Backups are your safety net. Every night, while you sleep, we make a fresh copy of your site's database automatically. There is nothing to set up and nothing to remember.
What gets backed up
Each backup is a copy of your site's database. That is where Omeka keeps the heart of your site:
- Your items and their metadata
- Exhibit and page content
- Your site's settings and users
One thing to know: the files you upload (images, PDFs, audio, and other media) live on separate storage and are not part of these database backups. Your uploaded files are kept safely alongside your site, but a database backup on its own will not include them.
Where to find your backups
Open any site and click Backups on the left. You will see a list of every backup we have for that site, newest first, with the platform version at the time of the backup, the file size, and the date and time it was created.
The list refreshes itself every few seconds, so when a new backup finishes, it simply appears. No need to reload the page. Each finished backup also sends a Backup Completed notification to the bell at the top of the dashboard, and your dashboard's Last backup card shows when the most recent one ran.
How long backups are kept
We keep each backup for two weeks. Once a day, backups older than that are cleaned up automatically to keep things tidy.
If there is a backup you want to hold onto for longer, download it before the two weeks are up. It comes down as a zip file you can store anywhere you like. Our guide on manual backups and downloads walks through it.
When backups come in handy
The nightly backup quietly protects you from the everyday stuff, like an accidental bulk delete or an edit gone wrong. Backups also pair nicely with a couple of other moments:
- Before an upgrade. When you upgrade your platform, you can tick a box to create a backup as part of the process, which gives you a restore point to fall back on.
- Before a big change. About to reorganize your collection or try a new module? Create a manual backup first and experiment with confidence.
And when you need to actually use one, restoring takes just a couple of clicks. See restoring a backup for the details.