Back up and restore

Back up your short links and data to one file, restore it, and know what a restore replaces.

To back up short links in WordPress with Link Manager Pro, you pick what to include and download one JSON file. Restoring that file later replaces the data you tick with what's in the file.

A Link Manager Pro backup isn't a full backup of your site. It holds most of the plugin's data and your posts and pages. Keep your host's or a full-site backup as well.

Before you start

You need an administrator account. Only administrators can make or restore backups, even when editors may use Link Manager Pro (Access for editors).
Both tasks start under Link Manager › Settings › Backup & restore.
Keep the tab open while a backup or a restore runs. Your browser drives it step by step. Leaving the page stops a backup and pauses a restore.
Plan a restore for a quiet time. Each item you restore is emptied before it's refilled. With Short links ticked, some short links don't work while it runs.

Back up your short links and data

A backup saves the items you tick to a JSON file, which downloads to your computer when it's ready. All twelve items are ticked to start with.

Link Manager › Settings › Backup & restore

On the Backup card, select Backup.
Under What to back up 1, untick anything you don't want in the file. Select all and Select none tick or clear every item at once.
Select Back up now 2. A bar shows how many records are done so far.
Wait until the button reads Completed. The file downloads, and a message says Backup ready. The download has started. Save that file now: you can't download it again.
Select Close.

The Backup dialog for backing up short links in WordPress, marked: 1 the What to back up list with every item ticked, 2 the Back up now button — The Backup dialog as it opens, with every item ticked.

You get a file named like link-manager-pro-backup-20261021-143015.json (the date and time in UTC) in your downloads folder.

The download starts once, by itself. The dialog has no download link, and there's no list of earlier backups. Move the file somewhere other than your site, such as your computer or cloud storage. If no file arrived, select Close, then Backup and Back up now again.

What's in a backup file?

A backup file is plain JSON with a section for each item you ticked. A few lines describe the file: the site address it came from, when it was made and its format.

Item	What it holds
Categories	Your short link categories, with their color and which links have each one
Tags	Your short link tags, and which links have each one
Short links	Every short link and its settings, with its other addresses and your deleted short links. It also holds each redirect's destination and redirect type, which are stored on a short link of their own
Routing rules	Every link's routing rules
Clicks	Every click record, for example its time, link, country, referrer and browser (user agent). It also holds the visitor cookie ID, the IP address as stored, a logged-in visitor's WordPress account and the UTM details visitors arrived with
Affiliates	Your affiliates and their settings, including Auto-link only on
Campaigns and UTM templates	Your campaigns and your UTM templates
Link Health	Broken links found in your content and visitor 404s, with the page that referred to them, and the coverage score history
Redirects	Every redirect's old address and status
Settings	Every Link Manager Pro setting. The AI API key stays encrypted, as your database holds it
Webhooks	Your webhooks and their settings. Restored only when ticked. From another site, they come back paused
Posts and pages	Every post and page of your site, in any status, as WordPress stores it: content, title, author, dates and so on. Each post's link map and dismissed AI suggestions come along

Personal data is in it. Clicks holds IP addresses, cookie IDs and user agents. IP addresses are anonymized only if Anonymize IP addresses was on when the click came in. Treat the file like a copy of your visitor data.

Some data is never in a backup file:

Link Audit results, the webhook delivery log and temporary data such as caches
Other post types, post meta (page-builder data, for example), media and your theme

Restore a Link Manager Pro backup

A restore uploads a backup file and puts back the items you tick. Each ticked item is emptied first and refilled from the file, so what you have in it now is replaced. Items you don't tick stay as they are.

WARNING

A restore replaces your current data in every item you tick, and it can't be undone once it finishes. Make a backup first (see Back up your short links and data), so you can go back to today's data.

Link Manager › Settings › Backup & restore

On the Restore card, select Restore.
Drag your backup file onto Drop backup file here or click to browse 1, or click it and choose the file. Only .json files are taken. The file's name and size appear, with Remove to pick another.
Under What to restore 2, untick each item you want to keep as it is now. Every item except Posts and pages and Webhooks is ticked to start with. Read What does a restore replace? before you go on.
If you tick Posts and pages, also tick the box below the list that starts with "I understand that restoring posts". Restore stays disabled until you do.
Select Restore 3. A confirmation names your file and lists the items it will replace.
Select Restore in the confirmation to start, or Cancel to go back.
Keep the tab open until the button reads Completed and the message says Restore finished.

The Restore dialog for a Link Manager Pro backup, marked: 1 the drop zone for the JSON backup file, 2 the What to restore list with Webhooks and Posts and pages unticked, 3 the Restore button — The Restore dialog before a file is chosen: Posts and pages starts unticked.

