afrizzle --

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about SQL, mySQL or PHPmyAdmin to give a detailed explaination of what's going on with you. But here's what's happening on my end.

When I 'backup' the database, cPanel creates a gZip file on my desktop. It's a compressed ASCII file, which can be decompressed & then opened in a text editor. Looking inside, it consists of a number of sections, all beginning with something like:

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS blah_blah_blah;
CREATE TABLE blah_blah_blah (
various sql commands
) TYPE=MyISAM;
I believe this means that the database is being deleted, and then recreated anew, section by section. Importing this file, either remotely or locally, seems to result in a completely remade file, with no traces of whatever messing around I've done since the backup was made.

You might want to peek inside your backup file & check the actual commands. Verify that it can be used to restore the database on the remote machine as well as the local one. After all, that's the main reason to have one.

Once you have a backup that can be restored remotely, I'm sure it'll also work locally.

-- Larry