# Backup And Restore

The minimum persistent state for this project is:

- `data/app.db`
- `data/artwork/`
- your music library mount, if the server machine is the primary storage location

## What To Back Up

Recommended:

- entire `data/` directory
- entire `media/` directory if the same host stores the original files
- your `.env` or deployment environment settings

Why:

- `app.db` stores users, sessions, playlists, favorites, and scanned metadata
- `artwork/` stores extracted embedded covers
- `media/` contains the source files used to rebuild the library index

## Simple Backup Example

PowerShell:

```powershell
$stamp = Get-Date -Format 'yyyyMMdd-HHmmss'
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path ".\\backups\\$stamp" | Out-Null
Copy-Item -Recurse -Force .\\data ".\\backups\\$stamp\\data"
Copy-Item -Recurse -Force .\\media ".\\backups\\$stamp\\media"
```

## Restore Example

1. Stop the server.
2. Restore `data/` from backup.
3. Restore `media/` if needed.
4. Start the server again.

PowerShell:

```powershell
Copy-Item -Recurse -Force ".\\backups\\20260403-010000\\data\\*" ".\\data"
Copy-Item -Recurse -Force ".\\backups\\20260403-010000\\media\\*" ".\\media"
```

## Notes

- If `media/` is already backed up elsewhere, restoring `data/app.db` and `data/artwork/` is usually enough.
- If `artwork/` is lost but `media/` is intact, the server can rebuild extracted covers during future scans.
- If `app.db` is lost, the library can be rescanned from `media/`, but playlists, favorites, sessions, and users will be lost unless restored from backup.