Backups and restoring your workspace

Your workspace is backed up every night, and you can take an extra backup yourself at any time. This article explains what you see on the Backups card, how to take a backup before a big change, and how to restore your workspace safely if something goes wrong.

Note: Backups are available to members on a paid Smart Marketing plan with an active workspace. You will find them on the Automations tab.

Automatic nightly backups

Your workspace is backed up every night, and you do not need to do anything. Each nightly backup includes all your workflows and your saved credentials, so a full working copy of your workspace is always available.

Backups are also taken automatically just before an update is applied to your workspace. These appear in the list as before update, and they give you a way back if an update does not suit your workflows.

Take a backup on demand

Take your own backup whenever you are about to make a change you might want to undo — rebuilding a daily summary email, reworking a new-order notification, or swapping the credentials on a live workflow.

Open the Automations tab and find the Backups card.
Click Back up now.
Wait a few moments while the backup is taken and checked.
Look for the message Backup taken and verified. This confirms the backup completed successfully and was checked afterwards.

The new backup appears at the top of the backup list straight away.

What the backup list shows

The list shows one row per backup, newest first. Each row tells you what the backup is and when it was taken.

What you see	What it means
Date and time	When the backup was taken
`nightly`	The automatic backup taken each night
`taken by you`	A backup you started with Back up now
`before update`	The automatic backup taken just before an update
`verified`	The backup was checked after it was taken
Size	How large the backup is
Restore	Restores your workspace from that backup

Backups of every kind are kept for 35 days. After that they drop off the list. If you need to keep a particular state for longer, note the date and take a fresh backup before the 35 days are up.

Restore your workspace from a backup

Restoring returns your workspace to exactly how it was at the moment that backup was taken.

Warning: Restoring replaces everything in your workspace with the contents of the backup. Workflows or credentials you created after that backup are removed, and any you deleted since will come back.

Click Back up now first. This gives you a fresh backup of the current state, so you can return to it if the restore is not what you expected.
Find the backup you want in the list. Check the date, the time and the kind of backup carefully — a row marked before update is often the right choice after an update causes trouble.
Click Restore on that row.
Type your workspace address when prompted. This typed confirmation is there to make sure a restore is never started by accident.
Confirm to begin the restore.

What happens next

Your workspace restarts and is usually ready again within a couple of minutes. When it comes back, your workflows and saved credentials match the backup you chose.

Open a couple of your workflows and check that they look right. If any workflow was active before the restore, confirm it is still active and that its trigger — a website form, a new order, a scheduled run — is behaving as you expect.

If the restore was not what you wanted, restore the backup you took in step 1 and you will be back where you started.

When you delete a workspace

A final backup is taken automatically before a workspace is deleted, and it is kept for 12 months. This is longer than the usual 35 days, so you have time to change your mind or retrieve a workflow you still need. See article 63 for the full deletion process.

Troubleshooting

The backup I need is no longer in the list. Backups are kept for 35 days. Once a backup passes that point it is removed and cannot be brought back. Take a fresh backup before making changes you may want to reverse.

I cannot see the Restore button. Make sure your workspace is running. If the workspace is paused or still starting, wait for it to become available and reload the Automations tab.

The restore finished but a workflow is not running. A workflow that was inactive when the backup was taken will still be inactive after the restore. Open the workflow and switch it back on.

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