Discord backups: what they save and how to restore

Why you need backups

Discord has no "undo" button for your server. If someone deletes a channel, its permissions, settings and history are gone. If they delete a role, it disappears from every member who had it. Rebuilding a medium-sized server by hand can take days, and it's almost never the same.

The most common reasons to need a backup aren't only attacks:

• an admin reorganising channels and getting permissions wrong;
• a third-party bot doing something unexpected;
• a stolen staff account;
• wanting to copy the structure to a new server.

A good backup system lets you roll back in minutes without relying on anyone's memory.

What an UltimateBot backup saves

Every backup saves the server's structure:

• every role, with its colour, position and permissions;
• the text and voice categories and channels, with their order, topic, slowmode and limits;
• the permissions of each channel for each role;
• the server settings and emojis.

With Premium you can also include recent channel messages, the member list with their roles, the ban list and the audit log. That's what you need if you want to be able to rebuild a server almost completely.

What no backup can bring back is what Discord doesn't let a bot create: for example, members don't automatically rejoin a new server, and restored messages are posted by the bot on behalf of their authors.

Your first backup in one minute

1. Add UltimateBot to your server with the button on this page.
2. Check that the bot's role is above the roles you want to be able to restore (Server settings → Roles).
3. Type /backup create. You can give it a name, for example "before reorganising".
4. See the list with /backup list and each backup's details with /backup info.

You can also do all of this from the web dashboard, in the Backups section, where you'll see each backup with its date and contents.

Tip: always make a manual backup right before a big change, like reorganising categories or changing permissions on many channels at once.

Schedule automatic backups

A manual backup gets forgotten. A scheduled one doesn't. With /backup schedule you pick the frequency: daily, weekly or monthly (hourly with Premium) and the bot makes the backups on its own.

On the free plan you can keep up to 10 backups per server; with Premium, up to 50. Premium also gives you:

• Automatic safety backups right before risky actions like a mass ban, a lockdown or a restore. They don't count towards your limit.
• Automatic retention: deletes backups older than 7, 30, 90 or 365 days, always keeping a minimum.
• Copies outside Discord: every compressed backup can be sent to a private channel or to your own storage with /backup offsite.

All of this is set up in the Backup protection section of the dashboard.

How to restore without breaking anything

Restoring is the delicate part. First, see what changed: /backup diff compares the backup with the current server and tells you what's missing, what's extra and what changed.

Then choose how to restore:

• Full restore with /backup restore: recreates the backup's structure. Use it when the server has been badly damaged.
• Selective restore with /backup restore_partial (Premium): only roles, only channels and categories, only permissions or a specific channel. Best when only one part is missing.
• Post-attack recovery with /backup recover (Premium): recreates only what was deleted in the last few minutes, from the most recent backup that contains it.

UltimateBot makes a safety backup right before any restore, so you can always go back to the previous state if you make a mistake.

Good practices

• Turn on scheduled backups on day one, not after the first scare.
• Give manual backups descriptive names: "before season 3" is far more useful than a date.
• Check now and then that the bot's role is still above the others; if someone moves it down, it can't restore higher roles.
• Use templates (/backup template_create and /backup template_apply) to copy the structure to a new server without taking messages or members along.
• Keep at least one copy outside Discord if your server is large or important.

With this you have a way back from almost any problem. And if you ever need it, the support server will help you restore.