💾 Advanced

Backups & Disaster Recovery

Last updated: March 14, 2026 3 min read

What to Back Up

A complete backup of your Traffic Exchange Script installation requires three things:

What	Where	Why
Database	MySQL database	All member data, transactions, site submissions, settings
`.env` file	`/.env` in your script root	All credentials and configuration — cannot be regenerated
Uploaded files	`storage/app/`	Member avatars, ad images, exported files

You do not need to back up the script files themselves (PHP, JS, CSS) — those can be restored from your original download. Focus on the database, .env, and storage/app/.

Database Backup

cPanel (Shared Hosting)

Option 1 — cPanel Backup Wizard 1. Log into cPanel → Backup Wizard. 2. Click Back Up → MySQL Databases. 3. Click the database name to download a .sql.gz file. 4. Store this file off-server (local drive, cloud storage).

Option 2 — phpMyAdmin 1. Log into cPanel → phpMyAdmin. 2. Select your Traffic Exchange Script database from the left panel. 3. Click Export → Quick → Go. 4. This downloads a .sql file. Compress it for storage.

Option 3 — SSH (if available)

mysqldump -u DB_USERNAME -p DB_DATABASE > backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

Replace DB_USERNAME and DB_DATABASE with your actual values from .env.

VPS

mysqldump -u DB_USERNAME -p DB_DATABASE | gzip > /path/to/backups/db-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql.gz

Store the backup file outside your web root — ideally on a different server or cloud storage (S3, Backblaze, etc.).

File Backup

`.env` File

Copy /.env to a secure location outside your server. This file contains database credentials, payment gateway keys, and your license key. Losing it means manually reconstructing all configuration.

Do not store .env backups in a web-accessible directory.

`storage/app/` Directory

This directory contains all user-uploaded content. Back it up with your database on the same schedule.

cPanel: Use the cPanel File Manager to compress the storage/app/ directory and download the archive, or use FTP to pull it to a local machine.

VPS:

tar -czf storage-app-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /path/to/script/storage/app/

Backup Frequency

Site Activity	Recommended Frequency
Pre-launch / testing	Weekly (or before each major change)
Small site (< 500 members)	Daily database, weekly files
Active site (500–5,000 members)	Daily database and files
Large site (5,000+ members)	Multiple times per day (database), daily files

Set up automated cron jobs or your hosting control panel’s backup scheduling to run these automatically.

Storing Backups Safely

Keep at least 7 days of daily backups — this gives you a window to catch data corruption that is not immediately obvious.
Store backups off-server — a server failure will take your on-server backups with it. Use external cloud storage (S3, Backblaze B2, Google Drive, Dropbox) or download backups to a local machine.
Test your backups — periodically restore a backup to a test environment to confirm it works before you ever need it in an emergency.

Restoring from Backup

Restore the Database

cPanel / phpMyAdmin: 1. Create a new empty database (or empty the existing one). 2. In phpMyAdmin, select the database → Import → choose your .sql file → Go.

SSH / VPS:

mysql -u DB_USERNAME -p DB_DATABASE < backup-20260101.sql

Restore `.env`

Copy your backed-up .env file back to the script root and overwrite the current one.

Restore `storage/app/`

Extract your backup archive into storage/app/, overwriting the current contents.

After restoring, clear the application cache:

php artisan config:clear
php artisan cache:clear

A backup you never made is a backup you cannot restore from. Set up automated backups before your site goes live.

Traffic Exchange Script admin general settings with database configuration — Your database connection details are in General Settings — use these to connect your backup tool to the correct database.

Screenshots

Traffic Exchange Script general settings — site configuration, email, and environment options — General Settings — includes database connection and storage paths critical for backup configuration.

Traffic Exchange Script admin audit log — complete activity history for admin actions — The Audit Log gives you a chronological record of all changes — useful for assessing what changed before an incident.