Backups and restoring your data

Your application's data is backed up every night, and you can put it back if something goes wrong, for example if records were deleted by mistake. Everything here is under Settings, then Backups. Everybody on your account can see it.

Restoring your data doesn't change which version of your application is running. To undo a release, see Roll back a release.

Two ways back

The screen offers two, and they are different promises:

• Back to a moment. Any moment in the last 30 days, which the screen calls Time Travel. It is quick, and it is the one to use for a recent mistake. It never reaches back past your last release, because going back before one would give the version you are running data shaped for the version before it. The screen says how far back you can go right now.
• A backup. A copy of all of your application's data, taken every night and whenever you ask. Backups are kept in your application's own storage, in the UK/EU region, for a year by default. They are slower to restore, and they go back furthest. We never read what is in them.

The list shows each backup's age first, such as "3 hours old" or "12 days old", because that is usually what decides which one you want. It also shows how big it is, how many records it holds, and which version of your application it was taken on. If last night's backup failed, the list says so.

Take a backup now

Press Take a backup now, for example before you import a lot of records. It is taken on the next run, usually within half an hour, and appears on the list with its age. An owner or an admin can ask for one.

Restore your data

Restoring is two steps, and nothing live changes until the second.

1. Stage it

Choose where to go back to, under Restore:

• From a backup: choose one from the list and press Stage this backup. It is loaded into a separate copy beside your live data, and the two are compared.
• Or back to a moment: choose how long ago, from 15 minutes to 29 days, and press Stage this moment. Your application records every change it makes, so Divvent counts exactly which changes going back would undo.

It is staged on the next run. An owner or an admin can stage a restore.

You can only restore a backup taken on the version you are running now, because an older backup's data is in the shape the older version wrote. If you need that, roll back the release with its data from Releases, or choose a backup taken since.

2. Read what it would change, and approve it

When it is staged, the screen shows what it would change, and it says what you would lose first. For example, "5 records added or changed since this backup (3 hours ago) will be lost." Below that, table by table, it shows how many records there are now, how many there would be, and how many would be lost or put back.

To put it in place:

1. Tick the box that starts I understand:, followed by what will be lost.
2. Type your application's web address name in the box. The screen shows it beside the box.
3. Press Put this restore in place.

Only an owner can do this, and only freshly signed in, meaning with your passkey or authenticator app in the last five minutes. If yours is older, the screen says so, with a Sign in again link that brings you back here.

You approve the preview you read. If anything in it changes before the restore runs, the approval is refused, and you read it again.

It is put in place on the next run. Just before, a restore point of your data as it is at that moment is taken, so the restore can be undone.

Changed your mind?

Until it is approved, Discard this restore throws the staged copy away. Nothing live was changed.

Undo a restore

A restore that was put in place has Undo this restore beside it under Restores before, for as long as the moment it was approved is within the last 30 days. The undo is itself a restore, back to that moment. It is staged, previewed and approved the same way.

What a restore does and doesn't change

• Your activity record stays. Everything your application recorded about who changed what is kept, and the restore itself is added to it.
• The version doesn't change. A restore puts data back. It never changes your application.
• People are signed out. Anybody who signed in to your application after the moment you go back to is signed out, because sign-ins are part of the data too.
• Nothing changes if it fails halfway. Your data is put back to the restore point taken just before, and the screen says the restore did not go ahead.

Very large applications

A restore from this screen compares up to 200,000 records in each table. If one of your tables holds more, the restore won't go ahead from here. Ask us, and our team restores it for you with your written approval.

Who can do what

| | Owner | Admin | Editor | Finance approver | Viewer | |---|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:| | See backups and restores | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Take a backup now | Yes | Yes | | | | | Stage or discard a restore | Yes | Yes | | | | | Put a restore in place, freshly signed in | Yes | | | | |

To take a copy of your data away from Divvent, see Export your application and your data.