If you’re an eCommerce store owner, you’re probably operating it via the Shopify platform. Yes, such is the reach of the world’s largest platform Shopify.
Users worldwide consider using the platform as it allows individuals and organizations to manage their businesses, like Shopify backup and Restore. Given the flexibility that it provides, the platform has been a go-to option for its versatility.
The platform’s applications and tools help almost everybody develop their shop from scratch without requiring coding knowledge of any sort. Given the fact that it allows users of all types to get the best of the platform with their creativity via customizations, it is also one of the most criticized platforms.
Why? Because, even after providing several possibilities like the functionalities of inventory monitoring, Google Analytics, analytics, and several others, it lacks a backup option in case you lose a product, page, blog, or in the worst case, your entire store.
Yes, it’s true! If the situation arises, no Shopify store owner will be able to recover any individual account cannot state.
However, Shopify does provide have with disaster backups in a situation where users lose their entire account due to some accident.
For example, there might be a situation where you want to restore the Shopify store at a specific time.
But wait, we have some good news as well! If you ever lose your shop and its content, you can actually restore the Shopify store to the same point without redoing things from scratch. This is where Shopify recovery comes in handy for your business.
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You could lose your data in numerous ways!
Yes, there can be multiple ways in which you might lose your data without your idea. It could cause a significant loss in case you’ve just recently created your store or have scaled your venture extensively.
Being one of the most renowned platforms, Shopify is one of the easiest targets of scammers and phishing attackers. In some cases, your store might also experience a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, resulting in a complete wipeout of your store and its data.
Losing either your data or the entire store should never be a situation. After all, it not only causes hurdles to your operations but also results in a massive loss of your customers and future revenues.
This is where the concept of backup and restore comes in. Yes, you can easily back up and restore your store to avoid such risks. And that’s what this article is all about. Let’s learn a bit more about the multiple aspects of backup and restore of your Shopify store.
What is the Shopify backup and restore process?
The name of the process defines the term itself. The backup and restore function is a complete cycle of backing up your data sets in a local database and later recovering them at the hour of need.
Setting up a Shopify backup store is really easy and should be the thumb rule of users of every type and size. Users who have just created their account or have just begun their creation are no exception to this thumb rule.
The reason? None of us, store owners, would like to lose our business, the revenues, and most importantly, our customers.
Often referred to as an insurance policy, backups are your last chance to recover your Shopify store if you are ever under threat or lose some crucial data by mistake.
However, no matter the size or amount of your backup, the process doesn’t guarantee you a 100% Shopify store recovery. This way, despite the backups, you could still be at a loss for your data!
How? backups are only meant to make your store back functional again; they dont store specific information about your store. When you look at it, the true success of your store’s backup is a result of different factors like recovery rate, hosting provider, and disaster recovery process.
Now, let us tell you, there are not one or two, but three total ways in which we can back up our Shopify store. They are:
- Creating individual backups manually
- Developing a backup solution
- backup Shopify store using automated software
However, out of all the methods listed above, most users have no idea about the automated approach and continue to stick to the same way, putting in a lot of time and resources to generate backups in the database.
On the other hand, the restore process is all about recovering your Shopify store post an accident or mistake. The primary motive of Shopify store recovery is to restore it to its primary form before any accident or edit.
If you look into the platform, there’s no possible way to successfully recover or restore your Shopify store if you’ve not backed it up regularly. Only when you’ve created successful copies of your store’s information in a local database you’ll be able to restore it via Shopify API.
Interestingly, there are numerous advantages to backing up your store. It isn’t only confined to restoring your shop. But what are they exactly? Let’s find out in the following section.
What advantages of having a backup and restore system for your Shopify store?
There is no second thought to the fact that your online venture is a precious asset. It presents your brand identity, revenue, and also the customers that you’ve built over time. Therefore, as is the case with all your assets, you’ll have to ensure proper protection for your Shopify store as well.
Further, given that we need to adapt, modify, and sometimes customize a few things in our store. There are also chances that you allow someone else to handle your account in certain instances, and they end up deleting or modifying something important for your store.
Instances such as accidental data deletion, human error, 3rd party applications, or malicious attacks can lead to severe problems with your store. Sometimes resulting in the complete wipeout of your data as well.
Therefore, if you dont have your own data, you are at a high chance of rebuilding your store like it was in the past.
Listed below are a few instances of losing your data elements that highlight the advantages of having a Shopify backup in place.
1. Risk of a phishing attack
Being one of the widely used platforms globally, Shopify is a hot target for scammers and frauds. Reports of malicious emails and fake service calls are what put you at risk of losing your store’s data.
However, having a backup serves as a safety net in such conditions as you can easily safeguard your data and the entire store as well.
2. You’re editing or modifying theme code yourself
Let’s accept it; no matter the experience level that you hold, coding is more of a trial-and-error process. In fact, even the learned coders consider using development stores to test their codes.
