It's important to create regular backups of your phpList installation, which you can then use to restore it in the event of a data loss or corruption. phpList doesn't have a built-in backup mechanism, but as it's powered by a combination of a database and a collection of PHP and support files, we can back these up manually.
Most web hosting providers will supply an interface to manage your databases, as well as to create backups. This example will illustrate using the popular phpMyAdmin tool to create a database backup.
Log into your phpMyAdmin tool using your phpList database user credentials and select your database from the drop-down list in the left-hand panel.
Click on the Export tab at the top of the main (right-hand) panel:
On the subsequent export page, ensure that all database tables are selected. Also ensure that the Data and Save as file checkboxes are ticked and then click on Go at the bottom-right:
Your browser will prompt you to download a file. This is a current copy of the database, which can be used to recreate it in the event of a loss.