How to restore from db.backup

**greglbg** · February 27th, 2019, 23:24

This might already be answered, but I can't find it on the forums. How do you restore from a "db.backup" file? My system crashed today and dumped all my data. I have a backup but it isn't as recent as I want and I was hoping to use the db.backup xml file the system created to get a more recent copy.

**Zacchaeus** · February 28th, 2019, 00:09

Hi Greg welcome to FG.

First make a copy of the entire campaign folder. Then rename the file called db.xml to something else, then rename the backup to be db.xml. Then start FG and load the campaign.

Having said that the backup.db file is actually a file created when you started the last session and then gets deleted if the session ends properly. If the session doesn’t end properly then when you restart FG and the file is there it gets renamed as the backup. So you db.xml should be more recent since it gets saved to every five minutes or so. Of course if that got corrupted then the backup will be the most recent complete file.

**greglbg** · February 28th, 2019, 00:27

that is a ton of help, thank you!

**damned** · February 28th, 2019, 01:15

On point - dont rename the backup or session files.
Copy the one you want to use and then rename that copy.
If something else is going on with your system and that restored file gets crashed too you dont want to have just nuked your backup - only the copy of the backup.
I hope that makes sense....

**KILLGORE** · March 4th, 2019, 19:11

You should include a copy of this in the Users Manual as I have to google it every time it happens. I now own a PDF...

May I ask what the session files might be used for? I have a couple campaigns with several of these files in them. Can I clean the folder up by deleting them?

**Zacchaeus** · March 4th, 2019, 19:49

Every day that you open a campaign in FG it creates a new session file. It's just another type of backup. So yes you can delete older ones since they'll probably have very little in them. But you do want to keep a few, the most recent ones date-wise or the largest ones just in case your backup file also gets corrupted.

**Trenloe** · March 4th, 2019, 19:51

If you have any concern about having to go back to old session files, ZIP some of the files into an archive before you delete them - you'll generally get a good level of compression.

**KILLGORE** · March 6th, 2019, 06:25

Could either of you explain how the program makes it backups? When I hit /save and it confirms it saved the campaign, what did it do? Whats the best way to preserve my data on there?

**damned** · March 6th, 2019, 06:34

The game stores the db in RAM while you are playing.
Every 5 minutes, plus when you /save, plus when you Exit cleanly - it writes that data to db.xml

Once per day it also writes an additional backup.

**LordEntrails** · March 7th, 2019, 00:21

Originally Posted by damned

Once per day it also writes an additional backup.

Do you know if it is the first or last save of the day?

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