How to reset your site to a clean, fresh-install state

In short. The System Reset Wizard wipes every page, post, image, user account, and setting on your install and puts it back to a brand-new state. It is only reachable by a Super Administrator on staging or development environments — not on production. Navigate to your-staging-site.example.com/installation/reset_wizard, take a database backup first, download your media library, turn on maintenance mode, then type RESET and click the destructive button. Twelve seconds later you are looking at the install setup wizard again. Use this for evaluator clean-slates, developer resets, and trainer sandbox refreshes — not for deleting a few pages or resetting your theme.

On this page: Good use cases · What NOT to use this for · Before you start · Steps · What success looks like · Troubleshooting

What is this for?

The System Reset Wizard is the one button on your platform that puts your site back to the state it was in the moment you first installed it — every post, page, image, user, and setting gone, as if the platform had just been provisioned. It is locked to Super Administrators on staging or development environments; most production environments cannot reach it at all.

If your goal is to delete a few blog posts or reset your theme, this is the wrong tool. See the What NOT to use this for section for the right one.

Good use cases

• Evaluator — cloned a starter install full of demo data and wants to clear it before showing the platform to their team.
• Developer — experimented on a staging environment and wants a clean slate before building the production site.
• Trainer — runs onboarding sessions on a shared demo install and resets it to factory state at the end of every session.
• Hosting reseller — provisioned a sandbox for a prospective client and needs to wipe it before the next prospect.
• Site owner on staging — decided to take a different direction on a redesign and wants to start clean without touching production.

What NOT to use this for

• Deleting a few blog posts or pages. Use the bulk-delete tool in the Blog or Pages area instead.
• Resetting your theme. Use Appearance → Theme → Reset to defaults — far less destructive.
• Clearing your media library. Use the Media area's bulk-delete tools.
• Removing a single user account. Open Users, find the row, delete that one user.
• Cancelling your subscription. Talk to your billing or onboarding contact about a fresh provision.
• Production sites. This tool is intentionally unreachable on production.

How this connects to other features

Before you start

The reset is permanent. Read every line before continuing.

• You are not on production. Confirm the URL bar shows your staging or development site, not your production domain.
• You are signed in as a Super Administrator. Plain admin tier is not enough. If you cannot see the wizard, your tier is the most likely reason.
• You have a database backup. Take one now, before you click anything. Confirm the most recent backup is from today and is downloadable.
• You have downloaded every image and file from your Media library. Once the reset runs, every uploaded asset is gone with no Trash recovery.
• You have copied every custom code snippet, custom CSS rule, and custom theme setting to a text file outside the platform.
• You have exported your member list to a spreadsheet. Members area → Export. Lost members are unrecoverable.
• You have a copy of any pages and blog posts you want to keep. SG-Builder pages can be exported one by one; blog posts need a copy-paste or database backup.
• You have turned on maintenance mode so visitors see a "we'll be back soon" page instead of broken content mid-wipe.

Where to go

This surface is not in the regular admin sidebar. Type the path directly into your browser address bar:

your-staging-site.example.com/installation/reset_wizard

If your environment has the reset surface enabled and you are signed in as a Super Administrator, the wizard renders. Otherwise you will see an "Access denied" page — which is correct, intentional behavior. There is no sidebar entry for "Reset"; the wizard is intentionally hidden from normal navigation.

Steps — reset your site to a clean, fresh-install state

1. Confirm you want to do this

Sit with the decision. The reset is permanent — no Trash bin, no undo. If you have any doubt, close this tab and come back tomorrow. If you still want to reset tomorrow, you want to reset.

2. Take a final database backup

Even if you backed up yesterday, take a fresh one right now. Most hosting providers offer a one-click "download a backup now" in their control panel. Do not proceed without one.

3. Turn on maintenance mode

Go to Settings → Maintenance Mode, turn the toggle on, and save. Confirm in a private browser window that visitors now see the maintenance page. The reset takes several seconds during which the site is in an inconsistent state — the maintenance page protects visitors from seeing partial content.

4. Open the reset wizard

In your browser address bar, type: your-site.example.com/installation/reset_wizard. Press Enter.

• Wizard renders — you are a Super Administrator on an environment that has opted in. Continue.
• "Access denied" — either you are not a Super Administrator, or your environment has not opted in. Stop and confirm the environment before going further.

The wizard shows a summary of what is about to happen, including your environment type. If it says production, stop immediately and confirm with your platform contact before continuing.

5. Type the confirmation phrase

The wizard asks you to type a specific word — usually RESET in capital letters — before the destructive button becomes active. Capital letters matter. This deliberate slowdown gives anyone who clicked reflexively a chance to stop and read.

6. Click the destructive button

When the phrase matches, the button activates. Click it. The page sits for several seconds while the platform tears down the install. Do not navigate away, close the tab, or refresh.

When finished, the page changes to a "Reset complete" screen and the install setup wizard is ready to run again.

7. Run the install setup wizard

Navigate to the root of your site or click "Run setup wizard" on the reset screen. The platform treats your install as brand new and walks you through first-time setup — site name, admin email, admin password, email transport. The credentials you enter here become the credentials for the new install; the wizard does not remember your old account.

8. Turn off maintenance mode

Once signed in as your fresh admin account, go to Settings → Maintenance Mode, turn it off, and save. Confirm in a private window that the maintenance page is gone. Your site is back online and ready to build.

