Restores and Snapshots

When checks fail, Update Doctor restores the item from its snapshot.

• Files restore automatically (the default). The live folder is moved aside, the snapshot is copied back, and every file is checked against its recorded SHA-256 hash. No AI is involved.
• Owned options restore with the files. These are the item’s version options and options named after it.
• Tables restore only by approval. Restoring a table can lose data written after the snapshot, such as new orders. It is a proposed action with a preview of how many rows each table has now and had then. Approving restores the captured tables and drops new tables that match the item’s own naming. A new snapshot of the current state is taken first, so you can undo it.
• WordPress core tables are never restored: posts, postmeta, users, usermeta, comments, commentmeta, terms, term_taxonomy, term_relationships, termmeta, options (beyond the item’s own rows) and links.
• WordPress core files are not restored. Core updates are observed, checked and diagnosed, but restoring them is left to your backup tool.

Snapshots are files only. They sit in wp-content/uploads/update-doctor/snapshots/ in random folders with deny-all .htaccess, web.config and index.php files. Update Doctor never includes or runs code from a snapshot.

The Snapshots screen lists each snapshot with its size, item and version. Restore there proposes the restore, and you approve it. A restore that does not match its hashes is restore_failed, never a success.