How to Reset Your Bluehost Website: Easy Steps for Customers

Looking to start fresh with your Bluehost website? Whether you want to tidy up part of your site or wipe the slate clean and start over, we've got you covered. There are a few ways to reset your website or hosting account — depending on what you want to reset and what you’d like to keep.

• Reset Specific Website Folders (Like public_html)
• Delete a Database
• Reset Your Entire Hosting Account
• Restore Your Site from a Backup
• Summary
   

Reset Specific Website Folders (Like public_html)

If you want to refresh part of your site without touching the rest — like your main website files — the easiest way is to delete specific folders and start over.

Here’s how:

• Delete the whole public_html folder: This wipes out all your primary site files and any addon domains inside it. Then, simply recreate the folder, and you’ve got a clean slate.
• Delete just certain folders inside public_html: Want to reset only a part of your site? You can delete just those specific folders and reorder your content without affecting the other parts.

Delete a Database

Want to get rid of an old database or start fresh with a new one? You can easily delete your current MySQL database and create a new one whenever you need.

For step-by-step help, check out our guide: How to Create and Delete MySQL Databases and Users.

Reset Your Entire Hosting Account

If you’d like to completely wipe everything and start over, including all your files, emails, databases, and settings, here’s what to do:

Reseller, VPS, or Dedicated Hosting Customers:

You (or your server admin) can terminate your cPanel account and recreate it inside WHM. This deletes all the data and sets up a brand-new account.

Restore Your Site from a Backup

If you want to get your website back to how it was before — without losing everything — you can ask us to restore your site from a backup. This isn’t a reset but a way to bring back your content if something went wrong.

You can refer to the following articles for guidance:

• Restoring Backups with CodeGuard
• Jetpack Backup and Restore
• Bluehost - Paid Restore Service
• VPS & Dedicated Hosting: Restore a Server Backup

Summary

To restart only part of your site, for example, the main folder public_html or individual subfolders, you can feel free to manually delete and recreate it without losing any other settings, such as email accounts. To start fresh with old data, delete your MySQL database from within cPanel and create a fresh one. If you need a complete reset, contact the support team at Bluehost on shared hosting, or reset your cPanel account through WHM if you are a reseller, VPS, or dedicated customer. If you need to recover earlier content, our support team will be happy to assist with restoring from backups. Remember to always back up important files before making changes.