iFastHostingHow to recover a website you deleted
Stop, work out exactly what is gone, then check for a backup before touching anything else — order matters here.
If you have just deleted a website — an account, a folder, a database, or all three — the instinct is to start clicking around trying to fix it. Resist that. The next few minutes matter more than they feel like they do, and the wrong click can turn a recoverable situation into one that is not.
First, work out exactly what happened
"Deleted" covers several different situations, and the right response depends on which one you are actually in:
- Files removed from the web root, but the hosting account itself and its database still exist.
- A database dropped or emptied, with the files still present but now unable to load anything from it.
- An entire hosting account or addon site removed, files and database together.
- A domain expired or was released, which is a different problem again — the site may still exist, just unreachable. That is covered separately in recovering an expired domain, not here.
It is also worth ruling out that the site has been suspended rather than deleted — a suspended account usually still has everything intact behind a holding page, and comes back the moment whatever caused the suspension is resolved. What to do if you see "Account Suspended" covers that case, which is considerably less urgent than a genuine deletion.
Step 1: stop making changes
Do not create a new site in the same location, do not run an installer to "start again", and do not delete anything else while you investigate. Any of those can overwrite a database that could otherwise have been restored, or complicate a support investigation into what is actually still there.
This matters more than it might seem. Storage on a live server is reused constantly, and space that a deleted database or set of files occupied can be allocated to something new within hours. The less that happens on the account between the deletion and the recovery attempt, the more options remain open — which is exactly why the first move is to stop and assess, not to immediately start rebuilding.
Step 2: check for a backup
Before assuming the worst, check what backups actually exist:
- The backups section of your control panel, for an automated snapshot taken before the deletion.
- Any backup plugin your site used, and wherever it was configured to send copies.
- Anywhere you personally downloaded a copy to — a computer, an external drive, or cloud storage.
Hosts commonly run some form of automated backup as a convenience, but exactly what is available, how far back it goes, and what it covers varies by plan and can change over time. Rather than guessing, check your specific plan's current terms in the client area, or ask support directly what is available on your account. Does my host back up my site for me? covers this in more depth.
Step 3: restore from the most recent good copy
Once you have located a usable backup, restore it rather than trying to reconstruct the site by hand. A restore, even from a backup that is a few days old, gets you a working site far faster than rebuilding from memory — and you can always re-add anything more recent afterwards if you have a record of it elsewhere.
If there is no backup at all
Tell us exactly what was deleted and roughly when it happened. We cannot promise a specific recovery outcome from this article — what is technically possible depends on your plan, how much time has passed, and what happened on the server since — but the sooner we know, the more options remain open. Contact us directly rather than continuing to try things on your own account in the meantime.
Once the site is back
A deletion that could have been undone in thirty seconds by restoring a backup is a much better afternoon than one that could not be undone at all. If this incident did not have a backup to fall back on, that is the gap to close immediately:
- Turn on automated backups if they were not already running.
- Get at least one copy off the hosting account itself, so a future account-level problem cannot take the backup down with the site.
- Add a habit of a manual backup before any change you make on purpose, so an accidental deletion during routine work is never the only copy that existed.
Losing a site once is an accident. Losing it twice for the same reason is a process problem, and it is the one part of this that is entirely within your control going forward. None of the routine that prevents a repeat is complicated — a schedule, an off-site copy, and a habit before risky changes — and all of it is far cheaper than the hours a deletion with no backup costs you.
Related reading
A restore overwrites the live site with the backup, so do it in the right order — here is what that order is.
Does my host back up my site for me?Often, in some form — but the specifics vary by plan and are worth confirming rather than assuming, and a copy of your own is still worth keeping.
What to do if you see "Account Suspended"Your files and data are still there — a suspension is a switch, not a deletion. Here is what causes it and how to get it lifted.
How to automate your website backupsA backup you have to remember to run by hand eventually does not get run — here are three ways to automate it instead.