Menu Backup & Restore protects every WordPress menu, both classic nav_menu menus and block-theme wp_navigation posts edited in the Site Editor, with automatic backups, one-click restoration, and powerful import/export capabilities. Transfer menus between sites seamlessly with intelligent per-item mapping that rewrites page, post, and category references for the target site.
Key Features
- Automatic backup of menus when they are updated
- Works with both classic menus (
nav_menu) and block-theme menus (wp_navigationposts edited in the Site Editor) - Site Editor inspector panel — back up, restore, rename, or apply a backup from another menu without leaving the editor, with a Navigation block selected
- In-place restore replaces the existing menu directly, no duplicate menus, theme locations stay assigned
- Import and export menus as JSON files for portability or locally saved backups
- Multi-menu export and import — select multiple menus or backups to export in a single file
- Transfer menus between sites with intelligent object mapping, can be used to update menus from development to production sites without full site migration
- Manual mapping interface to override automatic matches and map menu items to specific pages, posts, or taxonomies during import
- Preserves complete menu structure: hierarchy, theme locations, CSS classes, and third-party plugin data (post_meta) icons etc…
- Bulk actions — select multiple backups to export or delete at once
- Rename backups inline with a click
- Configurable maximum number of backups to keep
- See who saved and created the backup
- Tab-based interface for better organisation
- Simple and intuitive user interface
- No database modifications required
- Lightweight and fast
How It Works
- The plugin automatically creates a backup whenever you update a menu
- Backups are stored in the WordPress options table with complete menu structure (hierarchy, locations, CSS classes, custom post_meta)
- Manage backups from the legacy Menus page (classic themes), the Appearance → Menu Backups page (block themes), or inline from the Site Editor inspector when editing a Navigation block — rename, export, delete, restore, or bulk-select
- Restore any previous version with a single click, the existing menu is updated in-place, keeping theme locations intact
- Export one or multiple menus as a single JSON file for portability or import to other sites
- Configure the maximum number of backups to keep in the settings
Requirements
- WordPress 5.0 or higher
- PHP 7.2 or higher
What Users Have to Say on Reddit
«That’s a super useful idea! Menus are so easy to wipe out by accident, and restoring from a full backup always feels like overkill. Nice work!»
«Really appreciate it, This will come in handy alot!»
«Oh man, I’ve done this before too. Lost a big menu while trying to rearrange items and it was gone in a click. Ended up re-building from scratch. This plugin sounds like a lifesaver — surprised WordPress hasn’t built something like this in by default.»
«Kind of an automatic backup vs having to schedule one.»
«that’s a killer quality of life plugin wp’s missing so many of those “one click undo” features for common mistakes»
«Great idea! I do this more often than I care to admit. This needs to be in Core!»
«Dude I literally do this all the time and actually did it less than an hour ago. I hate how the WordPress menu isn’t stored normally. Thanks for this!»