Can Shopify Do Backups For You? (Explained)

There used to be no easy way to back up your Shopify store, and many shop owners would suffer from missing information or remaking an entire page on their shop.

Now, there are easier ways to tackle this issue!

Does Shopify do backups for their shops?

Shopify is pretty hands-off when it comes to your store. Therefore it is your responsibility to make sure that your files and information are stored and backed up in the event of a disaster – whether you use a third-party program like Skyvia or back up the files yourself.

Whichever way you choose to do it, backing up your store and your files is a must in order to maintain your shop for years to come.

1. What is The Backup Practice on Shopify?

Backing up data for your Shopify store can be a little tricky, but it is possible!

While Shopify does not do backing up or file saving for you, they do offer information and advice on how to properly back up your shop.

According to the Shopify help center and their online community forum, you can manually backup your store data by exporting a CSV of your products and download them to your computer.

You can export CSV files to back up the following types of store information:

• Products
• Customers
• Orders
• Gift card codes
• Discount codes
• Financial data

If you do decide to do this manually, there are a few steps that you should follow.

Backing Up Your Store Manually

For those shop owners who are up to the task, you can backup and save data for your store manually.

This requires exporting your products and then downloading your themes to your desktop.

According to the Shopify community, you must go to your shop page, go-to products, and click “export.” This creates a CSV for your online product data.

Once you have done that, you can go to your Online Store > Themes > Actions > and then “Download File,” which creates a CSV for your shop theme and data.

Saving your data periodically and then marking the newest downloads and most updated information is something that a lot of shop owners don’t like to spend time doing.

If that’s the case for you, there are other ways to go about it.

Backing Up Your Store with Help

If the manual backup of your shop is too complicated or tedious, you can use online apps and automatic systems that will back up your shop for you every week, month, or even more frequently than that.

These apps are sometimes free and sometimes require a subscription to use, but their help is invaluable if you don’t want to do the task yourself – or if you don’t have time to.

Here is a list of a few online apps Shopify has listed that we found while doing research:

• Skyvia – Free start plans, saves data at your frequency, but for bigger shops will most likely require a paid plan
• Rewind Backups – In the Shopify app store, and saves data every day, it comes with a 7-day free trial.
• Replay Store Copy – Duplicate and manage multiple stores at once, is meant for those who have more than one shop and a lot of data

Even though there are hundreds of Shopify-partnered apps that they list on their site, these are only a few of the easier methods to backing up your store.

So, if you feel that manual backups are not for you, these will always be waiting for you!

Just watch out for any hidden fees!

2. Should I Backup my Shopify Store Myself?

Even though backing up your Shopify store – especially large ones or multiple stores – is a long, tedious task, many shop owners do like to do it themselves.

This is to make sure to maintain their data and privacy, as well as the integrity of their shop, without accidentally losing data or having it linked through strange apps or third-party companies.

Keep in mind, though, that Shopify does pick a lot of their apps based on efficiency and accountability. There are some apps that have better reviews than others, so if you do your research right, you may be able to find the one that works for you.

If you are against letting another app or company save your data for you, manually saving your own data is a great alternative.

Just make sure that you know exactly what you’re doing, or else you could lose a lot of information pretty quickly!

3. Should I use a Third-Party App on Shopify for Backup?

Using a third-party app on your Shopify store is going to be the fastest and most consistent method for backing up your data.

While it does come with a few precautionary measures, this will prevent you from having to spend time each week or month backing up your store data in case something were to occur, such as credit card fraud or hacking of your information.

However, many shop owners don’t like third-party apps having access to their data. If you are concerned about this at all, make sure to research each third-party app heavily and take Shopify app suggestions.

Furthermore, search in the Shopify community forums for reviews or experiences other shop owners have had with their third-party apps – most likely, they will have advice on the situation.

4. Can I Export ALL my Data From my Shopify Store?

All data that you export or request to have backed up with other sites will be significant to your Shopify store.

That means all the information that we listed before, including product data, financial information, customer information, and even the theme and layout of your shop.

That way, if something were to occur, you could get that information back and reset your shop to the most recent save of your data.

If you are saving your data manually, make sure that you are getting absolutely everything that you need to reboot your store if something bad happened to it.

If you go through a third-party app or a different site, make sure you are reading their FAQs and detailed data information to make sure that they will cover you no matter what.

If you don’t take these necessary precautions, you may miss out on saving crucial data that keep your store running and operational.

5. Can Shopify Recreate my Store if I Happen to Delete it?

Restoring your shop to its previously saved files requires having the most recent version of your shop stored safely away, either on your desktop or in a third-party app.

If something were to occur, you would need to have access to those files and then reimplement it back into your Shopify store settings.

This is great for mistakes or hacks that cause the shop to go haywire. Most third-party apps will help you restore it to a previous save setting. If you are doing it manually, you will need to consult the Shopify help center in order to put it back properly.

It should be a straightforward measure of simply re-inputting that data that you’ve saved to your computer, but making sure that you do it right is crucial.

6. How Secure is Shopify Against Hacking?

Shopify is regarded as one of the top eCommerce sites out there in the world today. Every month, thousands of customers and stores exchange goods or services for monetary transactions, and most of those are done through Shopify-made stores.

This means that Shopify online stores are pretty secure against hacking, but accidents do happen.

There is never a guarantee that online information cannot get leaked, hacked, or removed due to computer errors or online thieving.

Shopify does take precautions against this, however.

Shopify Security Precautions

Because Shopify is such a large online eCommerce site, the company takes great care to protect its users and its data.

One thing they do is offer rewards to “white hat hackers” – professional hackers that look for loopholes or bugs in popular online networks and systems. If a loophole is found, Shopify will pay them for finding it and then have the problem fixed.

You may also like to read our article that explains about Do Shopify Discounts Apply to Shipping?

They also update their sites and store program systems constantly, simultaneously making all updates and fixes available to all users.

This makes them incredibly safe compared to many other eCommerce sites and is worthy of consideration.

Just remember, online, there are no guarantees.

Final Thoughts

In the past, Shopify wouldn’t let you save your information in an easy, accessible way.

Now that that is no longer the case, many shop owners are manually saving their data on a consistent and frequent basis. They also hire third-party apps and sites to do it for them.

For beginners and owners of multiple stores, we recommend getting help backing up your files and data. If you have had one shop for a long time, and are willing to take on the challenge, consider manually backing up your information yourself!

You’ll be glad you backed up your shop in the long run!

References:

Skyvia.com – Pricing

Shopify Help Center

Replay Shopify App

Rewind Backups