File Backups for TiddlyWiki 5

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

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.

Save milestone

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

Click the ★ toolbar button, press Alt+M, or use the form in Control Panel → Settings → FileBackups.
Enter an optional Label (up to 40 characters, used in the file name) and a one-line Description, then Save milestone.
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.

Save As

Alt+S opens the browser’s “Save As” dialog, so you can save a copy of the wiki anywhere inside your Downloads folder.

Only Save milestone is shown in the toolbar by default. Save As is opt-in: tick its checkbox in Control Panel → Settings → FileBackups. The keyboard shortcuts work either way and can be changed in Control Panel → Keyboard Shortcuts.

Backup overview

Control Panel → Settings → FileBackups shows this wiki’s latest rotating backups and milestones:

date, size, source and an estimated total size,
each date links to the backup file,
Show all » opens the full list,
Open backups folder shows the folder in your file manager.

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

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, use the Backup awareness (this wiki) fields in Control Panel → Settings → FileBackups. Leave a field empty to use the default; 0 turns that reminder off for this wiki. The values are stored in $:/config/file-backups/remindAfterDays, $:/config/file-backups/fileCountLimit and $:/config/file-backups/sizeLimitMB.

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 » (Control Panel → Settings → FileBackups) 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 AddOn’s helper tiddlers under $:/temp/plugins/file-backups/* (toolbar buttons, readme, license) live in memory only and disappear on reload.

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

$:/milestones — your milestone list.
$:/config/file-backups/* — per-wiki reminder settings, if you set any.
Settings you changed, for example $:/config/shortcuts/save-wiki-as, $:/config/shortcuts/save-milestone and $:/config/PageControlButtons/Visibility/....

Delete them manually if you don’t need them.

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