Backups and restoring: what do I do if the computer breaks or something is deleted?

This applies to the Fold installed on a computer in your company.

What is backed up, and when

Fold keeps a copy of what is in Fold by itself: the people in the team and their permissions, the calendar, the rules, the columns you have confirmed for each sheet, the history of questions and the copy Fold keeps of your files. Your original Excel files are not touched: Fold only reads them, and they stay in your folder.

A backup is made when the company is set up, when your first files are read, when the first columns are confirmed and, after that, once a day if the computer is on. On the first day, also every few hours if there is something new. The last seven are kept. In Account › Your data › "Backups" you can see when the last one was made and in which folder they are, and make one on the spot.

A second folder for the backups (if you choose one)

Until you choose one, the backups are only on that computer: if it breaks or is stolen, they go with it. You can choose another folder so that Fold leaves them there too:

1. Go to Account › Your data › "Backups" with the account of the owner.
2. Under "A second folder for the backups (you choose it)", press "Choose a folder" and type the full folder: a USB stick (for example, E:\Backups), your OneDrive folder or a network drive.
3. Type your password and tick the box.

Fold checks that it can write there and that what it writes reads back correctly, and from then on leaves every backup in that folder, inside "Copias de Fold". If one day the folder is not there (the USB stick is out), nothing is wrong: Fold says so on that screen and, when it is back, puts the latest backup there.

Important: that backup carries your company data and leaves the Fold folder for the place you choose. It is not encrypted: anyone who can open that folder can read it. Choose a folder only you can see. And Fold only copies there while the folder is available: no backup reaches an unplugged USB stick until it is back.

Going back to a backup from Fold

Useful if something has been deleted or broken and Fold opens normally. Only the owner can do it.

1. Account › Your data › "Restore a backup" › "See the backups".
2. Choose the backup by its date. For each one you can see its size and what it contains.
3. Fold checks it in full and tells you what is lost: what has been done in Fold since that day. Your Excel files are not touched.
4. Type your password, tick the box and press "Restore this backup".

Fold closes and opens again by itself, in about a minute; then you have to log in again. Before changing anything it keeps a backup of what there was, shown in the list as "Before restoring": if you change your mind, restore that one and you are back where you were. If the restore is cut short (a power cut), Fold leaves everything as it was.

What there was is also set aside as it is in the Fold data folder. So that it does not fill the disk, Fold keeps what was set aside by the last restore and by those of the last 7 days; anything older is removed by itself.

If Fold does not open: "Restaurar Fold"

In the folder you downloaded to install Fold there is a file called "Restaurar Fold". Double-click it, on the computer where Fold is:

1. It shows the backups there are. Type the number of the one you want and press Enter. If the backup is on a USB stick or in your OneDrive, drag the file "fold-central-(date).db", or the whole folder, onto that window and press Enter.
2. It checks the backup before touching anything. If it is not valid (damaged, incomplete, from another company or from a newer version of Fold), it says so and changes nothing.
3. Type RESTAURAR and press Enter.

It closes Fold, keeps what there was, restores and opens Fold again. You log in with the email and the password you had on the day of that backup.

A new computer (the old one has broken)

You need the backups folder: the one in your second folder (the USB stick, OneDrive), if you chose one, or the one on the old computer if its disk can still be read. Without either there is no backup to restore. Copy the whole folder: each backup is three things with the same date, "fold-central-…db", "manifiesto-…json" and the folder "almacenes-…".

1. On the new computer, download Fold and open "Instalar Fold", as you did the first time.
2. Open "Restaurar Fold" and drag the backups folder onto its window. Choose the most recent one and type RESTAURAR.
3. Open Fold. As that computer is new, it will take you to your Fold account on the internet to connect this computer: log in and accept. Until you do, Fold lets you see and download the data, but not change it. Once you connect it, the old computer leaves your account: as soon as it has internet, its Fold switches to view-only mode (you can see its data but not change it), and without internet, within a few days.
4. Put your Excel files in the office folder on the new computer, if they were not already in a shared folder.

If any of this does not work, write to support before installing again: backups are not deleted when you reinstall.

See also "How do I download a copy of my data or ask for it to be deleted?".

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