Back up and restore a private space with an encrypted file

A backup moves your private space to a new phone, or takes you back to a saved copy. TraceNook writes one encrypted .tnk file that you keep yourself. There is no account to sign into, and the file isn’t uploaded anywhere. If you’d rather not export by hand, Google Drive automatic backup can save encrypted backups to your own Google Drive. Backup and restore are included in Free.

Save the file and its password

1. Open Backup & restore from Me. Check that the export target is your private space, then tap Export backup.
2. Set a password and repeat it. Keep it somewhere you will find it again; TraceNook cannot recover it, and without it the file cannot be opened.
3. Finish the export, then save or share the .tnk file to a place you can reach from the phone you will use for recovery. Keep a copy away from the phone it protects.

The file holds your items, locations, quantities and dates, photos, TraceNook labels and settings. After a restore, the QR labels already on your boxes keep working, so there is nothing to reprint.

Restore into the right private space

1. Switch to the private space you want to restore. In Backup & restore, tap Restore backup and choose the .tnk file.
2. Enter the password you set when exporting. Check the backup info, such as the created date and item count, before you confirm.
3. Tap Restore. TraceNook first saves a full copy of the current contents, photos included, on this phone, then replaces the items, locations, quantities and dates, and photos in that private space. Family data is not touched.

To go back to what was there before, tap Restore previous Private data on the same phone and pick the copy saved before the restore. That copy lives only on this phone; for your next phone you still need an exported .tnk file.

If the restore is refused

A backup from a newer TraceNook version asks you to update the app first. A wrong password or a damaged file is refused and your current data stays as it was. A backup in the old format can only be restored into a fresh, empty private space, not over existing data.

A family backup with owner rights follows different rules; see the family backup guide.