# Add backup to existing Discourse instance
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-backup-to-existing-discourse-instance/70664
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [September 24, 2017, 7:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-backup-to-existing-discourse-instance/70664 "2017-09-24T07:37:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@phntxx](https://meta.discourse.org/u/phntxx)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2017, 7:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-backup-to-existing-discourse-instance/70664/1 "2017-09-24T07:37:12Z")
Hi,
is there any possibility of adding posts from a backup onto a working instance without replacing everything that’s already there?
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### Author:  [@fefrei](https://meta.discourse.org/u/fefrei)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2017, 8:23am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-backup-to-existing-discourse-instance/70664/2 "2017-09-24T08:23:34Z")
The best I can think of: Restore the backup to a temporary instance, then use this guide to export the topics you want and import them on your main install:
> [@Move topics from one Discourse instance to another](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-and-category-export-import/38930):
>
> Need to move some stuff from one instance of Discourse to another? There is a command line tool to export a topic, a set of topics, or an entire category, and another to import them in at the other end. Topic Export/Import one or more topics and their replies the users who posted in the topic Category Export/Import the category and all its subcategories its security settings custom groups mentioned in the security settingswarning if any of the groups have ‘membership requests’ enable…
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2017, 12:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-backup-to-existing-discourse-instance/70664/3 "2017-09-24T12:03:04Z")
The caveat is that the category that the topics are restored in to needs to be a new one. You can move topics around after that.
But if you mean restoring posts into an existing topic, there’s no way that I know of.
Perhaps say more about your particular situation.
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### Author:  [@phntxx](https://meta.discourse.org/u/phntxx)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2017, 3:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-backup-to-existing-discourse-instance/70664/4 "2017-09-24T15:30:51Z")
The post by @fefrei actually already helped me out - thanks again for that
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2019, 6:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-backup-to-existing-discourse-instance/70664/5 "2019-10-18T06:31:59Z")
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2023, 7:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-backup-to-existing-discourse-instance/70664/6 "2023-06-26T19:50:10Z")
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2023, 7:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-backup-to-existing-discourse-instance/70664/7 "2023-07-26T19:50:33Z")
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