Backup
This page explains the “Backup” section in the app's Settings: which backups there are, how to set up the cloud backup, and what to do when a backup fails.
Three kinds of backup
System backup, made by your device. Android and iPhone back the device up to your Google or Apple account by themselves, following their own rules and schedule. Owndom's data and settings can go into it too. The app does not do this and cannot switch it off; you can, in your device's settings. More on this: System backup on Android and System backup on iPhone.
Cloud backup, made by the app. Optional, encrypted, and part of Premium. It goes to a cloud account you choose: Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive, and on iPhone also iCloud. The account is yours. We have no access to it.
Daily copies on your device. Once a day, when you open the app, it makes a copy of its database on your device and keeps the last three, to protect your records from damage. These copies never leave your device: they are not part of the system backup, and they are deleted when you remove the app. If the database gets damaged, they stay on the device until you delete them. More on this: If the app says your data is damaged.
The cloud backup doesn't switch off the system backup, and the system backup doesn't switch off the cloud backup. Unless you have turned off the system backup yourself, you have both.
Cloud backup
The cloud backup keeps your data off the device, on a cloud account you choose. It comes with Premium.
How to set it up
- In Settings, open the “Backup” section.
- Choose a cloud: Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive, and on iPhone also iCloud.
- Sign in to your account on that cloud.
From then on the app makes backups by itself. If you use Owndom on two devices, choose the cloud by type of device, as described in Using Owndom on more than one device.
When a backup is made
The automatic backup runs after every change you make, including changes made from a notification while the app is closed. It doesn't run straight away: it waits about 15 minutes, so that several changes go into one backup, and it waits for a network connection. With “Wi-Fi only” on, it waits for Wi-Fi. On an iPhone the system picks the moment.
You can also back up by hand, with the “Back up” button, whenever you like, for example before you switch to another device. Before sending, the app may ask “Back up over mobile data?” and say roughly how much the backup will send. “Send” sends the backup over mobile data, and “Cancel” sends nothing: connect to Wi-Fi and start the backup again.
Your cloud keeps up to seven backups, one for each of the last seven days on which a backup was made.
When a backup fails
A backup that works stays quiet. Settings in the app always shows when the last backup was made.
You only get a notification when a backup fails. On Android those notifications have their own category, “Backup”; if you switch it off in your device's settings, you will not find out that backups are failing. If there is no room left in the cloud, the app does not send the backup at all, and the message says which cloud is full; there is no such check for iCloud.
Restoring, and a second device
How to restore a backup and how to choose which one is in Choosing a copy to restore. How to have the same data on two devices is in Using Owndom on more than one device. The backup is encrypted; what that means for your cloud account is in Who can see your data.