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File Backups for TiddlyWiki Classic

What File Backups adds to a TiddlyWiki Classic wiki. Requirements, installation and the backup strategy are on the Home page. Using TiddlyWiki 5? See File Backups for TiddlyWiki 5.

Saving and backups

Open your wiki from a file:// URL inside your Downloads folder and save as usual. Each save writes the wiki to its current location and a rotating backup into twBackups/<wiki>.html/ next to it.

TiddlyWiki Classic’s own backup option is switched off while the AddOn is active; the AddOn’s rotating backups replace it.

Save milestone

A milestone is an extra snapshot that the rotation never overwrites.

• Click save milestone (shown below every save changes button, also in a customised SideBarOptions), use the milestone entry in the backstage menu, or press Alt+M.
• To hide the button, untick chkFileBackupsMilestoneButton in backstage → tweak (the AdvancedOptions tiddler). Like every Classic option this is stored in a browser cookie, so it applies to all your local Classic wikis. For one wiki only, add |chkFileBackupsMilestoneButton|false| to its SystemSettings tiddler. The backstage entry and Alt+M keep working.
• Enter an optional Label (up to 40 characters, used in the file name) and a one-line Description, then Save milestone. Enter saves, Escape closes the dialog.
• The snapshot is saved as <wiki>(YYYY-MM-DD-hh-mm-ss)-<label>.html next to the rotating backups.
• Every milestone is listed in the Milestones tiddler. It’s hidden from the timeline but found by search. The dialog shows the last 5.

Backup overview

The backups entry in the backstage menu opens the FileBackups tiddler (also linked from the milestone dialog as Backups overview »). It shows:

• all rotating backups and milestones with date, size, source and an estimated total size,
• each date links to the backup file,
• Open backups folder, which shows the folder in your file manager,
• Open & sync this wiki’s backup folder » (see Folder sync),
• this wiki’s reminder settings next to the global defaults.

The Source column says downloads for backups the AddOn saved, and Folder sync for files it found in the folder.

Reminders

Three optional reminders, all off by default:

• no milestone saved for this many days,
• the backup folder holds more than this many files,
• backups use more than this much disk space (MB).

Set the defaults for every wiki in the AddOn options: about:addons → File Backups → Preferences → Backup awareness (0 = off).

To change them for one wiki, edit the FileBackupsConfig tiddler:

|remindAfterDays|14|
|fileCountLimit|30|
|sizeLimitMB| |

Leave a value empty to use the default; 0 turns that reminder off for this wiki. Changes apply from the next save.

When a limit is reached, a box appears at the top of the wiki after saving, with Save milestone or Show backups, and Snooze. Snooze tells you until when the reminder stays quiet. The AddOn only informs — it never deletes your files.

Folder sync

Open & sync this wiki’s backup folder » (in the FileBackups tiddler) opens the backup folder in a Firefox tab and compares it with what the AddOn has recorded:

• files that are gone are marked missing,
• backups the AddOn doesn’t know yet (for example after reinstalling it) are added to the overview.

If the wiki has no save record yet, the folder page says so: save the wiki once, then open the folder again. Folder sync needs the “Access local files on your computer” permission (see Home).

Opening a backup

When you open a backup or milestone file, the wiki shows which backup it is, with a link back to the main wiki.

After uninstalling

Reload any open wiki tabs. The sidebar button, the backstage entries and the FileBackups tiddler come from the AddOn and disappear on reload.

These tiddlers stay in your wiki, because they’re yours:

• Milestones — your milestone list.
• FileBackupsConfig — per-wiki reminder settings, if you edited it.

Delete them manually if you don’t need them.

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