Therefore, when you’re making any desired edits or customizations on your theme code, you need to have easy recovery options for your store. This is another instance where having a backup comes in handy.
3. Installing 3rd party applications to your store
We all know how flexible Shopify is when it comes to providing its users with applications to simplify work. The applications in the Shopify store allow users to focus on the core operations and enable these applications to manage other miscellaneous services.
However, this is another situation where you’ll realize the benefit of having a backup for your store. Why?
Installing a third-party application comes with its own set of pros and cons, where if you dont read the privacy policy clearly, the chances are that you might allow them to modify your store. Once modified, only backups can help you restore your store to its original form.
4. You are the owner of multiple stores
Managing multiple Shopify stores is no easy task! When you’re responsible for running multiple accounts simultaneously, the chances are that you might confuse yourself with the products and upload different content at different places.
This can be a real struggle if you simply decide to delete the product or page without taking a proper backup. With appropriate backup, you can quickly restore your store to how it was previously.
5. You often hire freelancers to work for your store
Hiring freelancers for your task is the new normal. After all, they prove to be more cost-effective and save you from the commitment factor. However, hiring a freelancer has its own set of risks as you dont know the provider personally.
In such a situation, the chances are that they might be unable to solve a problem and, in turn, end up destroying the whole website. In such adverse cases, only a backup can help you by saving your store.
As you can see, there are multiple instances where you can quickly lose your Shopify store data. Having a backup is more like a safety measure than a necessity for your store. Remember, it is the only way to turn things back to normal in a situation where your entire data or some parts of it have been wiped out.
Essential things you need to backup & restore from your Shopify store
1. Products and Product Images
Rightfully, the first thing which you should always back up is the product and its relevant images. After all, what’s your store without its products? Therefore, whenever you begin your backup process, ensure that you back up the product and product images.
2. Customers data
Next on the list is customer data, an ideal presentation of all your business. Having the customer data in place provides you with a seamless flow of operations, no matter whether you’ve just recovered your store.
3. Metadata
Metadata plays a crucial role in the backup of your Shopify store as it comes with all the necessary information about other related data in your store. Therefore, always make sure that you back up your metadata while backing up your solution.
4. Orders, Collections
Having a backup of all the orders and collections saves you from the struggles of starting your deliveries from scratch. Ensure that you create separate data copies for both elements of your store.
5. Blogs and Blog Posts
Blogs and blog posts are the most organic elements of your Shopify store. Having blogs is like an active tool that works to attract customers. Now that you know, we’re sure you wouldn’t want to lose your tool to traffic.
6. Pages
The pages of your store are like the essentials that keep it running. Isn’t it obvious? No business in the world operates with only one page for all. Therefore, it is essential that you create a backup of the pages of your site.
7. Themes and Theme Files
As explained earlier, there might be special occasions when you’d want to change the appearance of your store. In such cases having a backup of your theme and theme files help you in two ways.
- To keep a backup in case the coding goes wrong.
- To revert back to the original theme once the event is over.
Losing your menu navigation is like losing the blueprint of your website. You cannot simply re-create such a crucial segment of your website. Therefore, always try and back up your menu navigation.
9. Store Policies
Like menu navigation, you cannot randomly just re-write the store policies if there is a loss in a backup. You need to be precise about the policies of your store throughout its existence.
10. Shipping Rates & Zones
Setting up shipping rates and zones is one of the most cumbersome tasks in a Shopify store. Given that the process is enormous and you won’t want your customers to feel betrayed with revised rates, it is always a wise move to have a backup for the same.
How to back up your Shopify store?
As explained earlier, there are majorly two different ways to back up the Shopify store. Under the suggested methods, some are manual, automated, free, paid, or complex.
Here, we have tried to simplify the following backup process:
- Manual backups
- Via automated method
Now, let’s delve into the details of the three processes:
#1: Manual backup and Restore of your Shopify Store
Step 1: Create a CSV format backup of your existing data
The first step of manual Shopify data backup requires you to back up your data sets using CSV files.
However, before you begin the process, you should understand that creating a CSV file doesn’t simply mean exporting the entire contents of your store at once. Importing your content to a CSV file is a process that is distributed in several parts, namely:
- Products
- Customers
- Gift cards
- Discount codes
- Theme
- Orders
Now, to back up the data mentioned above sets, you need to go to the Admin section of your Shopify store and back them up manually, followed by the customers or products. Once done, it’s time to click on the Export option.
Step 2: Copy-Paste the properties of your items
Now that you are preparing manual backups for your store, you need to understand that Shopify allows users to export their data in a limited format, whatever Shopify considers relevant. Sadly, you cannot include custom images, product categories, or other archived and indexed items.
In order to back up such data sets, you’ll have to manually create individual copies and paste them into a document or spreadsheet program.
Remember, if youre not entirely backed up your store and are trying to recover a specific product from your CSV file, Shopify will ask you to recreate similar properties of the CSV data youre trying to recover.
For instance, if you’ve deleted a product randomly, you cannot recover it unless you have archived and indexed it. However, in such cases, a deleted image will stay deleted forever.
