Backups & recovery

C5 backs itself up. You should still keep your own copy.

What C5 does on its own #

C5 looks after its own storage:

Automatic backups on a schedule you can change
Self-repair for many kinds of storage damage
Self-recovery after most crashes and power cuts

If your computer loses power mid-task, C5 comes back knowing what it was doing and picks up from there. You do not lose your place.

Why you still need your own copy #

C5's backups live in the same folder as your data. That protects you from software problems. It does not protect you from:

A failed hard drive
A lost or stolen laptop
Deleting the folder by accident

For those, you need a copy somewhere else.

Backing up #

On macOS and Linux everything is in one folder — by default ~/.growther. Copy that folder and you have copied your entire C5.

On Windows it is two folders. Every install created since C5 2026.9 keeps your settings under %USERPROFILE%\.growther but puts the databases and the keys under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Growther\C5, deliberately: %LOCALAPPDATA% never travels with a roaming profile, so signing in on another machine cannot carry an encrypted database away from the key that opens it. Copying only .growther would back up your settings and none of your work — and none of the key needed to read it.

Run growther home show and back up every path it prints. That is the reliable answer on any platform, because it reports where your install actually keeps things rather than where the default would be.

The simplest approach is to include it in whatever backup you already run. Time Machine, a cloud backup service, or a copy to an external drive all work.

Danger A copy of ~/.growther contains your encryption key, at config/device-master-key. That means a backup of the folder is not protected by C5's encryption — anyone who gets the copy can open it.

Either put the backup somewhere you would be willing to keep unencrypted files, or encrypt the backup itself. See Local encryption.

Best practice is to back up while C5 is stopped, so nothing is mid-write:

bash

growther stop
# run your backup
growther

A backup taken while C5 is running is usually fine, but stopping first removes all doubt.

Backup settings #

Inside the app you can change:

How often automatic backups run
How many old ones are kept
How long history is kept before old records are trimmed

If disk space is tight, shortening history retention is the biggest lever.

Restoring #

To restore onto the same computer:

Stop C5: growther stop
Move your current data folder aside — do not delete it:
bash
```
mv ~/.growther ~/.growther.before-restore
```
Copy your backup into place as ~/.growther.
Start C5: growther — and check that your work is actually there.
Only once you are satisfied, delete ~/.growther.before-restore.

Danger Do not overwrite your live data folder with a backup you have not opened yet. If the backup turns out to be incomplete or corrupted, moving the old folder aside is the only thing standing between you and losing both copies.

To move to a new computer:

Install C5 — see Installation.
Stop it: growther stop
Copy your backup into place as the data folder.
Start it: growther
Activate: growther activate

Your projects, files, history, and settings come with you.

Checking your backup works #

An untested backup is a guess. Test it by restoring the copy into a spare folder and starting C5 there:

bash

mkdir -m 700 -p ~/c5-restore-test
cp -R /path/to/your/backup/. ~/c5-restore-test/
GROWTHER_HOME=~/c5-restore-test growther

GROWTHER_HOME tells C5 to use that folder instead of your real one, so this cannot disturb your working setup. Open the app and look for your projects and chats. If they are there, your backup is good.

Delete the test folder afterwards:

bash

rm -rf ~/c5-restore-test

Warning Restore into a folder only you can read — that is what mkdir -m 700 above is for — and put it in your home folder, not in /tmp. A restored copy contains your key, and /tmp is shared with every other user and program on the machine.

Note Pointing GROWTHER_HOME at an empty folder does not test anything. C5 will simply set up a brand-new, empty install there. You have to copy the backup in first.

If something is badly wrong #

Run the checkup first:

bash

growther doctor

It will tell you whether the problem is your install, your license, or your data. See Running doctor and Common issues.