To restore a single database you need to provide the path to the dump directory as part of the mongorestore command line.

For example:

# Backup the training database
mongodump --db training

# Restore the training database to a new database called training2
mongorestore --db training2 dump/training

The --db option for mongodump specifies the source database to dump.

The --db option for mongorestore specifies the target database to restore into.

Use the following command to restore mongo db:

mongorestore -d dbname dbpath

$ mongorestore --drop -d <database-name> <dir-of-backup-files>

• --drop Drop is necessary if you are replacing an existing db
• -d <database-name> The name of the database to create/replace
• <dir-of-backup-files> For some reason this is necessary even if it's the current directory

Reference: https://coderwall.com/p/3hx06a/restore-a-mongodb-database-mongorestore

Restoring using mongorestore

After making sure that mongod and mongo are running, go to the dump's parent directory in a new terminal. And use the command mongorestore dump. Where dump is the folder name in which the database dump is present.

Maybe slightly unrelated, but based on the answers here i got the following

Using mongodump and mongorestore archive feature I comprised a oneliner:

mongodump --host H --port P --username U --password PWD --archive | mongorestore --username U1 --password PWD1 --archive

The above example will :

1. Dump data from host H with port P logged in with user U and password PWD
2. "Stream" that data into your local database with user U1 and password PWD1