Data Transfer

Updated by Darryl Waterhouse on 13 October 2026 6 min read

Data Transfer backs up your collections, restores them, clones them and moves them between file storage and MongoDB. Entries keep their ids and dates when they are backed up, restored or moved. It is for site administrators only.

What it does

Backups - copy the settings and every entry of all or some collections, and keep the copy on the server.
Restores - put a backup back, all of it or chosen collections, by merging or replacing.
Moves - transfer collections from file storage to MongoDB, or back again.
Clones - make a new collection with the same fields and settings, with or without the entries.
Downloads and uploads - take a backup off the server as a file, and bring one back.
Scheduled backups - a full backup every day or every week, at a time you choose.

Before every restore and every move, Data Transfer takes a safety snapshot of the collections it is about to change. If the snapshot cannot be taken, the operation does not run. That means a restore or a move can itself be undone from the Backups list.

Getting started

Open Data Transfer from the admin sidebar.
Go to the Backups tab and click Create backup....
Leave every collection ticked for a full backup, give it a name if you like (for example "Before the price update"), and click Create backup.
Make a backup like this before any big change to your content.

Screens

The screen has two tabs, Collections and Backups, each showing how many items it holds. The banner at the top has four buttons: Create backup, Clone a collection, Refresh and the settings cog.

Collections

Lists every collection with its entry count and a chip showing where it is stored (file or MongoDB).

To move collections between storage types:

Choose a direction: MongoDB -> File or File -> MongoDB. File -> MongoDB is greyed out while MongoDB is not connected.
Tick the collections to move, or use Select all. Clear unticks them.
Click Transfer and confirm.

A collection that cannot move has its tick box greyed out. The reasons are: it is built-in (roles, users and the other core collections never move), it is already on the storage you chose, or MongoDB is not connected.

After a transfer, a Last transfer card lists each collection and whether it moved. If a collection fails part-way, it is left where it was, and its settings are put back.

Each collection row has a menu (right-click the row, click the three-dot button, or press Shift+F10):

Move to MongoDB or Move to file storage
Select / Deselect
Back up now - a quick backup of just that collection
Clone...
Open entries - opens the collection in the Collections screen

Backups

Lists every backup, newest first, with when it was made and what it holds. Safety snapshots carry a Safety snapshot chip and are named after what they were taken before. Backups made by the schedule carry a Scheduled chip, and uploaded ones an Uploaded chip. Under the heading a line says when the next scheduled backup is due.

Click a backup to open it. The panel shows:

Collections in this backup - tick the ones to restore (All / None). Each shows its entry count and where it was stored. A collection that no longer exists is marked and will be recreated.
How - choose Merge or Replace (see below).
Restore all (or Restore 2 and so on when you tick fewer), Close, Download and Delete.

Each backup row also has a menu: Open..., Restore all - merge..., Restore all - replace..., Download and Delete....

Download and upload

Download saves the backup to your computer as a .tar.gz file. Keep it somewhere other than the server (a backup on the same disk as the site is lost with it). The file holds every entry of the collections in it, so keep it private.

Upload... (next to Create backup...) takes a file downloaded from Data Transfer, on this site or another, and adds it to the list as a backup. The file is checked first: it must be a Data Transfer backup, every collection in it must be present and readable, and its checksums must match (a damaged or edited copy is refused). Uploading changes nothing on its own. The backup opens so you can see what it holds; restoring from it then works as for any other backup, with a safety snapshot of your current collections taken first. The largest file you can upload is set in the settings (200 MB by default).

Merge or replace

Mode	What happens
Merge	Entries in the backup overwrite the same entries now (matched by id). Entries added since the backup are kept. Use this to get back a few lost or changed entries.
Replace	Each collection is emptied, then filled from the backup, exactly as it was. Entries added since the backup are removed.

Either way a safety snapshot is taken first.

Clone a collection

Open it from the banner button or a collection's Clone... menu item.

Pick the Source collection.
Enter a New title. The New slug fills in as you type; edit it if you want a different one. The slug is the collection's address in the API and in shortcodes, and must not already be in use.
Turn on Copy the entries too if you want the entries as well as the fields and settings.
Click Clone.

Cloned entries get new ids, so the two collections never share an entry id.

Settings

Click the settings cog in the banner (or Change... beside the schedule line).

Scheduled backups

Setting	Default	What it does
Back up on a schedule	Off	Makes a full backup of every collection automatically.
How often / On	Every day	Every day, or once a week on the day you pick.
At	02:00	The time, 24-hour. Pick a quiet hour.
Time zone	UTC	The time is in this zone, so it stays the same when the clocks change.
Keep	14	Scheduled backups to keep. The oldest beyond this are removed.

The panel shows when the next one will run. If the site is down at that time, the backup is made as soon as it is back. If the scheduled backup fails, a critical notification says why.

Keeping backups

Setting	Default	What it does
Backups made by hand to keep	50	The oldest beyond this are removed automatically.
Safety snapshots to keep	5	Counted separately from backups made by hand and scheduled backups.
Warn after (days)	30	The sidebar badge turns red when your newest backup (by hand or scheduled) is older than this many days.

The largest upload (uploadMaxMb, 200 MB) can be changed in config/plugins.json under data-transfer > settings.

The Data Transfer sidebar item shows how many backups there are. Hover it for the date of the last backup, how many collections are on file and on MongoDB, whether MongoDB is connected, and the latest backups.
The badge turns red when you have collections but no backup made by hand or by the schedule in the last 30 days (or none at all), and then shows a red 1. Safety snapshots do not count.
A warning notification says the same thing. It is checked daily and when the site starts, and clears as soon as you make a backup.
If a move or restore fails, a critical notification names the collections, the error, where the data was left and the safety snapshot to restore from.

Notifications go to Super Admins unless you change who receives them.

Permissions and roles

Data Transfer has no permission keys of its own. Only users with an admin-level role (Admin or Super Admin, or a user given the Admin role as an additional role) can open it or use its actions.

Tips

Make a backup before moving collections, before a restore you are unsure about, and before bulk edits.
Name your backups. Unnamed backups are shown by date only.
Use Merge to recover a few entries. Use Replace only when you want a collection exactly as it was.
Only one operation runs at a time. If you see "Busy", wait for the current one to finish.
If you leave the screen with the backup or clone panel half filled in, you are offered your entries back on your next visit (in the same browser).

Limitations

Backups are kept on the server until you download them. Download one now and then and keep it elsewhere.
Scheduled backups always cover every collection.
Moving to MongoDB needs a MongoDB connection named default. Backups, restores and clones work without MongoDB.
Built-in collections (roles, users and other core collections) are never moved.
Old backups are removed automatically once you have more than the limits above.