How far back do backups go

Far enough to undo yesterday's mistake, not far enough to undo one you made last quarter. That gap is the thing worth understanding, because it decides what platform backups can and cannot rescue.

What a rolling window means

Backups run on a schedule and older ones are replaced by newer ones. The window is a fixed depth measured backwards from today, so it moves with you. A file deleted within the window can be restored; one deleted before it cannot, because the last copy containing it has already been overwritten.

The exact depth for your plan is on the plan page and in your account, and it is worth reading rather than assuming, because it is the number that defines what "we have backups" actually buys you.

The failure the window does not cover

Backups protect against the damage you notice. The damage that hurts is the kind nobody notices for weeks:

• A plugin update that quietly broke a form in March, found in May.
• Content deleted by someone who assumed it was a duplicate.
• A compromise that sat dormant, so every backup in the window already contains it.

In each case the backups are working perfectly and none of them are useful, because the last clean copy is older than the oldest one you have.

What to do about the gap

Keep your own copy of anything you could not rebuild, on a schedule that suits how often it changes. That does not mean duplicating the platform backups daily; it means a periodic copy that lives outside the window and outside this infrastructure.

For most estates that is monthly for content and databases, plus a copy before any significant change. The habit is described in taking your own backup.

Check what is actually covered

Backups vary in what they include as well as how far back they go. Files and databases are the standard. Stored mail, cron jobs and account settings may or may not be, depending on the plan and how the backup is taken.

Knowing which of those apply to you before you need a restore is the difference between a quick recovery and discovering a gap at the worst moment. What is and is not included is covered in what your backups actually cover.

The number that matters more

Not how far back, but how quickly you can prove a restore works. A window you have never tested is a claim, not a safeguard, which is the point of restoring a single file.