> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.modelence.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Backups

> Database backups and restore

Production databases on Modelence Cloud are backed up automatically on every plan. There is nothing
to turn on or configure.

## What's backed up

* **Schedule:** a snapshot of the database is taken at least every six hours.
* **Retention:** snapshots are kept on a rolling schedule. Recent snapshots are kept close together
  and older ones are thinned out over time, and the oldest are gone within 12 months.
* **Encryption:** snapshots are encrypted at rest, like the database itself.

Restores come from these snapshots, so a database can be brought back to the time of any kept
snapshot, not to an arbitrary moment between two of them.

> [!WARNING]
>
> Deleting a database resource permanently deletes its data and its backups.

## Restoring from a backup

Restores are done by the Modelence support team. Email
[support@modelence.com](mailto:support@modelence.com) with:

* the app and environment (the app ID is enough),
* the database, if the environment has more than one,
* roughly what point in time you want to go back to.

We find the closest snapshot, tell you its time, and confirm with you before anything changes in the
environment. You can also ask this way for the time of the most recent snapshot.

## Exporting data

Each database's connection string reaches the app at runtime as an environment variable. To export a
database, connect with that string and use the database's standard dump tool, and load a dump back
with its matching restore tool.

> [!NOTE]
>
> The connection string contains the database password. Keep it out of your repository and anywhere
> else it could be read.


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