best regards

 

[Bitpalast]

As a temporary workaround have you tried to remove the contents of the document root where you want to restore files to?

It might be good that the restore function does not do that, because many people are creating additional subdirectories in a document root that is otherwise used for Wordpress. There are even folks who nest Wordpress installations or websites, e.g. create a Nextcloud instance underneath a Wordpress file structure. If the restore function followed your expectiation (remove all existing content), such content that does not originally belong to Wordpress would be erased, too. You have a good point, maybe an option would be needed, e.g. radio buttons where a user can select how the restore function should act.

 

[LevelupMedia]

We noticed there are leftovers in the database also, we don't use this functionality anymore. We use backup inside Plesk subscription if needed.

It definitely should backup everything inside wp installation folder and database then restore everything as it was, whatever inside of the folder is.

 

[MarcoD]

As a temporary workaround have you tried to remove the contents of the document root where you want to restore files to?

It might be good that the restore function does not do that, because many people are creating additional subdirectories in a document root that is otherwise used for Wordpress. There are even folks who nest Wordpress installations or websites, e.g. create a Nextcloud instance underneath a Wordpress file structure. If the restore function followed your expectiation (remove all existing content), such content that does not originally belong to Wordpress would be erased, too. You have a good point, maybe an option would be needed, e.g. radio buttons where a user can select how the restore function should act.

Thank you Peter,
yes, a more granular control would be appreciated.

 

[MarcoD]

We noticed there are leftovers in the database also, we don't use this functionality anymore. We use backup inside Plesk subscription if needed.

It definitely should backup everything inside wp installation folder and database then restore everything as it was, whatever inside of the folder is.

Thank you for starting this topic,

I thought you mentioned the subscription-backup in the first place, but you referred to a backup-function of the entire toolkit with all its subscriptions, if I understood right? I didn't know about that. It seems to be acting the same way.

But in my case, I referred to the subscription-backup which acts the explained way I experienced.

On my side, I stopped using the third possibility, the domain-backup-function, which adds up, when using the subscription backup and you get the backup of the backup of the backup.. consuming a lot of server space.

Maybe using only the domain-backup would avoid the remnants? Need to test that..