Backups and moving devices

A backup is your whole library, every world, manuscript, scene and lore entry, in a single .zip file of markdown. Keep one somewhere safe, and use it to move your writing to another device or browser.

Export a backup

1. Open Settings → Backup.
2. Choose Export library.
3. Save the .zip somewhere outside the browser: iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox, or send it to yourself.

On iPhone and iPad you'll get the share sheet, so you can choose Save to Files or AirDrop it.

Backup reminders

If your library is kept only in this browser, with no sync turned on and no folder on your computer, clearing the browser's data or losing the device would lose your writing. So when there are changes that aren't in a backup yet, Mythforge suggests exporting one, on the Library screen and on each world's home. The suggestion never appears over the editor.

• Back up now exports the library straight away, just like Export library.
• Turn on sync opens Settings → Sync, so a copy is kept in Dropbox or Google Drive.
• Not now hides it until the next reminder is due.

Under Settings → Backup, Export library shows when you last backed up on this device, and Remind me sets how often to be reminded: Off, Weekly (the default) or Monthly. There are no reminders while your library is synced or kept in a folder on your computer, since it already has a copy outside the browser, or in the iPhone app, where it's included in your iPhone's own backups.

Exporting always works, even when a trial has ended: your writing is always yours to take.

Restore from a backup

1. Open Settings → Backup.
2. Choose Restore from backup and pick your .zip.

Move to another device or browser

Each device and browser has its own library, so moving is a backup and a restore:

1. On the old device, Export library.
2. Get the .zip to the new device (AirDrop, cloud storage, email).
3. On the new device, open Mythforge and Restore from backup.

The same goes for moving between the web version, the Mythforge iPhone app and the desktop app: each keeps its own separate library.

If you use sync, you can instead turn on the same service on the new device and your library arrives on its own.

Automatic backups

Before Mythforge does something big to your library, it saves a copy of it on this device first:

• before combining your library with one already in Dropbox or Google Drive, the first time you turn on sync,
• before deleting a whole world (worlds don't go to Recently deleted).

These copies are listed under Settings → Backup, named after what was about to happen, such as "Before syncing with Dropbox" or "Before deleting “The Ashen Reach”". Select one to restore it. Restoring replaces the library on this device, and with sync on, in the cloud too.

Mythforge keeps the three most recent. They live on this device only, so they don't replace exporting a backup now and then.