A file larger than your server takes in one upload goes up in parts, with a bar that reads "Uploading…" and a percentage, before the restore starts. A browser restore takes files up to 1 GB. For a bigger file, or when your web server refuses even small parts, use WP-CLI (Back up and restore with WP-CLI).

When it's done, the items you ticked hold the data from the file. If something was skipped, a second message says what for 10 seconds. Examples are posts that no longer exist, or redirects whose short link wasn't restored.

What does a restore replace?

Most items are replaced in full: everything you have in that item now goes, and the file's records come in. Settings and Posts and pages work differently, as the table shows.

Item	What a restore does
Categories, Tags	Deletes all your current categories (or tags), creates the file's, and adds them to short links that exist afterwards
Short links	Replaces every short link, with its other addresses. Links keep their IDs from the file. Address conflicts are checked again in the background
Routing rules	Replaces every rule
Clicks	Replaces every click record. With Short links ticked too, each link's click count is recounted from the restored clicks. The file's counts stay when they're higher, for example after old clicks were deleted
Affiliates	Replaces every affiliate. With Short links ticked too, their click totals are recounted from the restored links. Auto-link only on categories and tags are matched by slug. The restore message lists any that this site doesn't have
Campaigns and UTM templates	Replaces every campaign and UTM template
Link Health	Replaces every broken-link result and visitor 404
Redirects	Replaces every redirect
Settings	Puts back each setting in the file and keeps the rest. Values go through the same checks as when you save them. Nothing is deleted. A different Short link prefix, Internal link prefix or Affiliate link prefix is handled as if you had saved it on the General tab: the previous one keeps opening its short links (General settings). A prefix in the file that breaks a prefix rule is left out and this site keeps its own. Such a prefix is a WordPress path like `page`, not a slug, or equal to another prefix. The restore message says how many were skipped
Webhooks	Replaces every webhook. From another site, they come back paused, and a signing secret or custom headers this site can't read are left out. The restore message says to generate a new secret or add the headers again in the Webhooks settings
Posts and pages	Puts back only the content of posts and pages that still exist here. Title, author, status, publish date and password don't change. Each restored post gets a new modified date and, where revisions are on, a revision. Posts that aren't in the file are kept, and deleted posts aren't re-created

Some items belong together:

Redirects need Short links, because each redirect's destination lives on a short link. Restore both, plus Clicks for their hit history. Redirects alone can leave redirects without a destination, and the restore message says how many.
Routing rules, Clicks, Categories and Tags point at short links by ID. Restore them with Short links, unless your links haven't changed since the backup.
Posts and pages are saved through WordPress, one post at a time. A post is skipped if you can't edit it, or if WordPress would filter its content for your account. It's also skipped if saving it would change its status or address. The restore message counts the skipped posts.

Restored clicks follow this site's privacy settings: with Anonymize IP addresses on now, their IP addresses are anonymized as they come in.

Restore a backup on another site

You can restore a backup made on another site, for example after a move to a new domain. The plugin compares the file's site address with this site's. It ignores http or https, a leading www., the port, letter case and a trailing slash.

When the file comes from another site:

Posts and pages is refused. Untick it to restore the rest.
Items that point at each other must come together, or the restore is refused before anything changes. The message names the items to add. For example, with Short links ticked, every item that points at short links and already has data on this site must be ticked too. That means this site's clicks, routing rules, redirects, categories and tags are replaced as well.
The AI API key isn't restored, and this site keeps its own (AI Link Assistant settings).
Restored clicks lose their link to WordPress accounts, since those accounts belong to the other site.
Redirects keep their old addresses and still match here. The old site's address is recorded as one of this site's, and the last four addresses are kept.

WARNING

Restoring Short links from another site onto a site that already has links replaces all of them. With the linked items, it also replaces that site's click history. Back up the site you restore onto first.

Resume or roll back an unfinished restore

A restore that stopped part-way leaves your data half restored, for example after you closed the tab or the server timed out. Some short links may not work until you resume it or roll it back.

You'll see it in three places:

On Link Manager › Settings › Backup & restore: A restore did not finish., with the record count and the buttons Roll back and Resume.
On every admin screen, for administrators, once the restore has made no progress for two minutes. Its Resume or roll back link opens the tab above.
In WordPress under Tools › Site Health, as a critical issue, also after two minutes.

What each button does:

Resume reopens the Restore dialog and carries on where the restore stopped, without uploading the file again.
Roll back asks you to confirm, then puts back the safety copy taken when the restore reached each item. The message reads Restore rolled back. Nothing was changed. In those items, though, clicks and edits made since the restore started are lost.

Which to pick: Resume when you still want the backup's data, which is usually the case. Roll back when you started the wrong restore, and do it right after it stopped, so fewer new clicks are lost.

While a restore is unfinished, you can't start a backup or another restore. Once a restore finishes, it can't be rolled back: restore your earlier backup instead.