Every website needs a way to back up its files in case something goes wrong. Fortunately, Shopify provides different ways to create and manage this fail-safe either manually or automated. Keep reading to find out how you can add Shopify backup to your storefront.
Manual Backup vs. Shopify Backup Apps
Manual Backup
There is no automated backup functionality built into Shopify that will let you quickly restore data and files if you mistakenly hit the delete button. However, it’s possible to back up certain types of data as well as the theme. What you cannot back up manually are custom pages or the home page’s content.
Shopify Backup Apps
While backup functionality is limited out of the box, there are several Shopify apps that will let you set up automated backups. Unlike Shopify’s default settings that only allow certain types of data to be backed up, backup apps will capture and store the data of your entire store automatically without needing any user interaction. You can set your system to create backups daily, weekly, or monthly.
How to Manually Back Up Shopify
Manually backing up your store’s data and theme is fairly straightforward, but limited in its efficiency.
Backing Up Product Information
Technically speaking, backing up products is not a backup process in the true sense of the word, but basically you can manually export your product data to a .csv file and then import it back into your store at any time in the future.
It’s also possible to perform a similar backup process for:
- Customer lists
- Orders
- Gift card products
- Discount codes
- Finance reports
Backing Up Your Shopify Theme
Manually backing up your Shopify theme is also relatively easy. You simply download the theme as a .zip file in Shopify’s backend: Online Store > Themes > Actions > Download theme file
Please note that you cannot directly download the file to your computer. Instead, it will be exported to the email associated with the store owner’s account.
How to Manually Restore Your Shopify Store
Similar to how you manually create Shopify backups, you can also restore that data to your system if something goes wrong.
Restoring Product Information
For example, to restore product information, you need to import the product .csv backup file you created earlier: Online Store > Products > All products > Import
Once you click on the “import” button at the top of the Products screen, simply choose the file from your local desktop when prompted. Your product information will now be reverted to the earlier version.
Restoring Your Shopify Theme
Restoring your theme is a different process, and you can actually keep backups of the theme through two methods.
- Download the theme
- Clone the theme
If you download a theme backup file, you will need to restore it by uploading it back to your themes. This will create a new theme in the backend, which you can later customize or edit.
If you decide to back up the theme by cloning it, you create a clone of the active working theme and later if you need to restore it, you simply activate the cloned theme. This is an easier and more appropriate backup method.
Shopify Backup Apps
Since Shopify lacks the ability to create full backups, third-party apps have filled in this missing functionality. There are several reliable Shopify apps available that can be used to back up and restore your entire website or specific pages, blog articles, menus, orders, media, and other important data.
What makes using an app the preferred method over manually downloading and storing files is that backup apps provide a fully automated system through which you can schedule routine backups on a recurring time duration: daily, weekly, or monthly.
The Shopify App Store doesn’t have a dedicated category to backup apps, however, there are two ways you can find them. Either go to the Trust and Security Apps category and scroll through the list to find an appropriate app or do a free search for “backup restore.”
You can also click on any of the following backup apps to go directly to their app store details page.
- Rewind Backups ($3–99 / month)
- Excelify (Free, $20–200 / month)
- Automatic Backups ($8.95–34.95 / month)
- Backup ($4.99–79.90 / month)
- Data Backups & Recovery (Free, $9.99–49.99 / month)
How to Safely Test Theme Design Changes
One of the most common problems with live websites is testing design changes or a reskin of the storefront. Since the website is live, there is little room for error so it must be done perfectly without messing up the website. There are two ways you can test design changes without needing to revert to backups.
- Create a new theme
- Clone the store to a dev environment
Create a New Theme
Creating a new theme can be done by duplicating the current theme and making changes in preview mode. Once the design changes are fully tested, select the new theme as the live theme. This is a quick solution and mostly adopted by web developers for small stores.
Clone the Store to a Dev Environment
Cloning the whole store to a new dev environment is mostly done through apps like Store Copy and all the design changes are made in the cloned store. Once the changes are fully implemented and tested, the store can be cloned back to the live URL. Unlike creating a new theme, this method involves additional fees as most of the Shopify apps with this functionality are paid. Web developers typically don’t use paid apps to test design changes in case the changes are not very impactful.
There is a free Shopify tool called Theme Kit for developers that lets you edit the Liquid code locally on your desktop and test the changes live. Theme Kit is a command-based system but once configured, it’s a very good tool and can be used to make design changes.
How to Recover an Old Shopify Store
If you previously ran a Shopify store but closed it, there are a couple possible ways to recover it. Reasons for recovering an old store could be to export your inventory or store orders, or you may want to relaunch your store after having ended your service with Shopify.
Once you cancel payments for your Shopify store there is no automatic way of recovering it. Shopify recommends to suspend your account temporarily at a lesser monthly recurring cost. When you want to make your website live again, you can easily change the suspended store’s settings. This is the recommended way of taking a short-term leave from your online business if you intend to return to it later.
If you chose not to suspend your account, you can still recover your Shopify store but you need to pay a fee for the number of months your store was unpaid. Once the payment is processed, you will regain access to your store’s data.
Don’t Wait to Back Up Your Shopify Store
It’s possible to back up your Shopify store, so make sure that you take the time to either manually download files on a regular basis or use an automated backup app for a small monthly fee. Think of it as the insurance plan for your Shopify store, you may never need it but it can be a lifesaver when you least expect it.