Step 3: Copy and paste the data that Shopify was unable to export
In the third step of the backup process, it’s time to store the left-out data in the initial processes. Here, you’ll have to create a manual copy of the product information and data sets that Shopify cannot export.
For example, if you want to back up a blog, you need to copy and paste the entire blog and its images.
Step 4: Organize backed-up data
Congratulations, the backup has been created successfully! Now, all you need to do is organize your data to navigate it when you need to recover backups easily.
Step 5: Secure your backup
Once you’ve generated a backup of all the crucial aspects of your store, it’s time to secure the backups of all the possible threats, such as hackers, malware, and phishing scammers.
In order to secure your data, you’ll have to follow the steps mentioned below:
- Use encryption Encryptions help you secure your backups using a specific combination of numerics which is only available to authorized persons of your store.
- Follow the 3-2-1 rule The 3-2-1 rule requires you to create three unique tools for your backup. Here, you are required to save the first two backups somewhere in your database, whereas the third one needs to be secured off-site.
- Test regularly The last step is to run regular test checking of your store. This way, you’ll have better chances of identifying vulnerabilities in your backups.
#2: Developing a Backup Solution for Your Store
The second process to back up your Shopify store requires you to have some resources handy. While creating a backup tool for your store, you’ll have to consider the factors like:
- Does your store comply with GDPR?
- Is your store aligning with data storage norms?
- Is your store using security measures?
- Followed by several other methods
,
Step 1: Use your Shopify APIs to develop a backup tool
To be able to use different APIs in your shop, you need to look into the multiple APIs present at your store. Once you’ve selected the API you want to proceed with, the next step is to use them to back up and secure all the information that revolves around your store.
Once done, you can easily have access to all the required information while youre developing the infrastructure required to support your APIs.
Step 2: Secure your backup
In order to secure your backup, follow the same initial sequence that was mentioned in option 1 of the previous section.
Remember, the security of your backup plays a significant role in the restore process. Further, if the tools youre using cannot provide the backup when needed, it’ll have long-term impacts on your organization’s final prospects.
Step 3: Run regular trials and ensure proper maintenance of your advanced backup solution
Given the fact that Shopify keeps updating its API, backing up your store becomes a challenging task to keep up with. Further updates in a few Shopify APIs will also prove crucial factors for your backup.
To break it down, the solution, which will be the latest today, might become completely obsolete by tomorrow as it won’t be able to support the latest APIs.
In such cases, it might result in a complete waste of your resources and time. Therefore, it is always a smart move to keep yourself updated with the changes in API.
How to restore your Shopify store?
Now that you know what the Goshu backup app is, it’s time to show you the process involved in restoring your Shopify store if you lose or want to make corrections to your data.
Here’s how the Goshu backup app allows you to restore your shop and its content:
Step 1: Once you click on the Goshuu backup app, navigate to the homepage and move to the Goshuu vault, situated at the bottom of the screen.
Step 2: Once you’ve reached the vault, which saves all your store data, the next page will highlight two different options, namely:
- One by One: The individual option
- Store: The bulk option
Step 3: Now, the choice of option depends on the type of restore that you want. In case you want to restore an individual item, you should go with the one-by-one option. On the other hand, you could click on the Store option to restore the entire Shopify store to the original.
Step 4: Once done, you’ll land on a new page where you can notice different recovery elements in your store. Click and enter the option; once done, you’ll witness multiple aspects like Customers, Products, Blogs, and Metadata, among others.
Step 5: The last step requires you to select the date, the required data set, and the time to which you want to restore your shop. Once you’ve selected the data sets to restore, click on the Rewind Store option.
Congratulations! You’ve successfully restored your Shopify store.
Frequently Asked Questions about Shopify backup and restore
1. How do I export my Shopify website?
Exporting your Shopify store is easy; all you need to do is create a manual CSV file and ensure that you copy and paste individual items; however, in case youre using an automated app, you needn’t worry about manually exporting different elements of your store.
2. How do I copy an entire Shopify store?
You can manually copy your Shopify store with the help of a CSV file. Since Shopify restricts its users from directly exporting the entire store, you’ll have to do the entire process manually.
3. How do I recover my Shopify store fully?
You can only recover your Shopify store in two ways:
- You’ve been using an automated backup solution
- Have created manual backup folders and saved them on your database.
Only once you have either of the two options can you easily restore your store by going through individual steps manually.
4. How do revert changes on Shopify?
You can only revert changes if you have a Shopify store backup on your database. In case you dont, the platform won’t allow you to make changes.
5. How to recover an old Shopify website?
You can recover your old Shopify store via the APIs that you’ve stored in your database. Only once you’ve created a copy will you be able to revert your store back to normal.
Conclusion
Now that you know everything about Shopify store restore and backup, we hope that you won’t have issues recovering your lost assets in any situation. Remember, creating a backup of your store is one of the thumbs rules that you should always abide by.
