Restore a MySQL backup

Download and restore a MySQL dump file to any MySQL database.

SimpleBackups stores MySQL backups as compressed .sql.gz files. You restore them using the mysql CLI client on any server with access to your target database.

!This will overwrite the target database

Restoring a backup replaces all data in the target database with the contents of the backup file. Confirm you are restoring to the correct database before proceeding.

Download the backup file

1. Go to your backup page and open the Logs tab. Click the (i) icon next to the backup run you want to restore.

2. In the modal that appears, click Click to generate a signed download link and copy the resulting URL.

iNote

If your backup produces multiple files (for example, when backing up all databases separately), each database has its own signed link. See how to download individual files when backing up all databases for details.

3. On your server, download the backup using the signed URL:

wget "PASTE_SIGNED_DOWNLOAD_LINK_HERE" -O mysql-backup.sql.gz

4. Extract the archive:

tar -xvf mysql-backup.sql.gz

This produces a single SQL file named db-backup-XXX.sql in the same directory.

Restore the database

Run the mysql client to restore the dump into your target database:

mysql -u YOUR_DB_USERNAME -pYOUR_DB_PASSWORD < db-backup-XXX.sql

Replace YOUR_DB_USERNAME and YOUR_DB_PASSWORD with your database credentials, and db-backup-XXX.sql with the extracted filename.