How to Conduct a HighLevel Restore Preview: A Step-by-Step Guide

In the dynamic world of CRM management, data integrity is paramount. Accidental deletions, misconfigurations, or data corruption can jeopardize critical business operations. HighLevel’s robust restore preview feature offers a vital safety net, allowing businesses to audit potential data recovery scenarios without committing to a full restoration. This guide will walk you through the process of conducting a high-level restore preview, empowering you to make informed decisions about your data recovery strategy and ensure the continuity of your HR & recruiting operations with confidence.

Step 1: Understanding the Restore Preview Feature

Before initiating any restore process, it’s crucial to grasp the significance of HighLevel’s restore preview. This feature acts as a diagnostic tool, presenting a snapshot of your sub-account’s data at a selected historical point in time without actually modifying your live environment. It’s an indispensable step for verifying which specific data—contacts, campaigns, automations, or custom fields—would be recovered. This allows for meticulous planning and minimizes the risk of inadvertently overwriting current, correct data or restoring unwanted elements. Utilizing the preview ensures that your data recovery is precise and avoids any unintended consequences for your active business processes, especially critical for sensitive HR and recruiting pipelines.

Step 2: Navigating to Your HighLevel Account and Sub-Account

To begin, log into your primary HighLevel agency account. Once logged in, you’ll need to navigate to the specific sub-account where the data loss or issue occurred and for which you wish to perform a restore preview. From your agency dashboard, locate the “Sub-Accounts” section, then click on the relevant sub-account name to access its dedicated dashboard. This ensures that any subsequent actions, including the restore preview, are confined to the intended environment. Verifying you’re in the correct sub-account is a foundational step to prevent errors and ensure that the preview accurately reflects the recovery possibilities for the affected data, safeguarding the integrity of your HR and recruiting data sets.

Step 3: Initiating the Restore Process

Within the selected sub-account dashboard, direct your attention to the left-hand navigation menu. Scroll down until you find the “Settings” option and click on it. Inside the settings menu, look for the “Restore” or “Backup & Restore” section. This area is specifically designed to manage your sub-account’s data backups and initiate recovery operations. Clicking on “Restore” will present you with the available options for retrieving past data, including the crucial preview functionality. This step is your gateway to accessing the historical snapshots of your data, laying the groundwork for a safe and controlled data recovery process without immediate commitment.

Step 4: Selecting Your Backup Point

Upon entering the restore interface, HighLevel will present you with a list of available backup points, usually timestamped. Carefully review these options and select the specific date and time that you believe represents the desired state of your data, prior to any data loss or corruption. It’s often helpful to pinpoint the exact moment before the incident occurred. This precision is vital for effective recovery; choosing a backup point too early might mean losing recent, valid data, while choosing one too late might still include the erroneous data. The system typically organizes these chronologically, making it easier to select the most appropriate snapshot for your preview.

Step 5: Utilizing the Preview Functionality

After selecting your desired backup point, HighLevel will prompt you with options for proceeding. At this critical juncture, do not select “Restore Now” immediately. Instead, look for a “Preview Restore,” “Generate Preview,” or similar option. This action will initiate a process where HighLevel compiles a detailed report or visual representation of what a full restore from that specific backup point would entail. It’s a non-destructive operation, meaning your live data remains untouched. The preview typically takes a few moments to generate, depending on the volume of data involved, offering a crucial window into the potential impact of a full restoration.

Step 6: Analyzing the Preview Results

Once the preview is generated, take your time to thoroughly analyze the results. HighLevel will often display a comprehensive list of items that would be added, modified, or removed if a full restore were performed. Pay close attention to contacts, opportunities, campaigns, custom fields, and any other critical assets relevant to your HR and recruiting workflows. Look for specific data points that you intended to recover, and equally important, identify any elements that you wish to avoid restoring. This detailed review ensures that the proposed recovery aligns perfectly with your objectives, preventing the reintroduction of old, incorrect, or unwanted data into your live environment.

Step 7: Deciding on Full Restoration or Targeted Recovery

Based on your analysis of the restore preview, you can now make an informed decision. If the preview shows exactly what you need with no adverse side effects, you can proceed with a full restore with confidence. However, if the preview reveals that a full restore would overwrite valuable current data, introduce irrelevant information, or cause other issues, you might opt for a more targeted recovery strategy. This could involve manually re-entering specific lost data after reviewing the preview, exporting only necessary components from the preview, or consulting with HighLevel support for advanced selective recovery options. The preview empowers you to choose the safest and most efficient path forward.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Mastering Safe HighLevel Data Recovery for HR & Recruiting: The Power of Restore Previews