How to Back Up and Restore a Webflow Site

A careless update, an accidental deletion, or a major redesign can leave a Webflow project in a state you did not intend. Webflow backups give you a way to return to an earlier version of the project when something goes wrong.

In this guide, I'll show you exactly how Webflow backups work, how to create a manual backup, how to preview and restore an earlier version, and what to check before publishing it again.

Watch the Tutorial

I created this short tutorial on YouTube to show you the complete Webflow backup workflow in practice. Follow along as I create a manual backup, preview an earlier version, restore it, and publish the restored project again.

How Webflow Backups Work

Webflow automatically creates restore points as you work. You can also create a manual backup whenever you want to preserve the current state of your project.

Manual backups are especially useful before:

• A website redesign
• A major Webflow CMS update
• Navigation or page structure changes
• Large style or class updates
• Custom code changes
• Localization or integration updates

You can preview, restore, and rename backups directly from the Designer. Webflow also creates a new backup of the current project before restoring an earlier version, so you have a way to return to the previous state if needed.

The main thing to remember is that a backup restores the project in the Designer. It doesn't automatically mean that the restored version is live on your website.

How to Create a Manual Backup

Before making an important change, I recommend creating a clearly named manual backup.

1. Open your Webflow project.
2. Open the project in the Designer.
3. Make sure you are in Design mode.
4. Open the Settings panel.
5. Select Backups.
6. Click Create backup.
7. Give the backup a clear name like "Before redesign."
8. Save the backup.

Before creating the backup, check that your latest changes have finished saving.

A descriptive name makes it much easier to find the right version later. I would rather spend a few seconds naming a backup properly than try to identify an unnamed restore point when something has gone wrong.

How to Preview a Backup

Before restoring an earlier version, preview it first. This lets you check the project without changing the current version.

1. Open the Backups panel.
2. Find the backup you want to check.
3. Select the preview option to open it in a new tab.
4. Review the pages, styles, elements, and content.
5. Close the preview when you are finished.

The preview is read-only, so you can explore the website without making changes to the backup.

This step is easy to skip when you are trying to fix something quickly, but it's worth doing. A backup may have the right date but still not contain the exact version you expected.

How to Restore a Webflow Backup

If something goes wrong, you can restore an earlier version from the Backups panel.

1. Open the Backups panel in the Designer.
2. Find the version you want to use.
3. Preview it to confirm that it is the correct backup.
4. Open the backup options.
5. Select Restore.
6. Read the warning and confirm the restoration.
7. Review the restored project in the Designer.
8. Publish the site again if you want the restored version to go live.

Restoring a backup can overwrite changes made after that restore point. Before confirming the restoration, save any recent work you want to keep in a new backup or separate copy.

What to Check After Restoring

Don't publish immediately after restoring a backup. First, check the parts of the project that matter most:

• Main pages and navigation
• CMS collections and collection items
• Forms and reCAPTCHA settings
• Custom code and integrations
• Interactions and animations
• Links and assets
• Responsive layouts
• Localization and secondary locales

If the project uses Webflow Localization, check whether publishing is still enabled for your secondary locales. Restoring a backup with more locales than are currently active can disable publishing for those locales until you enable them again.

If your site uses reCAPTCHA, check the settings after restoring the backup. Webflow may reset the reCAPTCHA configuration during a restoration, so you may need to add the keys again before publishing.

Also check any external integrations or API connections that depend on CMS, Ecommerce, Page, or Asset IDs. For backups created after March 25, 2024, Webflow preserves these IDs when you restore a site. Historical backups created before that update may reset them, so review important integrations before publishing the restored version.

Republish the Restored Version

Restoring the backup changes the project in the Designer. It doesn't automatically make that version live on your published website.

Once you have reviewed the restored project:

1. Open the Publish menu.
2. Select the domains where you want to publish the restored version.
3. Re-enable any required locales or publishing settings.
4. Click Publish.
5. Open the live website and check the restored pages again.

This is the step people often miss. You can successfully restore a backup in Webflow and still leave the previous version live if you do not publish the restored project afterward.

A Simple Webflow Backup Habit

You don't need to create a manual backup before every small edit. But before making a change that would be difficult to recreate, create a named restore point first.

For example:

• Before homepage redesign
• Before CMS migration
• Before navigation update
• Before custom code update
• Before localization changes

This gives you a clear recovery point and makes it easier to understand the project history later.

Webflow backups are useful for rolling back project changes, but they should not be your only copy of important website data. For critical projects, keep separate copies of important content, assets, custom code, and integration details.

Before Your Next Major Change

I recommend creating a clearly named manual backup before any redesign, CMS migration, navigation update, or custom code change. It takes a few seconds and gives you a clear recovery point if the next update doesn't go as planned.

If you prefer to see the complete process, watch my tutorial at the top of this article and follow along in your own Webflow project.