Backups overview

WP Cloud automatically creates filesystem and database backups for sites. Backup generation and downloads run from a replica server, so they do not consume the production site’s storage quota or reduce its performance.

Backup types

WP Cloud provides several backup options:

• Automatic platform backups: WP Cloud creates filesystem and database backups according to the schedules below.
• On-demand platform backups: Partners can create an on-demand filesystem or database backup for a specific point in time.
• Jetpack backups: Jetpack VaultPress Backup is a separate backup system with its own backup and recovery workflows.

Use Restore a backup to recover a WP Cloud platform backup into a new site or over the existing site that owns it.

Backup schedules, retention, and limits

Filesystem and database backups use separate schedules:

• Filesystem backups: Created daily at 00:00 UTC whether or not files changed. WP Cloud retains each daily backup for the last seven days, then one backup per week.
• Database backups: Created hourly when changes are detected.

WP Cloud retains backups for 30 days. That 30-day guarantee is the retention limit. Older backups may remain available for up to 60 days, but availability beyond 30 days is not guaranteed.

Warning: Deleting a site through the Delete Site endpoint permanently removes the site, its site meta, and its backups. Preserve any backup that must remain available before deleting the site.

List and download backups

Use the List Site Backups endpoint to retrieve the available filesystem and database backups:

export WP_CLOUD_SITE_DOMAIN='example.com'

curl --fail-with-body --silent --show-error \
  --header 'Auth: API_AUTH_TOKEN' \
  "https://atomic-api.wordpress.com/api/v1.0/site-backups-list/domain/${WP_CLOUD_SITE_DOMAIN}"Code language: JavaScript (javascript)Copy

Example response:

{
  "message": "OK",
  "data": [
    {
      "atomic_backup_id": "1234",
      "atomic_site_id": "5678",
      "backup_timestamp": "2019-08-03 00:00:00",
      "type": "db"
    },
    {
      "atomic_backup_id": "1235",
      "atomic_site_id": "5678",
      "backup_timestamp": "2019-08-02 00:00:00",
      "type": "fs"
    }
  ]
}Code language: JSON / JSON with Comments (json)Copy

Use the returned atomic_backup_id and type to select a backup. The Get Site Backup Details endpoint returns details for one backup. The Get Site Backup Data endpoint downloads its contents:

export WP_CLOUD_BACKUP_ID='1234'

curl --fail --silent --show-error \
  --header 'Auth: API_AUTH_TOKEN' \
  --output "${WP_CLOUD_BACKUP_ID}-db.sql.gz" \
  "https://atomic-api.wordpress.com/api/v1.0/site-backup-get/domain/${WP_CLOUD_SITE_DOMAIN}/${WP_CLOUD_BACKUP_ID}"Code language: JavaScript (javascript)Copy

Filesystem backups are bzip2-compressed tar archives. Database backups are MySQL dumps returned with gzip content encoding. The download is the backup file itself, not a JSON response. Choose the filename and decompression tool from the backup type returned by the list or details endpoint.

Redundancy and real-time failover

WP Cloud also maintains an inaccessible copy of each site in another region through real-time replication. If a pool, data center, or region fails, automated failover can move traffic to the site’s secondary pool.

The secondary copy powers backup generation and downloads, but it is not a customer-accessible backup or a replacement for retained recovery points.