How to restore a user database from a Plesk backup

Kuzma Ivanov

Updated August 25, 2025 00:39

Plesk for Windows kb: how-to Plesk for Linux Ideal

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How to restore a user database from a Plesk backup?

Note: To extract a dump of a user database from a Plesk backup without restoration, follow the command-line instructions below.

Log in to Plesk.
Go to to Tools & Settings > Backup Manager (or Domains > example.com > Backup Manager if this is a subscription backup).
Click on a backup that contains a database you want to restore.
Select Type of object to restore as Database > select a subscription > select a database you want to restore.
Click Restore to begin the restoration.

Restoring a database from a Plesk backup via a command-line interface

Connect to a Plesk server via SSH.
Find the current backup location:

# grep "DUMP_D" /etc/psa/psa.conf
DUMP_D /var/lib/psa/dumps
Find a database you want to restore with the path from step 2 and a database name using the command below. Replace example_db with an actual database name:

# find /var/lib/psa/dumps/ | grep example_db

The output will look like this:

# find /var/lib/psa/dumps/ | grep example_db
/var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/john_doe/domains/example.com/databases/example_db
/var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/john_doe/domains/example.com/databases/example_db/backup_xxxxxxxxx.tgz
Extract the database to the /root directory with a full path to the database from step 3:

# tar -xvf /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/john_doe/domains/example.com/databases/example_db/backup_xxxxxxxxx.tgz -C /root/
To restore a database from this dump, run this command:

# MYSQL_PWD=`cat /etc/psa/.psa.shadow` mysql -uadmin db_example < /path/to/database_dump

where
- /path/to/database_dump - the extracted database dump from step 4
- db_example - the database in which the dump is going to be restored