Backup and Restore

This document explains what data the ADP Car Market Hub plugin creates or manages, which components need to be included in a backup, and how to restore a site to a working state after a failure or migration.

When to use this document

Read this document if you are a site administrator, hosting engineer, or WordPress developer responsible for backup strategy and disaster recovery on a site running the plugin. Review it before performing a plugin update, a server migration, or any significant configuration change.

Overview

The plugin stores data in several locations within the WordPress installation. A complete and restorable backup must include all of these components. The plugin itself does not provide its own backup tooling; backups depend on the standard WordPress backup approach used by your hosting provider or backup plugin.

Imported vehicle listings can be re-imported from their source (AutoScout24, mobile.de, carcuro, a feed, e-mail, or a file upload) if lost, but only if a valid source connection is available. Plugin configuration, leads, analytics data, and log files cannot be recovered from the source and must be protected by the site backup.

What the plugin stores

Requirements

• A WordPress backup solution capable of backing up both the database and the filesystem (uploads folder). Examples include hosting-level snapshots, managed backup services, or WordPress backup plugins. Verify this behavior and compatibility with your current environment.
• Write access to the staging or recovery environment for restore testing.
• The same PHP version and WordPress version as production when restoring to a test environment, to avoid compatibility issues.

Backup procedure

Database backup

1. Back up the entire WordPress database. This captures wp_options (plugin settings), wp_posts and wp_postmeta (vehicle anchor posts and leads), and all plugin-managed custom tables ({prefix}as24_vehicles, {prefix}as24ci_analytics, {prefix}as24ci_search_agents, {prefix}as24ci_content_studio_jobs, {prefix}as24ci_content_studio_assets).
2. Use a backup tool or hosting snapshot that exports a complete SQL dump. Partial backups that include only selected tables may miss the custom tables.
3. On WordPress multisite installations, each site in the network has its own set of {prefix}_{siteid}_ tables. Confirm that your backup tool captures all site tables.

Files backup

1. Back up the WordPress wp-content/uploads/ directory. This contains: - All imported vehicle images (attached to vehicle posts). - The plugin log directory: as24ci-logs/. This directory is protected from public access by an .htaccess file; confirm your backup tool captures hidden files.
2. Back up the plugin directory wp-content/plugins/adp-car-market-hub/ if you have made custom file-level changes (for example, custom template overrides). Note that the plugin directory itself is normally replaced during updates and should not be the primary place for customizations.

Configuration note: encrypted secrets

The plugin's data-source credentials are entered on the Connections page (see the Connections Reference) and stored in WordPress options, so they are included in the database backup. Sensitive secrets — the AutoScout24 Client Secret, the carcuro company token, and feed/mailbox passwords — are stored encrypted at rest rather than in plain text. Non-secret fields (such as the AutoScout24 Client ID, Seller IDs, and the feed URL) are stored as ordinary option values.

These secrets are still sensitive (the encrypted blobs are in the database dump), so ensure that database backup files are stored securely and access is restricted.

Important for restores: the encryption key is derived from the WordPress installation's secret keys/salts (the AUTH_KEY / AUTH_SALT values in wp-config.php), with the installation path mixed in. For a restore to be able to decrypt the stored secrets, the same wp-config.php salts must be in place on the restored site, and the installation must reside at the same path. If you restore the database to a site with different salts (or rotate the salts in wp-config.php), the encrypted secrets will no longer be decryptable — the correct outcome is to simply re-enter the affected secrets on the Connections page after the restore. Plan to re-enter the AutoScout24 Client Secret, carcuro token, and any feed/mailbox passwords whenever the salts or installation path differ from the source environment.

Restore procedure

Full site restore

1. Restore the database from the backup using your hosting control panel, phpMyAdmin, or a command-line MySQL client.
2. Restore the wp-content/uploads/ directory from the files backup.
3. If restoring to a new server or domain, update the WordPress site URL in the database (wp_options rows siteurl and home) using the WordPress CLI (wp option update) or by editing the database directly.
4. Clear any WordPress object cache after the restore.
5. If the restored site has different wp-config.php salts or a different installation path than the source (for example a fresh server build), the encrypted data-source secrets will not decrypt. Re-enter the affected secrets — AutoScout24 Client Secret, carcuro token, feed/mailbox passwords — on the Connections page.
6. Log in to WordPress admin and navigate to CMH Center → System & Help to verify the source connection status.
7. Open CMH Center → Import & Limits and confirm the import schedule is active.
8. Trigger a manual import from the Import & Limits tab and verify that vehicles are created or updated correctly.

Partial restore: settings only

If only plugin settings need to be restored (for example, after an accidental misconfiguration):

1. Import the database backup into a temporary or staging database.
2. Extract the relevant wp_options rows with keys prefixed as24ci_ using a SQL query or a database comparison tool.
3. Apply the recovered option values to the production database. Encrypted secret options only decrypt on a site whose wp-config.php salts and installation path match those that originally encrypted them; if they differ, re-enter the affected secrets on the Connections page instead.
4. Test each source connection and the import pipeline before confirming the restore is complete.

Restore vehicle images only

If vehicle images have been accidentally deleted from the media library:

1. Restore the wp-content/uploads/ files backup to recover the original image files.
2. Alternatively, re-run the import with image import enabled. The importer checks existing attachment source URLs (_as24ci_source_url post meta) and skips images that are already present. Missing images will be re-downloaded from the source.

Operational notes

• The plugin cannot independently manage or schedule backups. Backup responsibility lies with the site owner, hosting provider, or a dedicated WordPress backup plugin.
• The analytics table ({prefix}as24ci_analytics) and the search agents table ({prefix}as24ci_search_agents) contain personal data (visitor events, subscriber email addresses). Handle backup files containing these tables in accordance with your applicable privacy regulations.
• The analytics table is always dropped by the plugin's uninstall routine, even if the Delete data on uninstall option is disabled. If you intend to retain analytics data across a plugin reinstallation, export or preserve the table manually before uninstalling.
• Vehicle images imported by the plugin are tracked in post meta under _as24ci_image_ids. These IDs link vehicle posts to their media library attachments. If this post meta is not present in a restore, the images may remain in the media library as orphaned attachments.
• Log files in as24ci-logs/ are not critical for restoring site functionality, but they may contain useful diagnostic information. If you need to preserve more than 7 days of log history, copy archived log files to long-term storage before the plugin purges them.

Troubleshooting

Related documents

• Connections Reference
• Update Process
• Monthly Maintenance
• Uninstall and Data Cleanup
• Logging and Monitoring