Create, rename, and delete site backups

How to manage backup archives in SGEN

The Backups panel is where you create point-in-time snapshots of your entire site — database content and uploaded media together in one archive — and where you manage the archive list over time. Each backup is a self-contained .sgen file you can rename for context, delete when no longer needed, or later restore to roll the site back to that exact state.

What is this for?

Backups in SGEN are full-site archives: the complete database (pages, posts, products, users, settings) bundled with the uploads directory into a single portable file. Use the Backups panel any time you are about to make a risky change and want a safe fallback, or when you need to move site content between two SGEN installations.

Good use cases

Example 1: Pre-deploy safety net. You are about to swap your site's active theme and bulk-update 40 product descriptions. Before touching anything, navigate to Migration → Backups and click Create a Backup!. Once the archive appears in the list, rename it pre-theme-swap-20260423 so you can find it instantly if you need to roll back. Here is what the Backups panel looks like with that archive present:

After the backup is created, you can safely proceed with the theme swap. If anything breaks, click Restore on that row and the site reverts to the pre-swap state.

Example 2: Monthly retention cleanup. You have accumulated a dozen snapshots from the past two months and want to keep only the most recent three. Check the checkboxes next to the older archives, choose Delete from the Action For Selected menu, and click Apply. All checked files are removed in one step, freeing server disk space.

The panel refreshes with a confirmation message "Deleted 3 backup(s)." and the three rows are gone.

Example 3: Rename an auto-generated archive for clarity. After creating a backup, the auto-generated filename is something like backup-2026-04-23-1402.sgen. Click the filename in the list — it becomes an inline text field. Type a descriptive name such as post-product-launch-v2 and press Enter. The new name saves without a page reload and the rename is logged in the admin audit trail.

What NOT to use this for

• Automated / scheduled backups — SGEN's Backups panel is manual-only. Each archive is created only when you click the button. If you need regular automated snapshots, configure them at the hosting or server level outside SGEN.
• Partial content exports — every backup includes the entire database and uploads directory. If you only need to export a set of pages or products, use the Tools → Post Migration (Import/Export Pages) panel instead.
• Database-only exports — the archive bundles DB and uploads together. There is no option to export just the database through this panel.
• Version history / revision browsing — backups capture the site state at the moment of creation. For per-post revision history, use the revisions panel on the individual post editor.

How this connects to other features

• Migration → Import — after downloading a backup from this panel (when the Download button is available), you upload it via the Import panel to restore or clone a site.
• Tools → Post Migration (Import/Export) — an alternative import/export path scoped to individual content types (pages, blog posts, events) rather than the whole site. Use Post Migration when you want fine-grained content transfers without touching settings, users, or media.
• Media Library — backup archives include the full uploads directory. Large media libraries produce proportionally large archives. If disk space is tight, audit and prune the Media Library before creating a backup.
• Settings — environment-specific settings (SMTP mail config, analytics tokens, API keys) are overwritten when a backup is restored. If you restore a backup taken on a staging site to a production site, re-enter those production settings afterward.

Before you start

• The Migration module must be enabled on your SGEN installation. If you do not see Migration in the left sidebar, contact your SGEN platform administrator.
• Your server must have enough free disk space to store the archive. For a site with a large Media Library, archives can exceed several hundred megabytes.

Where to go

1. Log in to your SGEN admin panel.
2. Click Migration in the left sidebar.
3. The panel opens on Backups by default.

Steps: create a backup

1. Click "Create a Backup!"

The button appears in the top-right corner of the Backups panel. Click it. SGEN generates a database dump and bundles it with the uploads directory into a single .sgen archive. The page reloads when the process finishes and the new archive appears as a row in the list.

2. Verify the new row

Confirm the archive appears with a filename (auto-named by date and time), its size, a Media Snapshot indicator, and the creation date. If the list was previously empty, the empty-state message disappears and the table appears.

3. Rename (optional)

Click the filename text in the row. The text becomes an inline editor. Type the new name and press Enter. The row updates in place without a page reload. Renaming only changes the filename — archive contents are unchanged.

Steps: delete a backup

1. Click the Delete button on the row

Each row has a red Delete button in the Actions column. Click it. A confirmation dialog appears.

2. Confirm the deletion

Read the confirmation message and click the confirm button. The row disappears from the list. Deletion is permanent — there is no trash or undo.

Steps: bulk-delete backups

1. Check the rows to delete

Click the checkboxes on the left of each row you want to delete. To check all visible rows at once, click the header checkbox.

2. Choose Delete from the dropdown

In the bulk-actions bar, the Action For Selected dropdown has one option: Delete. Select it.

3. Click Apply

All checked archives are deleted. The panel refreshes and shows a confirmation message such as "Deleted 3 backup(s)."

What success looks like

After a successful backup creation, the archive row appears in the list showing the filename, the archive size, whether media files were included (Media Snapshot: Yes), and the date. The Backups panel shows a non-zero row count. After a deletion, the row is gone from the list. After a rename, the new filename is visible in the row without any page reload.

What to do if it does not work

• The Backups panel is not in the sidebar — the Migration module is not enabled on your installation. Contact your SGEN platform administrator to enable it.
• Backup creation stalls and the page never reloads — the server may be running out of memory or disk space while packaging a large uploads directory. Contact your hosting provider to check server resource limits.
• The "Create a Backup!" button appears but nothing happens — clear your browser cache and try again. If the issue persists, check with your administrator that the backups directory is writable on the server.
• Delete confirmation appeared but the row is still visible after confirming — refresh the page. If the row remains, the file may have been in use or the server may have a permissions issue with the backups directory.

Next step

To move a backup to another SGEN site or restore a snapshot, use the Migration → Import panel. To export individual content types without a full-site archive, use Tools → Post Migration.