Backup & Restore

StoreIT stores all data in two places:

1. SQLite database — all inventory data, user sessions, settings
2. Image directory — uploaded photos and generated thumbnails

Built-in Backup (Recommended)

The Admin UI provides backup and restore under Settings > Backup. Backups are exported as .storeit archives (zstd-compressed tar) containing all data and optionally all images.

Via the Admin UI

1. Go to Settings > Backup
2. Choose whether to include images
3. Click Start Backup and wait for completion
4. Download the .storeit archive

Via storeit-ctl

# Download a full backup (data + images)
storeit-ctl backup -o my-backup.storeit

Via the API

# Start a backup job
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/v1/admin/backup \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"include_images": true}'
# Returns: {"job_id": "..."}

# Poll status
curl http://localhost:8080/api/v1/admin/backup/{job_id}/status

# Download when complete
curl -o backup.storeit http://localhost:8080/api/v1/admin/backup/{job_id}/download

Restore

Via the Admin UI

1. Go to Settings > Restore
2. Upload a .storeit archive
3. Choose Replace (wipe and restore) or Merge (add alongside existing data)

Via the CLI (offline import)

For importing into a stopped server (e.g., during upgrades):

storeit-server import backup.storeit --mode replace

This creates a fresh database, runs migrations, and imports all data. The previous database is saved as storeit.db.pre-import for rollback.

Upgrade & Downgrade

The storeit-ctl tool orchestrates version migrations:

storeit-ctl upgrade              # Upgrade to latest version
storeit-ctl upgrade 0.2.0        # Upgrade to specific version
storeit-ctl downgrade 0.1.0      # Downgrade to older version
storeit-ctl rollback             # Revert if something goes wrong
storeit-ctl cleanup              # Remove rollback files after confirming

The upgrade flow: backup via API, download new binary, stop server, import data with new binary, start, health check. On failure, automatic rollback.

Manual Backup

You can also back up the raw files directly:

# Stop the server (or use SQLite online backup)
sqlite3 /path/to/storeit.db ".backup '/path/to/backup/storeit.db'"

# Copy images
rsync -a /path/to/images/ /path/to/backup/images/

Docker Volumes

If using Docker, back up the volume:

docker run --rm \
  -v storeit-data:/data \
  -v $(pwd)/backup:/backup \
  alpine tar czf /backup/storeit-backup.tar.gz /data