How do you backup your data?

How To
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As I become reliant on Anytype, I want to set up a system for regularly backing up my data in case I lose access to Anytype.

As I’m thinking through this, I’m curious to hear how people here use the backup / export feature:

  • Do you use the protobuf format or markdown?
  • Do you include linked objects?
  • How is your experience re-importing your data? Does it restore to Anytype exactly as it was before exporting?
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For me it needs something like this to be implemented before I can make real backups
https://community.anytype.io/t/auto-backup-auto-export/9666

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If you export from Anytype>Space Settings, it will export your entire account. Files are stored in the back up node, but if you want to have it all in one place you should do the export with files.

You can disregard the “include linked objects” it’s only needed when you’re exporting a single object. Its going to be removed from this screen since all objects are already included with the export data function.

Importing has worked perfectly for me.

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Thanks Angelo, that’s helpful!

Do you export/import in Markdown or Protobuf? What would be the point of exporting as Protobuf if it works perfectly as Markdown?

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Cool that we are making progress here.
It would still need a few things for me:

  • needs to be automated
  • customization in file structure
  • only exporting changes (incl. optional deletion)
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I do it with Protobuf, because I only use Anytype and don’t need Markdown.

It was like this very briefly when we were first testing the migration, but I think it’s a bit confusing from a UX perspective.

Should it be presented as a toggle option “changes only”? How would it segment the export? It would have to keep an internal record of the last time a back up was made and make sure it matches what is stored on the your drive.

It makes sense for the incremental back ups use case, but it would have to be a separate process similar to how the account actually interacts with the backup node.

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I’m not sure if this should be an option in the UI.

I would consider it an advanced export/backup option that’s probably rarely used via the UI.
Like it is with all backups, there should be a way to automate it. Examples would be to backup every time I shutdown or setting up a scheduled task on a selfhosted node.

I would like to see a solution where I can have access to all my Anytype content in an easily readable format all the time.

As the files are not readable by default there are different ways to make this work. The preferred one would of course be to have a way to trigger this export automatically for the mentioned use cases.
If such an option would be done with 3rd part tools it would need the files to be stored unencrypted.

Could you elaborate on that as I’m unsure what you are meaning with that?

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basically what you described in the first part of your comment

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Thanks for the helpful info. May I know if this export includes media like images, videos, and documents? How do we ensure these exports also include images, videos, and documents? Thank you!

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The currently available export method via your space setting also includes a folder called “files” where you should find all of these.

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And if we re-import the entire backup, those files will be linked and placed in the objects they belong to, correct?

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Yes, they will. I suggest doing so with Anytype’s native protobuf format :sparkles:

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I get that as a member of the team it makes sense for you to use Protobuf, but would it make sense for anyone else to backup as Protobuf? Is there any advantage over Markdown?

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Sure, you can do both. If your intention is to import it back into Anytype, just for the sake of compatibility peace of mind, I would use protobuf.

Markdown will lose some system features and structure unique to Anytype, like Types, Relations and some Block metadata.

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Thanks, that’s exactly what I was curious about!

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