How to Restore Backup MySQL in PostgreSQL

What does “restoring a MySQL backup” mean?

Restoring re-creates all tables, indexes, and data from a dump file produced by mysqldump or a physical snapshot. The process writes the SQL statements in the dump into the target database exactly as they were when the backup was taken.

Which tools can I use?

mysql client is the most common. For huge files, mysqlpump, myloader/mydumper, or Percona XtraBackup speed things up. GUI tools like Galaxy, TablePlus, or DBeaver wrap the same commands under the hood.

How do I restore with the mysql client?

1️⃣ Create the empty target database if it doesn’t exist.
2️⃣ Disable foreign-key checks for faster load.
3️⃣ Pipe the dump file into mysql while supplying credentials. Example below loads ecommerce.sql back into ecommerce_prod.

mysql -u root -p ecommerce_prod < ecommerce.sql

How can I restore only certain tables?

Use --one-database with a filtered dump or run SOURCE for each table-specific file if you dumped tables individually.

How do I verify the restore succeeded?

Run quick row counts: SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Customers; or spot-check totals such as SELECT SUM(total_amount) FROM Orders; and compare them to the source environment or audit logs.

How do I speed up large restores?

Increase innodb_buffer_pool_size temporarily, disable binary logging, and load with --disable-keys. Re-enable constraints and logging afterward.

Can I restore into PostgreSQL?

Not directly; run pgloader or migra to convert the MySQL dump to PostgreSQL-compatible SQL first, then execute the generated file with psql.

Best practices for production restores?

• Restore to a staging database first.
• Run integrity checks and application smoke tests.
• Take a fresh backup of the target before overwrite.
• Automate the task in CI/CD so procedures are repeatable.

Common mistakes to avoid

See below for the two most frequent errors and fixes.

FAQs

Is --force safe to use during restore?

Only as a last resort; it ignores errors that might hide data loss. Prefer fixing the root cause.

Can I restore a compressed dump without unpacking?

Yes: gunzip < ecommerce.sql.gz | mysql -u root -p ecommerce_prod.