# How to Back Up Your Open Notebook Data: Complete File-Based Backup Guide > Learn how to back up your Open Notebook data by archiving essential files and directories. Restore your data easily by extracting the archive and restarting services for uninterrupted use. - Repository: [Luis Novo/open-notebook](https://github.com/lfnovo/open-notebook) - Tags: how-to-guide - Published: 2026-07-03 --- **To back up Open Notebook data, create a compressed archive of the `surreal_data/` and `data/` directories along with your `secret.key` and `.env` configuration file, then restore by extracting the archive into the repository root and restarting the services.** Open Notebook stores all user-generated content locally using a file-first architecture built on SurrealDB and the host filesystem. Because the application persists notebooks, sources, uploads, and vector embeddings directly to disk—rather than relying on external cloud APIs—you can perform a complete backup using standard Unix archiving tools. This guide shows you how to safeguard your research data using the exact file paths and methods defined in the official `lfnovo/open-notebook` source code. ## What Files You Need to Back Up Open Notebook organizes persistent data across four critical locations on the filesystem. According to the project's [`docker-compose.yml`](https://github.com/lfnovo/open-notebook/blob/main/docker-compose.yml) and runtime configuration, backing up these directories ensures you capture the complete logical state of every notebook, source, and generated artifact: - **`surreal_data/`** – Contains the raw SurrealDB database files that store notebooks, sources, notes, and vector embeddings. This directory is mounted as a volume in the Docker Compose configuration. - **`data/uploads/`** – Stores all user-uploaded files including PDFs, DOCX documents, images, audio, and video attachments. - **`data/podcasts/`** – Holds audio files generated by the podcast pipeline. - **`secret.key`** – The encryption key generated on first run that secures stored credentials. Losing this file renders all encrypted credentials unreadable. - **`.env`** – Your environment configuration file containing `OPEN_NOTEBOOK_PASSWORD` and other deployment-specific variables. ## Step-by-Step Backup Guide ### Stop the Services Before creating an archive, stop the running containers to ensure the SurrealDB files are in a consistent state and not actively being written to. ```bash docker compose down ``` ### Create a Timestamped Archive Run the following command from the repository root to create a compressed tarball containing all persistent data: ```bash BACKUP_FILE="backup-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).tar.gz" tar -czf "$BACKUP_FILE" data/ surreal_data/ secret.key .env echo "Backup saved to $BACKUP_FILE" ``` This command archives the database files, user uploads, generated podcasts, encryption key, and environment variables into a single file with a timestamp suffix. ### Secure the Encryption Key Store the `secret.key` file in a separate, secure location such as a password manager or encrypted USB drive. According to the API configuration in `lfnovo/open-notebook`, this key is essential for decrypting stored credentials, and losing it will lock you out of any integrated services. ## How to Restore Open Notebook Data ### Extract the Archive To restore from a backup, navigate to the repository root and extract the tarball. This overwrites the existing `data/` and `surreal_data/` directories with your backed-up versions: ```bash tar -xzf backup-20240401-120000.tar.gz ``` ### Restart the Stack Once the files are extracted, restart the services. SurrealDB will automatically detect the restored database files in `surreal_data/` and load the previous state: ```bash docker compose up -d ``` The FastAPI layer in [`api/main.py`](https://github.com/lfnovo/open-notebook/blob/main/api/main.py) connects to SurrealDB via the async driver and will immediately serve the restored notebooks and sources. ## Automated Daily Backups with Cron For production deployments, automate backups using a cron job. The following entry runs daily at 2:00 AM, creating a timestamped archive in `/backups/`: ```bash 0 2 * * * root cd /path/to/open-notebook && \ /usr/bin/tar -czf "/backups/ob-$(date +\%Y\%m\%d).tar.gz" data/ surreal_data/ secret.key .env ``` Rotate these archives weekly or monthly to prevent disk space exhaustion, and consider encrypting sensitive backups using `gpg -c` before storing them on cloud drives. ## Summary - **Open Notebook** persists all data locally in `surreal_data/` (database) and `data/` (uploads and podcasts). - **Complete backups** require archiving both directories plus `secret.key` and `.env` using `tar`. - **Always stop services** with `docker compose down` before backing up to ensure database consistency. - **Restore** by extracting the archive into the repository root and restarting the stack. - **Protect the encryption key** separately; losing `secret.key` makes stored credentials permanently inaccessible. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Where does Open Notebook store my data? Open Notebook stores data in three primary locations on the host filesystem: the `surreal_data/` directory contains the SurrealDB database files, `data/uploads/` contains user-uploaded files like PDFs and images, and `data/podcasts/` contains generated audio files. Additionally, the `secret.key` file stores encryption credentials and the `.env` file stores configuration variables. ### Can I back up Open Notebook while it is running? You should not back up Open Notebook while services are running. The official documentation recommends stopping the Docker Compose stack first to ensure the SurrealDB files in `surreal_data/` are not in the middle of a write operation, which could result in a corrupted backup. Use `docker compose down` before creating your archive. ### What happens if I lose my secret.key file? If you lose the `secret.key` file generated on first run, all encrypted credentials stored in the database become permanently unreadable. This file is required to decrypt sensitive configuration data, and Open Notebook does not provide a recovery mechanism. Always store this key in a secure, separate location from your main backups. ### How do I migrate my Open Notebook instance to a new server? To migrate, create a backup archive on the source server using `tar -czf`, transfer the file to the new server, and extract it into a fresh clone of the `lfnovo/open-notebook` repository. Ensure you copy the `secret.key` and `.env` files, then run `docker compose up -d` to start the services. The new instance will contain all notebooks, sources, and uploaded files from the original deployment.