MikroTik Backup and Restore Configuration using Winbox

Backup and Restore feature in MikroTik Router helps to recover router configuration when running router fails to operation due to hardware failure. If you have a backup copy of your failed router and purchase a new MikroTik Router and then upload and restore that backup file, you will get your running network without any hassle. MikroTik Backup file is also useful when you unfortunately forget your admin privilege user password. You can easily recover your forgotten password with backup file using MikroTik password recovery tools. So, taking regular backup of running MikroTik configuration is so useful to a network administrator. How to backup MikroTik configuration file automatically via email was discussed in my previous article and in this article I will show how to backup and restore MikroTik configuration file manually using Winbox.

How to Backup MikroTik Configuration File

It is easy to backup MikroTik configuration using Winbox GUI but you can use WebFig web interface that follows same procedure as Winbox. The following steps will show how to backup MikroTik configuration file using Winbox GUI.

• Login to your MikroTik Router using Winbox with admin privilege.
• Click on Files menu item. File List window will appear now.
• Click on Backup button. Backup window will appear.
• Put your Backup file name (MikorTikBackup) in Name input field.
• You can optionally put a password if you wish to keep your configuration file password protected with encryption in Password input filed.
• Click on Don’t Encrypt checkbox. You may keep it uncheck if you wish to keep your configuration file encrypted but if you wish to use this backup file for password recovery, you have to check this checkbox otherwise password recovery tool cannot recover user password from an encrypted backup file.
• Click on Backup button.
• You will now find your backup file (MikorTikBackup.backup) in File List window.
• Drag and Drop this backup file to your computer. Your backup file will be downloaded to your desired location. You can also use any FTP client (FileZilla) to download this backup file to your computer.

Alternatively, you can run the following command from your MikroTik command prompt to backup your MikroTik configuration file using command.

How to Restore MikroTik Configuration File

You can easily restore your MikroTik backup file using Winbox GUI or WebFig web interface. The following steps will show how to restore MikroTik configuration from backup file using Winbox GUI.

• Login to your MikroTik Router using Winbox with admin privilege.
• Click on Files menu item. File List window will appear.
• Drag and Drop your backup file from Computer to File List window. You can also use any FTP Client (FileZilla) to upload your backup file to MikroTik File List window.
• Click on Restore button. Restore window will appear.
• Select your uploaded backup file from Backup File dropdown menu.
• Put your file password if you provide it at the time of taking backup in Password input field.
• Click on Restore button. You will find a confirmation window to restore and reboot the router. Click on Yes button.
• Now your backup configuration will be restored successfully and your router will be rebooted.

Alternatively you can run the following command to restore your uploaded configuration file.

If you face any confusion to follow above steps properly, follow my video about MikroTik Backup and Restore Configuration using Winbox. I hope it will reduce your any confusion.

How to backup and restore MikroTik configuration using Winbox has been discussed in this article. I hope you will now be able to backup and restore your MikroTik Router configuration successfully. However, if you face any confusion to backup and restore your MikroTik Router configuration, feel free to discuss in comment or contact with me from Contact page. I will try my best to stay with you.