Restore droplet losing all data, because it overwrites

Hey!

When you restore a Droplet from a snapshot on DigitalOcean, it’s essentially a point-in-time image of your Droplet, including its filesystem, settings, and data at the moment the snapshot was taken. Restoring from this snapshot should bring your Droplet back to exactly how it was at that snapshot moment, without altering or overwriting your data with a new setup, assuming the snapshot was correctly taken and includes all your desired data and configurations.

Here are a few things to consider:

1. Make sure that the snapshot you’re restoring from includes your WordPress setup as you intended. If the snapshot was taken before you fully configured WordPress it might not restore to the state you expect.

2. Restoring a Droplet should not inherently overwrite your data with a new setup. However, if your WordPress installation includes scripts or configurations that trigger a setup process upon detecting certain conditions (like a new IP address or a reset configuration), it might explain why it seems like a new setup is taking over. This is less about the DigitalOcean platform and more about how WordPress is configured within your Droplet.

3. Getting a new IP address is expected behavior when you destroy and recreate a Droplet, even from a snapshot. While this shouldn’t directly cause data overwriting, it might affect configurations or external dependencies that are IP-specific. Ensure any DNS settings or related configurations are updated to reflect your new IP address.

To address your issue, here’s what I recommend:

• Double-check the snapshot you’re using to ensure it indeed contains your complete and correctly configured WordPress setup. You can use SSH to connect to your new Droplet and verify if this is the case.
• Look into your WordPress configuration for any scripts or settings that might automatically initiate a setup process under certain conditions. This might require some digging into WordPress’s setup and configuration files. Also verify that your WordPress site and home URLs are either set to the correct domian name or the new IP address of your Droplet.
• Update any necessary DNS settings or external dependencies to account for your Droplet’s new IP address.

Let me knwo how it goes1

Best,

Bobby