diff --git a/server/src/plugin/plugin-volume.ts b/server/src/plugin/plugin-volume.ts
index c98aa4db8..ebd9d0ef0 100644
--- a/server/src/plugin/plugin-volume.ts
+++ b/server/src/plugin/plugin-volume.ts
@@ -7,9 +7,15 @@ export function getScryptedVolume() {
     return volumeDir;
 }
 
-export function getPluginVolume(pluginId: string) {
+export function getPluginsVolume() {
     const volume = getScryptedVolume();
-    const pluginVolume = path.join(volume, 'plugins', pluginId);
+    const pluginsVolume = path.join(volume, 'plugins');
+    return pluginsVolume;
+}
+
+export function getPluginVolume(pluginId: string) {
+    const volume = getPluginsVolume();
+    const pluginVolume = path.join(volume, pluginId);
     return pluginVolume;
 }
 
diff --git a/server/src/services/backup.ts b/server/src/services/backup.ts
index 6de7a8162..94003df27 100644
--- a/server/src/services/backup.ts
+++ b/server/src/services/backup.ts
@@ -2,9 +2,10 @@ import fs from 'fs';
 import path from 'path';
 import Level from '../level';
 import { sleep } from '../sleep';
-import { getScryptedVolume } from '../plugin/plugin-volume';
+import { getPluginsVolume, getScryptedVolume } from '../plugin/plugin-volume';
 import AdmZip from 'adm-zip';
 import { ScryptedRuntime } from '../runtime';
+import { getPluginNodePath } from '../plugin/plugin-npm-dependencies';
 
 export class Backup {
     constructor(public runtime: ScryptedRuntime) {}
@@ -48,13 +49,17 @@ export class Backup {
         await sleep(5000);
         await this.runtime.datastore.close();
 
-        await fs.promises.rm(volumeDir, {
+        // nuke the existing database path
+        await fs.promises.rm(dbPath, {
             recursive: true,
             force: true,
         });
 
-        await fs.promises.mkdir(volumeDir, {
-            recursive: true
+        // nuke all the plugins and associated files downloaded by thhem.
+        // first run after restore will reinstall everything.
+        await fs.promises.rm(getPluginsVolume(), {
+            recursive: true,
+            force: true,
         });
 
         zip.extractAllTo(dbPath, true);