Backup & Restore
iCloud sync guarantees consistency across devices, not safety across versions — delete something by accident and the deletion syncs too. A backup is the complete copy you can hold in your hand.
Exporting a Backup
⌃⌘B on macOS writes a single encrypted file containing your notes and attachments.
- You set a password, needed to restore on any device
- Encryption is PBKDF2 + AES-GCM, with a 12-character minimum
- A lost password cannot be recovered — Jotaid has no reset and no back door
There is no password recovery
This is not laziness: the password derives the key, so Jotaid holds nothing capable of opening the file. Put it in a password manager.
If an attachment turns out to be missing or unreadable mid-backup, the backup stops rather than producing a partial file — an incomplete backup is more dangerous than none, because you will believe you have one.
Restoring
⌥⇧⌘B imports a backup. Two things to know:
- Restoring merges, it does not overwrite — the backup's contents join your current library; nothing existing is cleared
- It may return a partial result (some link rebuilds failing, say), and Jotaid reports that honestly rather than claiming success
Importing a backup made by a much older version warns you first about what that format omits — attachments not captured, project and theme hierarchy possibly rebuilt as flat items. You decide whether to continue after seeing it.
When to Take One
- Before switching devices
- Before large-scale reorganising (bulk moves, node merges, emptying the trash)
- Before a Rebuild from iCloud — Jotaid takes one automatically, but your own is more reassuring
Backup vs Export
| Contains | For | |
|---|---|---|
| Backup | Notes + attachments + structure, encrypted | Full migration, disaster recovery |
| Export | Plain text, no attachments | Other tools, archiving, sharing |
Moving house calls for a backup; handing content to other software calls for an export.
Next Steps
- Import & Export — Markdown and PDF
- Sync — The iCloud layer
- Trash — Where deleted things go