Title: Does Restoring the WP database restore plugins?
Last modified: October 15, 2021

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# Does Restoring the WP database restore plugins?

 *  [Benny](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wordbob/)
 * (@wordbob)
 * [4 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-restoring-the-wp-database-restore-plugins/)
 * We are in the process of upgrading a WordPress site for both out-of-date WP and
   out-of-date plugins.
 * If we back up the WordPress database (the sql file), does this include the plugins?
   I’m concerned about the ability to “reset” a plug-in if we find compatibility
   issues with its upgrade.
 * The goal would be to have a full backup of the working site that could be reset
   to the working version if we upgrade and things go askew.
 * Thanks,

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [lisa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/contentiskey/)
 * (@contentiskey)
 * [4 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-restoring-the-wp-database-restore-plugins/#post-14974577)
 * plugins are files
    you can access plugins via webhosting cpanel or ftp. find 
   plugins in wp-content folder. at minimum make a copy of wp-content folder and
   wp-config file Resource: [https://wordpress.org/support/article/wordpress-backups/](https://wordpress.org/support/article/wordpress-backups/)
    -  This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by [lisa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/contentiskey/).
 *  Moderator [Steven Stern (sterndata)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sterndata/)
 * (@sterndata)
 * Volunteer Forum Moderator
 * [4 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-restoring-the-wp-database-restore-plugins/#post-14975222)
 * The database holds the list of plugins and their settings, but not the plugins
   themselves, so you need to move both over.
 *  Thread Starter [Benny](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wordbob/)
 * (@wordbob)
 * [4 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-restoring-the-wp-database-restore-plugins/#post-14976843)
 * Thanks… as a former developer, I was figuring on outside content, but WP does
   some funky stuff. Appreciate the info.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Does Restoring the WP database restore plugins?’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [database](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/database/)
 * [upgrade](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/upgrade/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 3 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Benny](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wordbob/)
 * Last activity: [4 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-restoring-the-wp-database-restore-plugins/#post-14976843)
 * Status: not resolved

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