On plans with scheduled cloud backups (Backup Only, Pro Protection, Pro + Backup Plus and Agency), PowerSEC takes a backup once a day, or once an hour with the Hourly Backups add-on. The schedule keeps uploads small without giving up a single day of recovery.
How it works
- Full backup, about once a week — a complete copy of your files and your database.
- Daily differential in between — the files that changed since that full backup, plus a complete copy of the database. Every restore point therefore restores your whole site.
- When a new full is taken — when the current full is 7 days old, or when no usable full backup exists yet. With one backup a day that gives 1 full + 6 differentials per week. If you also take backups by hand, a new full starts early once the differentials on the current full reach 7 (14 on Pro + Backup Plus and Agency).
- Backups you start yourself — choosing Full makes a full backup and Database makes a database backup. A Files-only backup is saved as the files changed since your latest full backup, when one exists.
Restore points
A full backup and each differential each count as one restore point against your plan's limit (for example, 1 full + 6 differentials = 7 restore points). When the limit is reached, the oldest restore point rotates out after the new backup has been uploaded and verified. Backups you take by hand count too, so on a busy day the oldest restore points rotate out sooner.
Why the database is complete every time
The database holds your posts, orders, users and settings. Saving it in full on every restore point means any day you pick restores without replaying a chain of database changes.
Retention keeps chains intact
Old restore points roll out oldest-first, and PowerSEC never removes a full backup while a kept differential still depends on it.
Restoring
Restoring a differential uses its full backup's files, applies that day's changed and deleted files, and imports that day's database. PowerSEC handles this for you; there is nothing extra to do.
See Backup limits by plan for storage and restore-point limits.