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Backups and restore

A backup is a single file holding your library, your reading progress and, if you choose, your settings. Keep a recent one somewhere other than your phone: it is what brings everything back after a lost phone, a reinstall or a mistake.

Tsugi's backups use the common .tachibk format: Tsugi restores backups from other readers that use it, and those readers can restore Tsugi's.

Creating a backup#

  1. Open More > Backup (also reachable from More > Settings > Data > Create backup).
  2. Under Create backup, tick what to include. Everything except Private settings is ticked by default:
    • Library entries, Categories, Chapters (which you have read and bookmarked), Tracking, Reading history
    • Entries read outside the library: history of entries you read without adding them
    • App settings, Extension stores (your repository list), Source settings
    • Private settings: your tracker sign-ins. Leave it off and the file contains none, which looks the same as never having signed in.
  3. Tap Create backup and choose where to save the file, for example a folder that your cloud storage app uploads, or your Downloads folder to copy to a computer.

A notification says Backup created, with Share to send the file somewhere straight away.

What a backup does not contain#

  • The extensions themselves (only the list of repositories, with Extension stores).
  • Downloaded chapters. See Downloads.
  • Custom covers you set on entries.
  • Your sync settings and sign-ins.

Automatic backups#

More > Settings > Data > Automatic backup interval: Off, 12 h or 24 h. It is set to 12 hours on a new install. Last automatically backed up shows when the last one ran. Tsugi keeps the newest four.

Automatic backups go to the autobackup folder of your Storage location (More > Settings > Data > Storage location), a folder on your phone that you choose and that stays when Tsugi is uninstalled. Until you choose one, they are kept inside Tsugi's app storage and are deleted with the app; the Backup screen says so, with a Choose folder button.

More > Backup > Automatic backups lists the kept files, newest first, each with its date, its kind (Automatic backup or Sync safety backup) and its size. Tap one to Restore it (the same restore as a picked file, with the options ticked under Restore backup) or to Save a copy somewhere else. This works with or without a storage location. On a new phone or after a reinstall, choose the same folder as the storage location, or pick a file from its autobackup folder with Restore backup.

If the folder cannot be reached any more (deleted, or access removed), backups are written inside the app again and nothing is lost; the Storage location row says "<folder> cannot be reached. Tap to choose it again".

Storage location#

More > Settings > Data > Storage location opens Android's folder picker. Tsugi makes three folders in the one you choose: autobackup, local and downloads. If Tsugi already holds automatic backups or Local series, it asks first ("4 backups and 12 Local series will be moved to <folder>") with Move and Cancel. Cancel keeps the previous setting.

If you later choose a different folder, Tsugi moves the backups, Local series and exported downloads it put in the first folder into the new one, and tells you first how much that is, for example "4 backups, 12 Local series and 3100 exported chapters will be moved from Tsugi to SD card (12.4 GB)". On the same storage this is immediate; across storages it copies in the background with a notification. If the new folder's storage does not have room, the dialog says "<folder> does not have 12.4 GB free" and Move is off; choose another folder or free some space first. Files Tsugi did not create, such as a backup you saved there yourself, stay in the first folder.

If a file cannot be moved, it stays where it was (in the app or in the first folder), the notification says how many and where, and Move to the storage location appears under the row to try again. Downloads themselves stay in the app; see Downloads for copying them out.

Restoring a backup#

  1. Before restoring on a new install, add your extension repositories and install the extensions your library uses, if you can. Entries restore either way; those whose extension is missing show Source not installed until you install it.
  2. Open More > Backup. Under Restore backup, tick what to restore: Library entries, Categories, App settings, Extension stores, Source settings.
  3. Tap Restore backup and pick the file (.tachibk, or .proto.gz as some exports are named). Opening a .tachibk file with Tsugi from a file manager does the same. Tsugi reads the file, then shows what it found with Restore and Cancel; the restore starts only on Restore.

The restore runs in the background with a Restoring backup notification, which has Cancel. The Backup screen shows how far it is (Categories, Settings, Extension stores, Entries). If Android stops the app part way, the restore carries on from where it was.

Restoring into a library that already has entries merges the two. Read chapters, bookmarks and reading progress never go backwards, so restoring an older backup cannot undo reading you did since. Restoring the same file twice changes nothing the second time.

Before a restore starts, Tsugi lists the sources and trackers the file refers to that this device lacks or is not signed in to, and you choose Restore or Cancel. When it ends, the notification says Restore complete, how many entries could not be restored, or how many sources need an extension. Tap it, or open More > Backup > Restore report, for the counts, the sources with no extension (each with Install when one of your repositories offers it, or Open Extensions), the trackers to sign in to (Sign in), and the errors, with Export error log.

After a restore:

  • If you also had downloads in another reader, or exported Tsugi's own, copy them now with More > Settings > Downloads > Copy downloads from a folder. See Downloads.

Files Tsugi cannot restore#

  • "This is a JSON backup from an old release." Very old apps wrote backups as JSON, which Tsugi does not read. Restore the file in an app that reads it, create a new backup there, then restore that one in Tsugi.
  • "This file could not be read as a backup." The file is damaged or is not a backup. Try another copy.

Backups and sync#

Sync keeps your library the same on several devices. It does not replace backups: a mistake on one device syncs to the others. Before a device's first sync, Tsugi writes a safety backup automatically, see Sync between devices.

Good habits#

  • Create a backup by hand before big changes: a migration of many entries, a restore, setting up sync, or moving to a new phone.
  • Keep at least one backup off the phone.
  • Tsugi is in testing. Back up regularly so a problem in a test build costs you nothing.