Backup and Restore

LockYit keeps your vault on your devices, not on a server, so backups are how you make sure you never lose it. LockYit backs up your vault automatically, and everything to do with backups is on one screen, Backups.

Backups are encrypted, including the files attached to your items, and only your account can restore them. They go straight from your device to where you keep them. LockYit's servers never receive them.

Opening the Backups screen

• Settings → Backups
• Tools → Backups
• On a computer: the Backup status in the status bar at the bottom of the window, the Backup menu in the menu bar, or the command palette
• On a phone or tablet: the Backup status button in the Home title bar (see Status at a glance)

Automatic Backup

Automatic Backup is on from the start. It keeps encrypted copies of your vault without you having to remember, and only makes a new copy when your vault has changed since the last one.

Choose where backups go

You choose where backups go during Quick Setup, right after you create your account or sign in on a new device:

• Choose Folder and pick a folder on a USB drive, an external disk, a memory card, a network folder or a cloud storage folder (such as one in iCloud Drive, OneDrive or Google Drive). Backups there are safe even if this device is lost or damaged. LockYit makes the first backup straight away.
• Keep on This Device keeps backups in LockYit's own storage on this device. Your vault is still backed up, but those backups are lost with the device, so LockYit reminds you every day to choose a folder.

If you haven't chosen yet, for example because you updated from an earlier version of LockYit or skipped email verification, LockYit asks Where Should Backups Go? once instead, with Choose Folder or Skip for Now, which keeps backups on this device.

You can choose or change the folder at any time on the Backups screen: Choose Folder on the Backup location row (or, once you have a folder, Change → Choose Folder). Change → Keep on This Device goes back to LockYit's own storage. Backups already in a folder stay where they are when you change it. Once a folder holds a backup, the copies LockYit kept on this device in the meantime are removed to free up space.

The Backups screen

Above your backups are the status and three settings (on a computer, or a tablet held sideways, they sit in a column beside the list):

• Status at the top says whether your backup is up to date, when the last backup was and when the next one is due, and why, if it is waiting or failing.
• Backup location shows where backups go and how much space they use. Change moves them to another folder or back to this device. While backups are only on this device, the row offers Choose Folder and a warning sits below it.
• Automatic Backup turns automatic backups on or off.
• Back up shows how often backups run. Tap it to choose When I make changes (the default, shortly after you stop making changes, at most every 15 minutes), Once a day or Once a week.

On a phone, or a tablet held upright, the settings are folded away under the status so your backups stay in view. Tap the status to open them, and again to fold them away. If your backups are only on this device, the warning and Choose Folder stay visible either way.

Turning Automatic Backup off keeps the location and the backups in it, and Back Up Now still works whenever you want a copy.

How many backups are kept

LockYit tidies its backups after each one. It keeps the 5 most recent backups, plus one a day for a week and one a week for a month. The newest backup is never deleted. To keep a particular backup for longer, download it.

Status

Status	What it means
Backup is up to date	The last backup matches your vault.
Recent changes will be backed up soon	Changes are waiting for the next scheduled backup.
Backing up...	A backup is running.
Waiting for the backup folder	The folder can't be reached, usually because the drive isn't connected. This isn't an error: connect the drive and LockYit backs up on its own.
Backup needs attention	LockYit couldn't write the backup for another reason. It tries again shortly.
Automatic backup is off	Automatic Backup is turned off.

Phones and tablets

On phones and tablets, backups run while LockYit is open. A backup that falls due while it's closed runs a few seconds after you next open it. Nothing is backed up while the vault is locked.

What's in the folder

LockYit creates a LockYit Backup folder inside the one you chose, with a folder for your email address and one for each of your devices. Several people can share one drive, for example a family network drive, and each person's backups stay separate. The email address and date in each file name are the only details that aren't encrypted, apart from the date and format version recorded inside each backup.

Attached files are kept once in a blobs folder beside the backups and shared by all of them, so a large file isn't copied again with every backup. Leave the whole LockYit Backup folder as it is. To take a single backup somewhere else, use Download.

