Restore
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Restore means loading a backup back into your database to undo something bad. Someone deleted the production data? Restore from last night's backup. You lose a few hours of data but keep your sanity.
Real Talk
Database restoration is the process of recovering data from a backup file or snapshot. Depending on the backup strategy (full, point-in-time recovery, WAL archiving), you can restore to a specific timestamp. Cloud services like Supabase, RDS, and Firebase offer one-click restore from automatic backups.
When You'll Hear This
"Restore the database from yesterday's backup before the migration ran." / "Point-in-time restore lets you roll back to any minute in the backup window."
Related Terms
Backup
A database backup is a saved copy of your data at a specific point in time.
Migration
A migration is a versioned script that modifies your database schema — adding a column, creating a table, changing a type.
Replication
Replication means automatically copying your database to one or more other servers in real time. If the main server dies, a replica takes over.
Transaction
A transaction groups multiple database operations into one all-or-nothing bundle. Either ALL of them succeed, or NONE of them happen.