TREK/wiki/Backups.md

Backups

TREK stores all data in a single SQLite database (travel.db) plus an uploads/ directory of attachments, cover photos, and avatars — by default; storage backends and replication are configured in Admin: Storage. The Backup panel lets you create, download, restore, and schedule backups of both.

Where to find it

Admin Panel > Backup tab, in the Maintenance group of the side navigation. The tab has two cards: Data Backup (the list of backups with Refresh, Upload Backup and Create Backup) and Auto-Backup.

What a backup contains

A backup is a ZIP archive with these entries:

Entry	Contents
travel.db	The full SQLite database
uploads/	All uploaded attachments, covers, and avatars (default location — see Admin: Storage)
plugins-data/	Each installed plugin's own database + files (present only if plugins are installed)
plugins-code/	The installed plugin code, so a restore is self-contained (dev-linked plugins are skipped)

Also included: the at-rest encryption key, unless you supply it through the ENCRYPTION_KEY environment variable — in that case the file is not the source of truth and is left out. Bundling it is what makes a backup restorable onto a different install, and it makes the ZIP as sensitive as the key itself: store and transfer it accordingly. See Encryption-Key-Rotation.

Manual backup

Click Create Backup in the Backup tab. The server creates the ZIP and makes it available for download. Up to 3 manual backups can be created per hour per IP address (rate-limit window: 1 hour).

You can also Download or delete any existing backup from the list. Deleting asks first in TREK's own dialog (Delete backup "name"?).

Restoring a backup

You can restore from:

• A stored backup: click Restore next to any backup in the list.
• An uploaded ZIP: click Upload Backup and select a backup file from your computer (maximum upload size: 500 MB by default, configurable with the BACKUP_UPLOAD_LIMIT_MB environment variable; see Environment-Variables).

A second limit caps the decompressed size of a restore archive at 5 GB by default (BACKUP_MAX_DECOMPRESSED_MB). It applies to both routes — a stored backup as well as an uploaded ZIP — and a restore that exceeds it is refused with Backup exceeds the maximum decompressed size. Raise it if your own backups legitimately grow past the default, otherwise they become unrestorable.

Before restoring, TREK runs integrity checks on the uploaded database:

1. SQLite PRAGMA integrity_check — verifies the database file is not corrupt.
2. Required tables present — confirms the file contains users, trips, trip_members, places, and days. Files missing any of these are rejected as not being a valid TREK backup.

Either way, TREK asks first in a Restore Backup? dialog that names the file, warns that all current data (trips, places, users, uploads) will be permanently replaced, and suggests creating a backup of the current state first. Yes, restore starts it; when it is done the page reloads.

Warning: Restoring replaces all current data. Back up your current state first if you want to keep it.

Plugins & restart: travel.db and uploads/ are swapped in immediately. Plugin data and code are staged beside the live trees and applied right away: the running plugins hold their databases open, so the restore asks the plugin runtime to shut them down and swaps the trees in the moment the handles are closed. If the runtime isn't up (plugins switched off, or a restore that happens during startup), the staged trees are applied at the next boot instead. Restart the server after restoring an instance that uses plugins — the plugins are stopped for the swap and stay down until the process restarts, and the bundled encryption key is only read at startup.

Restoring on a new install, before setup

To move TREK to a new server without setting it up first, put the backup ZIP where the container can read it and point RESTORE_FROM_BACKUP at it for the first start:

services:
  trek:
    environment:
      - RESTORE_FROM_BACKUP=/app/data/backup-2026-09-30.zip

On that start TREK restores the archive before it opens the database: the database, the encryption key it carries, the uploads and the plugins come back, the database is brought up to date, and no admin account is created. Sign in with an account from the backup. The same checks as above apply, and a backup that fails them stops the start with the reason in the log instead of starting an empty instance.

The variable only acts while there is no database yet. Once the instance has one, a restart leaves it alone and logs a reminder, so it is safe to leave in the compose file, but you can remove it after the move.

Auto-backup

Turn on Enable auto-backup in the Auto-Backup card of the Backup tab, pick the schedule and click Save. A new install starts with auto-backup off, set to daily at 02:00 and 7 days of retention.

Interval options:

• Hourly
• Daily
• Weekly
• Monthly

Retention (Delete old backups after): pick one of the preset windows: 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, 14 days, 30 days, or Keep forever. Auto-backups older than the chosen window are pruned after each auto-backup run; Keep forever (stored as keep_days = 0) keeps all backups indefinitely.

Schedule options (depend on interval):

• Run at hour: time of day for daily, weekly, and monthly backups (0 to 23, server local time).
• Day of week: Sunday through Saturday (for weekly backups).
• Day of month: 1 to 28 (for monthly backups). Days 29 to 31 are excluded to avoid months with fewer days.

Auto-backup files are named auto-backup-<timestamp>.zip (manual backups use backup-<timestamp>.zip).

After each auto-backup run, auto-backup files older than keep_days are pruned. Manual backups are never pruned — delete those yourself when you no longer need them. Set keep_days to 0 to disable pruning entirely.

Before updating TREK

Always create a manual backup before updating. See Updating.

Audit log

The following actions are recorded in the Audit-Log:

Action key	When
backup.create	Manual backup created
backup.restore	Restore from stored backup
backup.upload_restore	Restore from uploaded ZIP
backup.delete	Backup deleted
backup.auto_settings	Auto-backup settings saved

See also

• Admin: Storage — replicate backups to S3-compatible storage
• Encryption-Key-Rotation
• Admin-Panel-Overview
• Security-Hardening
• Updating