How To Restore A Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway from A Backup

This guide explains how to restore a Ubiquiti UniFi gateway such as the Dream Machine, Dream Router, Dream Wall, Cloud Gateway Ultra and UniFi Express models, from an externally stored backup file. This could be to replace a device that has failed or used when upgrading to a new unit.

Assumptions

To prevent any conflict, it is assumed the old/failed device is completely offline and is not connected to the Internet or the UniFi cloud by any means.

The replacement/backup device should have no connections going to it apart from power. The WAN should be disconnected from the old unit.

The replacement/backup device should be powered on and reset to factory defaults by pressing and holding the reset button with a pin before proceeding. The replacement device also needs to be on the same software version as the device it is replacing or network configuration restoration will fail.

You should already have a backup file stored and saved offline to use for the restore. This should ideally be a full cloud console backup file or a network/protect backup file if only restoring this particular function.

Steps

Connect a laptop to a LAN port on the UniFi Gateway and navigate to the gateway address https://192.168.1.1, bypass any certificate security warnings that are presented.

If your internet provider/connection supports DHCP, plug in your WAN internet connection to the WAN port on the UniFi Gateway. If your internet provider requires advanced setup options or a static IP address, select ‘Other Setup Options’. Otherwise it should automatically pick up an IP using DHCP for the internet connection.

Select Continue, after which your UniFi Gateway will test the internet connection.

Follow the setup steps to onboard the new/replacement device to your UniFi account:

Upon logging in to your UniFi account you will be presented the option to restore from a full cloud backup or to upload an OS console backup file. An OS backup file will look something like ‘unifi_os_backup_xxx.unifi’. This step only accepts complete UniFi Console backup files. If you only have a UniFi network backup file like ‘network_backup_xxx.unf’, you will have to skip this step without restoring from backup and later restore the device from the network backup.

If you skipped restoring from a full cloud backup, follow the below steps to restore from a network config backup.

The configuration restoration can be completed in the cloud console once the new/replacement gateway has internet access and has been setup as a standalone device. Ensure the gateway device network software is updated and is running the same software version as that of the backup file.

Navigate to the network for the new gateway device. Network > Settings > System > Backups > Restore.

Select your network config backup file, it will be something like ‘network_backup_31.05.2024_10-55_v8.1.127.unf’

Once the configuration has been restored it will have all configuration from the old network gateway including all connected UniFi AP’s and connected switches. Now swap all existing cabling from the old unit to the new unit and it will operate exactly like the old unit.