How to Backup Shopify Theme: A Comprehensive Guide

Backing up your Shopify theme and data is an essential practice for any store owner. This way you can ensure the safety of your design, customisations and data. It doesn’t matter whether you are planning to make some changes in your store or just want to ensure that the integrity of the store is safe, having a backup can save you a lot of time and effort if something goes wrong. In this guide, we will walk you through the steps on how to backup your Shopify theme, discuss the best Shopify backup apps, and explain how to backup your entire Shopify website.

Why Backing Up Your Shopify Theme is Important?

Before discussing how to take backup of your Shopify theme, it is important that you understand why taking backup of your Shopify theme is crucial. A theme is a backbone of any Shopify theme. It has all the codes related to the aesthetics and functionality of the website. Any changes or updates can potentially disrupt your store, leading to loss of data or a broken layout. A backup acts as an insurance policy, allowing you to restore your store to its previous state quickly.

How to Backup Shopify Theme Manually

Shopify is famous for its customisations and user-friendly approach. Therefore, taking a manual backup of the theme is easy and straightforward. Let’s have a look at how you can do it:Step 1: Log in to Your Shopify Admin The process to create a backup of your Shopify theme starts from the admin panel. Log in to your Shopify admin account and from there access the online store section in the left-hand menu.Step 2: Go to Themes Under the Online Store, you’ll find different options. From there, select the Themes option. This will take you to the themes library and from there you can select the theme that you’re currently using.Step 3: Duplicate Your Theme Once you find the theme that is currently published on your Shopify store, click on the Action button. There you’ll find the button to Duplicate the store’s theme. The Duplicate button creates a copy of your theme which is stored on the server. You can also rename the file so that you can find it easily in the future.Step 4: Download the Theme If you want to share your theme or want an additional layer of security or backup, you can also download the theme and save it on your local computer. Under the Action button of the theme, you’ll find the option to Download Theme File. After clicking that button, Shopify will email you the download link of the theme file in ZIP format.So this way you can take a manual backup of your Shopify theme. It is easy and convenient for everyone.

How to Backup Shopify Theme Automatically Using Apps

While manual backups are easy and useful, sometimes one can forget to take it. Therefore, an automatic backup is a great way to save your theme on a regular basis. Shopify App Store has lots of apps and plugins to do this task. This way you’ll always have the latest backup even if you forget to take one. So let’s have a look at some of the apps that can help you in doing so:

1. Rewind Backups: Rewind Backups is one of the most popular apps available on the Shopify store. The app not only takes backup of your theme automatically on a regular basis but also of your products, and customer data. Moreover, in case things go sideways, the app also provides an option to restore individual files or the entire website.
2. Theme Watch: This app is great if you want to keep track of all your Shopify theme changes and regularly take backups.
3. Vault: Vault provides real-time backups and easy restoration. It not only backs up your theme but also other vital data like products and orders.
4. BackupMaster: This app allows for automatic backups of your entire Shopify store, including themes. It also provides daily and weekly backup options.

Using these apps, you can ensure that your theme is backed up consistently without manual intervention. This is particularly useful for stores with frequent updates or multiple team members making changes.

How to Backup Shopify Website Apart From Themes

Like the theme, the data of your Shopify is also important. You should also consider taking backup of your data on a regular basis. This includes backing up customer data, orders, products, and more. Here’s how to do it:

1. Export Data: Shopify provides you an easy mechanism to export various data such as products, customers, and orders in CSV format. To export a particular data set, go to the section where it’s displayed and click on export to download the CSV file of the data. You should take periodic backups so that no essential data is lost if anything goes sideways.
2. Use a Comprehensive Backup App: You can find lots of different apps such as Rewind and BackupMaster that can help to take backup of your data on a regular basis. These apps will protect your vital data, ensuring that you can restore your store completely if needed.
3. Third-Party Services: You can always take help of third-party services such as website annual maintenance contracts. These professionals can take care of the regular maintenance of your store while you focus on core business activities.
4. Regular Backups: Schedule regular backups and take a backup especially before making significant changes to the store. You can use apps and plugins to make this process automated.

Tips for Managing Backups

Below are some of the tips that you can follow while taking the backup for your website:

• Test Your Backups: Taking backup of your data or Shopify theme is not enough. You should also test your backups on a regular basis to make sure that the data is complete and suitable.
• Keep Multiple Versions: It’s always a smart choice to take the backup of different versions so that you have multiple restore points for your website.
• Document Changes: Keep a log of changes made to your theme and store. This can help you identify issues faster if something goes wrong.

So this was all about how you can take backup for your Shopify Store. You must have understood now why taking backup is such an important task and how you can use different methods to do so.