Backups and restore

What to back up

Item	Why
data/ (database in data/db, uploads in data/uploads)	All server state
config.toml	Includes the master password and TURN secret generated on first start

Danger

Without the master password the database cannot be decrypted. Store it in a password manager, separately from the data backups.

Admin panel backup

The server owner can download an encrypted backup from the Server admin tab. It asks for the owner’s password and a backup passphrase you choose. The file ends in .cove-backup.

Restore

Stop the server, then restore into an empty data directory:

COVE_BACKUP_PASSPHRASE='your passphrase' ./cove-server restore file.cove-backup

If the database already has data the command refuses to run. Add --force to merge the backup into existing data.

File-level backups

For disk snapshots or rsync, stop the server (or snapshot the filesystem atomically) so BadgerDB files are consistent.

Lost owner login

Set admin.owner_username in config.toml to an existing username and restart. That account becomes the owner and the previous owner becomes an admin.