This tutorial will illustrate how to restore a MySQL dump backup of your database. It utilizes the capabilities of phpMyAdmin which can be found in your Control Panel. A MySQL dump file is a plain text file, that contains all the necessary queries needed to rebuild a database.

You will need to begin by dropping or deleting the current database. The MySQL dump will override all the information in the current database. Because of this the database will need to be empty in order to for the restore to work properly. You must insure that the database you are dumping the information into is empty. This may mean that you will need to recreate the database and lose any information that is in it. If a backup was just created, little or no information should be lost. This is why making and keeping frequent backups of a database is an excellent policy.

Log into your Control Panel and click on the MySQL Database link.

Scroll down to the bottom and click on the phpMyAdmin link.

On the screen you will see a drop down list at the top left (Databases) .... Clicking on this will cause a list of all the databases you have created in your hosting account to display. Click on the name of the database you want to backup.

When you click on the database name, the right frame will change. You should see a tab near the top of that frame that reads SQL. Click on this link.

On this page you will see a line that reads Or Location of the textfile. Click the browse button next to this. Navigate your way on your local computer to the MySQL dump file that contains the information you want to restore. Select this file. Back on the page, click the Go button.

You should see a message telling you the status of your query. If it was successful, you will see the left frame change to display the tables in this database.

You will need to repeat these steps to restore any additional databases you have.

For more information about setting up MySQL Databases, please see this knowledgebase and our tutorials.

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