I encountered a similar issue while rebuilding my Hestia server. To resolve the “user exists” error, check if the user already exists with sudo v-list-users. If it does, delete it using sudo v-delete-user <username>. Create a new admin user with a slightly different name using sudo v-add-user newusername password email, then restore the backup to this new user with sudo v-backup-restore newusername /backup/path/backupfile.tar. Ensure correct file ownership with sudo chown -R newusername:newusername /home/newusername. Checking the HestiaCP logs (sudo tail -f /var/log/hestia/error.log) might also provide more insights. Hope this helps! 