Backing up now

Back Up Now, on the Your backups heading, backs up to your backup location straight away, whether or not anything changed and whether or not Automatic Backup is on.

The backup shows its progress, then how it went: where it was saved, when, and how much space your backups use, or why it couldn't finish. This stays on screen until you tap OK, so you can start a backup and come back to it. On a phone or tablet, keep LockYit open until it finishes. If an automatic backup is already running, LockYit waits for it rather than starting another.

You can also back up without opening the Backups screen: from the Backup panel in the status bar or the Backup status button, the Backup and Tools menus, or the keyboard shortcut ⇧⌘B (Shift+Ctrl+B on Windows and Linux) for Back Up Now. These show the same progress and result.

Your backups

Your backups lists your backups, newest first, with their date, size, the number of items and files, and the account they belong to. On a computer the list sits beside the settings. Each backup can be:

• restored with Restore Backup
• saved as a single file with Download

On a phone, these share one menu (⋮) on each backup. Backups are tidied by Automatic Backup, so they aren't deleted from here.

The list also includes backups your other devices made in the same backup folder, so you can restore them here too. Each device only ever tidies its own. If the backup folder is on a drive that isn't connected, the list says so. Connect it and tap Retry.

Older backups on this device

Backups you made by hand in earlier versions of LockYit (Back Up to This Device, or Create Local Backup in 1.1) are listed under Older backups on this device. They stay until you delete them, and each can be restored, downloaded or deleted.

Downloading a backup

Download saves one backup as a single .lockyit.zip file, with its attached files inside, wherever you choose: another drive, a cloud folder, or somewhere to keep it long term. It stays encrypted exactly like the original, so only your account can restore it, with Restore from File.

Restoring a backup

1. Open Backups.
2. Tap Restore Backup on the backup you want, or use Restore from... in the title bar (see below).
3. Confirm the restore.
4. When it finishes, restart LockYit.

You need to be signed in to restore, because backups are encrypted with your account's keys. Any backup made with your account can be restored on any of your devices. A backup belonging to another account can't be restored.

Restore from... in the title bar offers two ways to restore a backup that isn't in the list:

• Restore from File: a single backup file, such as one you downloaded or one made by hand in an earlier version of LockYit.
• Restore from Folder: a folder holding automatic backups, such as the backup folder on a USB drive or network folder that another device used. Choose that folder (or the LockYit Backup folder inside it), and LockYit lists the backups of your account it finds there for you to pick one.

Restoring on a new device

If your old device backed up to a folder, such as a USB drive or network folder:

1. Sign in to LockYit on the new device.
2. Open Backups and tap Restore from... → Restore from Folder.
3. Choose the folder your old device backed up to, and pick the backup you want.

If you downloaded a backup, use Restore from File instead.

Automatic backups keep their attached files in the blobs folder beside them, so restore them with Restore from Folder, not Restore from File. LockYit tells you if a file you pick needs its folder.

Restoring replaces this device's vault

Restoring replaces the vault on this device with the backup's contents. If this device syncs with your other devices, their newer changes sync back after the restore. LockYit checks a backup before it touches your vault, so a damaged backup is refused while your current vault is still there.

Backup reminder

If your vault isn't protected, a reminder appears above your items:

• Your backups are only on this device when no backup folder has been chosen. Choose Folder picks one straight away. Remind Me Later hides the reminder for a day.
• Automatic backup hasn't completed since ... when Automatic Backup hasn't been able to back up for a day, for example because the drive is disconnected. Check Backup opens the Backups screen.
• Your vault hasn't been backed up yet, or hasn't been backed up in N days, when Automatic Backup is turned off. Set Up Automatic Backup opens the Backups screen.

Apart from the first, Remind Me Later hides the reminder for a week.

This video shows backups in LockYit 1.1. In 1.2, backups are automatic and Create Local Backup is Back Up Now on the Backups screen. Backups you made in 1.1 are listed under Older backups on this device.