ChatPilot
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Backups

Nightly encrypted backups of everything ChatPilot knows, where to keep them, and how to restore one on a new computer.

Every night at 03:30 ChatPilot writes an encrypted backup (AES-256) to a folder of your choice and keeps the last 14. Settings → Backups shows when the last one was made.

What's in a backup

Your chats and messages, people, settings, memory notes, the WhatsApp link and your logins (the tokens and keys in the Keychain), so a new computer is up in minutes. Photos and files aren't in it: they are downloaded again when you open them.

Put the backups somewhere else

A backup on the same disk goes with it when the disk breaks. Press Change next to Folder and pick a folder outside this computer: a cloud folder (Dropbox, iCloud Drive), a USB disk or a NAS. The card warns you while the folder is on this computer.

Back up now writes one at once, for example before you move to a new computer.

Also keep a copy somewhere else

Besides the folder, ChatPilot can copy every nightly backup to a second place. Press Choose storage… on the card and pick one:

  • Folder: a NAS share, a USB disk or any mounted folder.
  • S3 (S3-compatible storage): AWS S3, Backblaze B2, Wasabi or MinIO. Fill in the endpoint, an existing bucket, the region and an access key with its secret key; Folder in the bucket is optional.
  • WebDAV / Nextcloud: the folder's address, your user name and password (on Nextcloud, make an app password for it under Settings → Security).

Keep there says how many nightly backups stay there (backups for moving are never removed). Check and save tries the address and keys first, so a typo shows up now and not in the night. Plain http:// is only taken for this computer or your local network.

The backups are encrypted before they leave this computer: without your backup password nobody can open them there, the storage provider included. The keys are kept with your other logins and never shown again; to change them press Change and fill them in anew (an empty key field keeps the stored one).

The card then shows where the copies go and when the last one was made, or the error if a copy failed. Copy the newest backup now copies at once, What's there lists the backups there and the free space, and Stop stops copying (the backups already there stay).

Keep the backup password

Every backup is locked with a backup password that ChatPilot made for you and keeps in the Keychain. Press Show backup password and store it in your password manager: without it a backup can't be opened, for example on a new computer.

Restore a backup

  1. Install ChatPilot on the new computer (Install ChatPilot).
  2. In a terminal: chatpilot backup restore <file>, with the backup file (it ends in .tar.gz.enc). It asks for the backup password.
  3. It stops ChatPilot, puts back the databases, settings and logins, and starts it again.

The databases that were there before are kept next to them (.before-restore).

From a terminal you can also make one: chatpilot backup now (optionally with a folder).

Moving ChatPilot to a server, or back to a computer? Press Make a backup for moving on the card (or run chatpilot backup move) instead: Move ChatPilot to a server and back.

Your settings on their own

To copy only your settings to another install, use Download settings.json on the same card, and Load from another install… on the other one. It shows what changes before anything is saved.

Checked against ChatPilot 0.1.0b1. Report a problem with this page