What success looks like

A clean reset leaves three observable conditions:

1. The home page renders the platform default. Your previous theme and content are gone; the platform's stock theme and a placeholder home page are in their place.
2. The Users area shows only your single new admin account. Every previous member, subscriber, or test user is gone.
3. The Blog and Pages areas are empty. No posts, no drafts, no trashed posts — just the "no pages yet" placeholder.

What to do if it does not work

You see "Access denied" when you open the wizard URL:

• You may not be a Super Administrator — plain admin tier is not enough.
• Your environment may not have the reset surface enabled — the default on production.
• Your session may have expired — sign out, sign back in, and try again.

The destructive button never becomes active:

• Check that you typed the confirmation phrase exactly. Capital letters matter.
• If every button looks greyed out, a server-side configuration value required before reset can fire is missing. Talk to your platform contact.

The page showed an error mid-reset:

• Take a fresh database backup of whatever state the install is in now, then contact support. Do not run the wizard a second time before talking to someone.
• Confirm with your hosting provider that the wipe did not overlap with their backup schedule.

The reset finished but the install setup wizard fails:

• Check your email transport configuration — the wizard sends a confirmation email to the new admin address. The wizard usually has a "skip email confirmation" option if mail is not arriving.
• Try a private browser window — old session cookies from your previous admin account can confuse the new install for the first few minutes.

The reset finished and you have changed your mind:

• Restore from your database backup. This is the only path back. If you do not have a backup, the data is gone.

Things worth knowing

• There is no Trash bin for the reset. Unlike deleting a single post, the reset is immediate and permanent. The only path back is your database backup.
• Your admin account gets deleted along with everything else. Re-create an admin during the install setup wizard. Know the email and password you want before you start.
• The reset does not change your hosting plan or domain. It is a content-and-settings wipe, not a billing event. Your domain stays the same; other sites under the same account are unaffected.
• Server-side caches are not cleared automatically. Your hosting provider's cache, CDN, and browser cache may still hold pre-reset content for a few minutes. Clear them if you see ghost content.
• Prove the backup is recent and downloadable — not just present. Open the backup file, check its timestamp, confirm it is from today. An assumption about backups is the most common failure mode on resets.
• The reset is logged. Your hosting provider will see it in access logs. If a reset happens and you did not run it, escalate immediately.

Frequently asked questions

Can I undo a reset? Only if you have a database backup from before the reset. Restore the backup; the install comes back. There is no built-in undo.

Will the reset delete my domain? No. The reset wipes content and settings but leaves your domain configuration alone.

Can I run this on my production site? Almost certainly not — production environments do not have the reset surface enabled. If you genuinely need to wipe a production install, talk to billing about a fresh re-provision instead.

Can I reset just the blog without resetting everything? No. The reset is all-or-nothing. To clear only the blog, use the bulk-delete tool in the Blog area.

Can I keep my member list and reset everything else? No. Export your member list before resetting, then re-import or recreate the accounts after.

Why is the wizard not in my admin sidebar? By design — most admins should not stumble onto this surface. You reach it by typing the reset URL directly.

Will the reset send a notification to my members? No. Communicate the reset to your community yourself — newsletter, status page, or maintenance message — before you reset.

How long does the reset take? Typically under thirty seconds for a small site. Larger sites with thousands of pages or tens of thousands of media files can take a couple of minutes. Keep the tab open until you see the "Reset complete" screen.

What if my browser tab crashes during the reset? Your install will be in an inconsistent state. Take a database backup of whatever state it is in and contact support. Do not run the wizard a second time before talking to someone.

Examples

Pre-launch clean slate after onboarding content. The site owner used SGEN's demo content to learn the builder during onboarding. Now ready to build the real site, they run the reset wizard to remove all demo content at once. The site returns to a single blank home page.

Recovering from a corrupted migration. The site owner imported a content migration that produced hundreds of malformed pages. Rather than cleaning up each one, they export the original raw content file, run the reset, and re-import cleanly. Total recovery time: about 25 minutes.

Starting a new project on a repurposed site. The previous site was for a project that is now complete. The same account is reused — everything is exported for archival, the reset wizard is run, and the new site starts from scratch without needing a new account.

Fields

Next steps

• Build out your first page following the standard create-a-page guide.
• Configure email transport so password resets and welcome messages reach members reliably.
• Re-import any custom code or custom CSS you saved from your pre-reset snapshot.

Scope

This reference covers the Site Reset wizard — the irreversible operation that wipes all content, settings, and configuration back to a factory-clean SGEN install. It applies to all SGEN plans. It does not cover:

• Partial content cleanup (bulk-deleting posts or pages) — covered in the Blog and Pages guides.
• Theme reset (undoing a design change without losing content) — covered in the Theme guide.
• Database backups or exports — covered in the Export guide; run one before any reset.
• Provisioning a brand new site — contact your billing or onboarding contact for that.

Where to get more help

• Companion guides on bulk delete in Blog and Pages cover the less-destructive content cleanup paths most "I want to start over" requests want.
• The companion guide on theme reset covers undoing a bad design experiment without losing content.
• Direct support is available if you have an active plan — link from your admin's Help menu.
• For "I want to start completely fresh on a new install" requests, talk to your billing or onboarding contact about provisioning a new site.