Download Entire Site Via Ftp?

[rnmcd]

Is it possible to backup your entire site via FTP? I use SmartFTP and can't seem to figure out how to download my entire site to my PC with SmartFTP?

[TCH-Bruce]

Well the simplest way would be to generate a Full Backup in cPanel and then use your FTP program to download the archive the Full Backup creates.

 

Remember to delete the archive file from your web space after you FTP it to your computer. Otherwise the next time you generate a full backup it will also get included and just eat up your disk space.

[rnmcd]

I wonder why you can't just 'transfer' folders from the server to your PC?

 

Is this a limitation to ftp'ing or to SmartFTP?

[TCH-Bruce]

You can transfer anything you want with FTP. It will take a lot longer and use more of your bandwidth.

 

Doing a full backup also gets your email and your databases if you have any. Otherwise you would have to download backups of your databases using cPanel.

[rnmcd]

Before my original post I had tried to FTP my entire site (it is very small) to my PC.

 

It looked like everything was getting transferred over to my PC but after the transfer was complete there was a public_html folder but it didn't contain any files--there are public_html files on the server though. All the other folders have files and I'm sure that I saw public_html files being transferred.

 

I tried it a second time and still no public_html files on my PC.

 

Hmm.

[TCH-Bruce]

Have you tried going into the public_html folder and bringing over the contents by selecting everything? Or one at a time?

 

What you did should have worked.

[rnmcd]

Have you tried going into the public_html folder and bringing over the contents by selecting everything? Or one at a time?

 

What you did should have worked.

 

 

What I did was a <Shift> and selected all top-level folders for my domain and transferred them to a folder I had created on my PC.

 

It looks like every other folder transfered just fine.

 

Whoa. Stop the presses. As I was typing this I decided to go through the folders that DID transfer.

 

The public_html and public_ftp folders are empty but the www folder has all the files in it.

 

What do you make of that? Aren't the public_html, public_ftp, and www folders basically the same thing?

[TCH-Andy]

public_html and www are the same yes.

 

public_ftp is different, but virtually always empty, as anonymous FTP is disabled.

[TCH-Bruce]

public_ftp should be empty. It was used at one time for anonymous FTP which is disabled.

 

www and public_html are the same folder. One is a symbolic link to the other. It's what makes it possible to access your site with either yourTCHdomain.ext or www.yourTCHdomain.ext

[rnmcd]

The files in "www" are not copies of the "public_htm" files, are they?

 

Does one folder link/shortcut to the other folder?

 

I'm just trying to figure out why my public)_html folder is empty but my www folder appears to have all of the expected files.

[TCH-Andy]

the www is simply a pointer to public_html - effectively a shortcut, yes.

[rnmcd]

public_ftp should be empty. It was used at one time for anonymous FTP which is disabled.

 

www and public_html are the same folder. One is a symbolic link to the other. It's what makes it possible to access your site with either yourTCHdomain.ext or www.yourTCHdomain.ext

 

Oops, sorry. I missed Bruce's reply--I didn't get an email notification of his reply so I just started typing away.

 

What could be causing the public_html folder that I transferred to my PC not to 'point' to the same files as the "www" folder?

[TCH-Andy]

an alias on a linux machine doesn't translate directly into a windows shortcut.

 

Usually the FTP software will recognise that it's the same files though, and only copy one lot.

[rnmcd]

an alias on a linux machine doesn't translate directly into a windows shortcut.

 

Usually the FTP software will recognise that it's the same files though, and only copy one lot.

 

Ok. I understand...I think.

 

I generated the full cpanel backup like Bruce suggested. I received the email stating the backup was completed.

 

But I don't see an 'archive' file in my FTP directory to download.

[jayson]

Ok. I understand...I think.

 

I generated the full cpanel backup like Bruce suggested. I received the email stating the backup was completed.

 

But I don't see an 'archive' file in my FTP directory to download.

 

The backup I believe is in the public_html folder

[TCH-Bruce]

The backup file should be above the public_html folder.

[rnmcd]

You are correct.

 

My problem was user error. I thought by backing out of a directory and going back into would do the same thing as a "refresh" ...apparently it doesn't; at least not in SmartFTP.

[jayson]

Sorry, Bruce, I forgot that there is a level above the public_html

[TCH-Bruce]

No problem

[rnmcd]

When creating the full backup then reloading it, will EVERYTHING related to that site be backed-up and reloaded? Or are there things, like cronjobs that don't get backed up?

 

I plan on copying my site to another domain when it goes "live" but am wondering what might not get backed up when using cPanel.

[TCH-Bruce]

A full backup will download everything. You cannot restore a full backup on your own. You upload your backup file to the server and open a help desk ticket and have the techs restore it for you.

 

You can use the download home backup and restore that yourself but it does not download your databases or alias files.

 

I am not sure if the cronjobs are backed up in either. The help desk can answer that for you.

[rnmcd]

The Help Desk responded and said a full cpanel back-up backed up my cron jobs and ftp accounts too.

 

I am pretty sure that the last time I had a site backed and then reloaded to another TCH account that I lost all cron jobs...hmm.