Shopify doesn’t create store backups for you, so this is something you’ll need to do yourself. Also, you’re responsible for keeping accurate records of your business.
It is vital to save your site’s information in case of some sort of catastrophic error within Shopify (unlikely), an app screwing up your site (also unlikely if you use decent apps) or user error where you accidentally delete something you shouldn’t have (likely??)
If you want to create a backup of your store's information, then you can use an app from the Shopify App Store or you can save information yourself.
I found a free backup app called TinyBackup in the app store.
You can and should create regular backups of your:
(The links go to the relevant help pages on Shopify. These pages also tell you how to import data back into Shopify.)
And you can also back up your theme file, which is useful in case of some sort of error in which you need to recover how your site looks.
How to download the data
Shopify will export the data either as csv or zip files. In all likelihood, you’ll be able to save these files and never need them, so create a folder to save your backups and make sure they have today’s date in the title, so you can find the most recent ones if you need them.
What you need to do is go down the menu on the left-hand side of the dashboard. It’s the same process for all the items in the bullet points above.
When you click “Export”, a box like this pops up:
Make sure you select all products/customers/orders/etc.
Shopify will then send you an email with a link to download the file.
When you have saved files for all of these, you can also save the theme file. You find this in Online Store. Click the three dots next to “Customize” and you can download the theme file here.
If you don’t want to go through this process, then check out the available apps. I haven’t looked at them so can’t recommend any.
How often to back up?
If I were uploading new products or receiving lots of orders I would back up these areas with lots of activity frequently.
Before making any changes to the design of the site I’d back up the theme file.
You’d be in trouble if you lost all your financial data, so don’t hesitate to back this up on a regular basis.
Other things to think about backing up
If you have a blog on your site, make sure you save your posts somewhere. Shopify’s blog is basic, and I haven’t found a way to export posts from Shopify, so I’d recommend writing any blog posts in Word (or whatever you use). You can save the post which you then copy and paste into Shopify. I’ve had an issue in the past where I lost an entire blog (not on Shopify, not my fault, and in a previous career) so I know how painful it is to lose absolutely loads of work. That’s why I save all blog posts as Word files.
Your site’s images should be saved on your computer anyway before you upload them to Shopify, but just make sure you have a good filing system! The same applies to videos you post on your site.
Check your pages. Have you got FAQ pages, an About Me page, and any other pages it would take time to recreate? Just copy and paste them into Word and save them with your other backups. You probably won’t be editing this stuff much, so backing up pages won’t be something you need to do very often.
It’s quite a tedious job, but I have everything from my website saved one way or another, and I have screenshots saved of what pages I have and my site’s menus. If a disaster happened and the whole lot disappeared, I should be able to recreate the site, though it’s something I hope I never have to do.
Further reading
I found these two articles helpful:
https://www.heycarson.com/blog/shopify-backup-your-store-in-6-easy-steps/
https://www.ilanadavis.com/blogs/articles/do-yourself-a-favor-and-backup-your-shopify-store
And also the Shopify help page on backups:
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/shopify-admin/duplicate-store