To restore a Wordpress database from a ZQL.GZ (gzipped) archive, see this thread:

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/336229

i need to restore but i have no idea how to :o(

FYI, I may have a solution to this for anyone else having this problem

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/336229?replies=3#post-1295878

I'm having the exact same issue with GoDaddy hosting. They are completely cluless as to how to help me get this .sql.gz file uploaded via PHPMyAdmin. (It apparently only recognizes no extension or .zip) So frustrating to have a perfectly dated backup that I can't get imported.

You can't use WinZip to create gzipped files, just to extract them. To re-compress them, you'll need to use one of the free tools that I linked to above.

Hmm, I tried this to make sure it would work ok - I took a chunk of about 10% of the size of the original file, saved it in a new sql file, then zipped it (the compressed file is less than 2 MB) and tried importing it using PHPMyAdmin. What I get is an error that says "No files found inside ZIP archive!". There is a file in the ZIP archive - I can see it there in WinZip, I can unzip it using WinZip, but apparently can't import it. Sigh.

That's about what I thought - I have no idea why they don't seem to be able to manage this. I think I may be looking into switching hosts at some point, but for now - thank you for the advice on how to get around the 2 MB limit! I think I'll be trying that right now. :)

First of all, in my opinion your host should take care of this for you; it would take someone with access to the server about 30 seconds to restore your database.

But assuming that you're stuck with the 2mb upload limit, here's what you can do:

The sql.gz file is just a gzip-compressed text file. To uncompress it, you can use one of the free tools here. Then, use a text editor like Notepad to split the file up into, say, 10 pieces. It doesn't matter where you make the splits, so long as you 1) keep each line intact---only splitting between the lines---and 2) you restore the pieces in order.

Then use that gzip tool you downloaded above to re-compress each piece so that each is under the 2mb limit, and restore them one-by-one--in the order in which you split them apart.

Also, please note that restoring your database will delete any existing database tables, so if you want keep the (3?) posts you've made so far on the new site, I would recommend that you export them under Manage > Export and then after the database is restored, import them under Manage > Import.

Hi,
I recently had to completely re-install WordPress for my blog site, so made a backup using this plug-in first.

The re-install was successful, but I have been unable to restore my database. The compressed (sql.gz) file is almost 10 MB and there's a 2MB limit to import files through PhpMyAdmin (running the plugin-for this since it's not available on my host). I've been working with my hosting company for 3 days, and so far they have not been able to restore the backup either. I'm just wondering if you have any advice for them - they seem to be stumped, as is my husband, who's been trying to find a solution from our end. My blog is located at http://www.momof3girls.net and I'm really frustrated with not being able to access any of my previous content at this point. Any help you could give would be welcomed... Thank you!