Knowledgebase

How do I make a Backup of My Store?
 

Contents

Store Data

The majority of your store's data can be exported via CSV file export for backup purposes. Here are the navigation steps needed to get to the main CSV export sections:

Order Data

To export Order Data:

  1. Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager
  2. Use the left-hand navigation menu and go to Orders >Manage Orders
  3. Once there, look to the top right of the page and click on the "Export/Import" button

To export the order history

  1. Click on the + symbol next to "Orders" to expand the section.
  2. Select your export filtering parameters as needed.

Additional Information:
You will have the option of filtering the order export by Distributors, Date Ranges, and Statuses. You can also use the "Include Order Items" checkbox to list ordered items along with their respective orders.

Lastly, you can also create a custom export set that includes only the parameters that you need.

After selecting your export parameters, click on the "Export Data" link to generate the CSV file which can then be saved to your computer and used as needed.

Tip
To learn more about the order export options, click here.

Product Data

To begin exporting Product data:

  1. Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager
  2. Use the left-hand navigation menu and go to Products >Product List
  3. Once there, look to the top right of the page and click on the "Export/Import" button

To export the product information

  1. Click on the + symbol next to "Product" to expand the section.
  2. Select your export filtering parameters as needed.

Additional Information:
You will have the option of filtering the product export by Categories, Manufacturers, and Distributors. You can also create a custom export set that includes only the parameters that you need.

After selecting your export parameters, click on the "Export Data" link to generate the CSV file which can then be saved to your computer and used as needed.

Tip
You can learn more about the different Product Export functions by clicking here.

Note that the product export/import page will also contain export options for the following features that are separate from the main product export:
(Click on a link below to review that topic's knowledgebase article)

Additional Infomation
Note that the main product export will contain the file paths to the product's first four images. The image gallery will contain file paths to images if the product has more than the main four images added to it.

Also note that these exports will only contain the file paths to the image files. To make backups of your uploaded images, please see the image back up section below.

Customer Data

To begin exporting Customer data:

  1. Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager
  2. Use the left-hand navigation menu and go to Customers >Customer List
  3. Once there, look to the top right of the page and click on the "Export/Import" button

To export the product information

  1. Click on the + symbol next to "Customers" to expand the section.
  2. Select your export filtering parameters as needed.

Additional Information:
You will have the option of filtering the product export by Customer Group, First Name, Last Name, and Order Date Ranges. You can also create a custom export set that includes only the parameters that you need.

After selecting your export parameters, click on the "Export Data" link to generate the CSV file which can then be saved to your computer and used as needed.

Tip
You can learn more about the different Customer Export functions by clicking here.

Additional Store Data

Your Shift4Shop Store has additional CSV exports for the following areas of the store you may wish to backup.
(click on a link to see the respective article)

Store Design

Shift4Shop Themes and templates can be fully customized by Shift4Shop Merchants in order to achieve a certain look and feel.

Because of this, it's usually a good idea to keep a local and backed up copy of your theme folder on your local computer. This way, you can recover any subsequent edits that may have adverse effects on your site and you'd like to revert it back to a previous working version.

To make a backup of your design template, you will need the following:

  • Your account's FTP credentials
  • An FTP client
  • Your Theme's folder name.

Theme Folder

First let's find your Theme folder's name. Each of the Shift4Shop design theme folders has a unique name. The free design templates are usually numbered and any premium templates you may have purchased will have a unique name. So the first step in our process is to find the name of your Theme folder.

  1. Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager
  2. Go to Settings >Design >Themes & Styles

Once there, click on the "Change Theme" button to proceed to your installed themes page.

  1. Along with your Theme screenshot you will see "Selected Theme:" and your theme folder's name.
  2. Make a note of this name and proceed to the next steps.

FTP to your Site

  1. Using your favorite FTP client, log into your account's FTP service
  2. Navigate to the web/assets/templates folder via FTP.
  3. Select your Theme Folder and transfer it to your local computer.

That's it! Copying the entire theme folder will make a backup of the theme's CSS file, images and any HTML templates unique to your store's theme/design. Store this folder in a safe place and you're all set with your backup

Should the need ever arise to recover your theme folder from back up, simply take the backed up folder and re-upload it (via FTP) back to your web/assets/templates folder to overwrite any subsequent changes made to your design after the back up was made.

Clone the Theme

Rather than storing the back up on your desktop and using FTP, another option would be to simply clone the theme to make a backup of it.

To clone your theme:

  1. Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager
  2. Go to Settings >Design >Themes & Styles
  3. Once there, click on the "Change Theme" button to proceed to your installed themes page.
  4. Look within the "Installed Themes" section and click on the theme you wish to clone.
  5. Click on the "Clone This Theme" button

The system will bring up a confirmation screen with the a preview of what the name of the cloned theme will be. The name of the cloned theme will essentially be the name of the original theme with a timestamp applied to it. (example [theme-name]YYYYMMDDhhmmss-core)

  1. Click Yes to complete the clone process.

After the theme is cloned, you can use it as a back up to revert any design changes you'd like to make to the store's theme. You can also apply the cloned theme and leave the original version as the "backup" instead. Whichever works best for your needs.

Note
When clicking on the cloned theme, you will also see a button labeled "Re-Install Theme"

This button is present on all of your installed themes and it is intended to give you a fresh reinstall copy of the Shift4Shop provided theme from its repository.

Be aware however that - due to the timestamped name - this reinstall will NOT work on cloned themes. To reinstall a theme, it should be the original theme.

Images

You can use FTP access to also make a backup of your images that were uploaded to the store.

  1. Using your favorite FTP client, log into your account's FTP service
  2. Navigate to the web/assets/images folder via FTP.

This folder will contain every image upload to the store via the File Manager.

  1. Select your images folder and transfer it to your local computer.
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