> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.fastcat.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Backups & Restores

> Create restore points, roll your site back, and understand what's inside a FastCat backup.

Every site includes **10 restore points**. Each one is a complete snapshot— your whole WordPress directory plus a dump of your database— encrypted and stored off-site in our own infrastructure.

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Full site" icon="folder">
    Core, plugins, themes, uploads, and any file you added yourself.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Full database" icon="database">
    A consistent dump taken without locking your site.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Encrypted off-site" icon="shield-check">
    Encrypted in transit and at rest, held on infrastructure we control.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Create a restore point

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the Backups tab">
    Give it a description you'll recognise later— *"Before WooCommerce update"* beats *"backup 3"*.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Click Create backup">
    Your site stays online the whole time. Avoid plugin, theme, core, import, or migration work until it finishes, so the snapshot is internally consistent.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Wait for the email">
    We email you when the backup finishes— or if it fails.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Tip>
  Take a restore point before anything you'd hate to undo by hand: a major plugin update, a theme switch, a bulk import, or a developer handover.
</Tip>

## Restore a site

Pick a restore point and click **Restore**. Your files and database are replaced with that snapshot's contents.

<Warning>
  A restore is a full replacement, not a merge. Anything created after the snapshot— new posts, orders, form submissions, uploads— is gone once it completes.
</Warning>

Before restoring, we automatically take a fresh **safety backup** of the current state, so a restore is itself reversible. If you're already at your backup limit there's no room for one, and the panel makes you choose: delete an old restore point first, or explicitly continue without a safety backup.

## Managing your slots

You have 10 slots per site. When they're full:

* Delete a restore point you no longer need, or
* Add extra slots from the **Add-ons** tab.

Backups you delete are removed from our storage as well.

## Automatic backups

Core updates take their own safety backup first:

* **Manual core updates** always take a fresh backup, and the panel blocks the update if there's no room.
* **Automatic minor/security updates** do the same. If your slots are full, the update is held and we email you rather than proceeding unprotected— unless you've opted in to let it run anyway.

See [WordPress updates](/wordpress/wordpress-updates) for the update settings.

<Note>
  Backups are restore points for your site, not a substitute for your own archive. If your business depends on the data, keep an independent copy too.
</Note>