Backup profiles let each site tailor exactly what gets captured and how. Choose from full, database-only, files-only or differential backup types, then fine-tune archive format, sanitization, filters, extension exclusions, retention and off-site destinations — all per profile. Here's how the profile tabs and default settings fit together.
Backup Types
Set on the profile's General tab (default full):
| Type | Database | Files | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full | Yes | All files | Complete site snapshot |
| Database Only | Yes | No | Quick DB backup before changes |
| Files Only | No | All files | Code/media backup |
| Differential | Yes (full) | Changed only | Fast daily backups between weekly fulls |
Default Backup Directory
Out of the box the default backup directory is now one level above the web root (a sibling of public_html) so that backup archives are not web-accessible. You can still point a profile anywhere — including inside the web root — but the safe out-of-box location keeps archives off the public site by default. Paths support placeholders and are created automatically at backup time.
Default Profile
The component-wide default profile (Options > General, defaults to profile 1) is what runs when a trigger doesn't name a specific profile — including the pre-update / pre-uninstall full-screen backup, the dashboard Backup Now screen, and a web-cron call with no profile_id.
Profile Tabs
- General: title, description, backup type
- Archive: format (
zip,tar.gz,7z), compression level, split size, backup directory, archive name format, Include restore script (None / Inside the archive / Outside as a sidecar), encryption password - Sanitization: scrub the DB dump — sanitize passwords (with preserve super admin), sanitize emails, sanitize sessions
- Filters: exclude directories, files (glob wildcards, e.g.
*.bak), and database tables - Extensions: exclude specific installed extensions from the backup, plus Exclude Development-Version Extensions (see below)
- Retention: per-profile overrides of the global cleanup age/count (a value of
0falls back to the global default) - Notifications: email recipients, notify user groups, notify on success/failure, plus ntfy topic/server/token
New profiles are pre-populated from the component-wide Profile Defaults (default archive format and the sanitization toggles) in Options; existing saved profiles are loaded unchanged.
Exclude Development-Version Extensions
The Extensions tab includes an Exclude Development-Version Extensions toggle. When enabled, it automatically detects every installed extension on a development or pre-release version — a version tagged -dev, -alpha, -beta or -rc — and strips it from the backup (both its files and its Joomla registry rows), in addition to any extensions you pick manually in the same tab. This is ideal for producing a clean, production-safe archive from a dev or demo site so it can be restored onto production without carrying in-development builds.
Execution Tuning
How a backup is paced into steps (files per step, seconds per step, upload chunk size) is controlled by host-wide Execution Tuning options rather than per-profile settings, and a wizard sets them for you by probing the host. After a fresh install the tuning wizard must be run before interactive backups are allowed (it stays pending across updates until you run it). See MokoSuiteBackup Execution Tuning.
Remote Destinations
Off-site upload is configured per profile with remote destinations (SFTP, FTP, S3, Google Drive, or a Local folder). There is no longer a separate “keep local copy” option — a Local destination IS the local copy: add one to keep the archive on this server, omit it to have the local archive removed after upload. See Remote Storage.
Differential Backups
Compares the current filesystem against a manifest from the last full backup; only new/modified files are included, while the database is always fully dumped. Falls back to a full backup if no base manifest exists.