Should I test my backups?

Yes — and not just occasionally. A backup you've never tested isn't a backup you can rely on. The whole point of a backup is to restore from it, and testing is how you find out it actually works before you need it.

Untested backups fail surprisingly often, usually for reasons you'd never spot until it's too late: a file that got left out, a drive that quietly went bad, a copy that can't be restored properly. Testing is what turns a backup from a hope into a plan.

Because the backup process can quietly stop working and nobody notices. The failures are silent:

• Scheduled backups that quietly stop running after a config change.
• Storage that fills up, so newer copies never finish.
• Partial backups — files saved, but part of the database left out.

All of it can look fine in a list of "last backup" times. The only way to know a backup works is to test it — restore it somewhere safe and confirm the site actually comes back.

A real test restores the backup in a safe, separate place and confirms the site comes back — files load, the database is intact, and the pages look right.

A quick check that the backup file exists and is the right size is a useful first step, but it doesn't prove a restore would work. The meaningful test is a trial restore, not a file listing.

Test as often as the data would hurt to lose — the same logic as backups themselves. For most small business sites:

• A restore test once a month is a reasonable rhythm.
• In between, do a quick check that backups are running and not failing.

The point isn't to test constantly. It's to catch a silent failure long before you actually need the backup in an emergency.

It's easy to think so, right up until the moment you need one. The painful version of this story is the owner who finds out their backup doesn't work at the worst possible time — during an actual hack, after a bad update, in the middle of a terrible week.

A few minutes, or a small monthly cost, to verify backups is trivial next to discovering a backup failure during the one crisis that matters.

Testing is part of our backup service, not an afterthought:

• Daily backups so a recent copy always exists.
• Trial restores to confirm a clean copy genuinely works.
• Early problem detection — if a backup fails, we catch it and fix it before you ever need it.
• A real human who makes sure your backups aren't just running, but actually restorable.

You don't have to become a backup-testing expert to be protected. You email us the task, we handle it. No jargon, no surprises.