# Backup and restore

> Write everything in this browser to one file you keep, bring it back without replacing anything, and what the file holds and how it is checked.

A backup is one file with everything in this browser, which you keep yourself.
With an account, your resumes are also kept there, and a backup is a second copy
that does not depend on it. As a guest, a backup is the only thing that survives
a cleared browser or a lost machine. See
[Where your work is kept](https://shopsalone.com/en/docs/getting-started/local-first.md).

Backup and restore are in **Settings**, under **Backup and restore**.

## Making a backup

Choose **Download backup**. Rejarsume writes every resume, group, image and font on
the device to one JSON file, and your browser saves it. The file is named
`rejarsume-backup-` followed by the date, such as `rejarsume-backup-2026-10-03.json`.
Nothing is sent anywhere. A guest is asked to sign in or create a free account
first, as for an export.

Keep the file somewhere that is not this device. A backup on the machine that
fails is not a backup.

### What is in it

- Every resume, including its content, template, style settings and custom CSS,
  whether it is archived or not, and the job a version was written for, and which
  resume a version was made from.
- Your groups, and which group each resume is in.
- Every image and every uploaded font you have stored, even those no resume uses.
- The few preferences kept on the device, such as the template you last chose in
  the new resume dialog.

It is not in the interface language, the colour theme or the pane sizes, which
live in the browser's local storage, and not in the backup.

The file is plain JSON, and the images and fonts are written into it as text, which
makes it about a third larger than they are. That is on purpose. Anyone can open it
and read exactly what a backup holds.

## Restoring

Choose **Choose a backup file** under **Restore** and pick the file. It adds the
backup's contents to the device. It never replaces or deletes anything that is
already here, because a backup is usually restored when something has already gone
wrong, and a restore that overwrote the present could turn one lost resume into
all of them.

What happens to each part:

- A resume that does not collide with one you have is restored as it was, with its
  group, its images and its fonts.
- A resume that collides with one you already have, which means the same
  identity, is restored beside it under a new identity, with `(restored)` added to
  its name. You delete whichever copy you do not want.
- An image whose content is already stored is not stored again. The restored
  resume is pointed at the copy you have.
- A font that is already stored, with the same family, weight and style, is not
  stored again either.
- A group you already have is kept as it is, and one you do not is added. A
  resume whose group is not on the device is put under **Ungrouped**, where the
  library can show it.
- A preference is restored only if the device has none of its own. A backup never
  replaces a choice you made on this device.
- A version keeps its link to the resume it was made from, wherever that resume
  lands. If the original is in neither the file nor on the device, the link is
  dropped and the job it was written for is kept.

Every restored resume counts as edited now, so it appears at the top of the
library when you sort by **Last edited**. Signed in, what is restored is saved to
your account like anything else made here.

When it finishes, **Restored** lists what was added, how many resumes were kept
beside an existing copy, and how many images and fonts were already there. A
backup with nothing in it says so and changes nothing.

## When a restore is refused

A file is read completely before anything is written, so a problem costs you a
message and no data, under **Nothing was restored**:

- The file is not valid JSON.
- It is JSON but not a Rejarsume backup. A backup starts with the kind
  `rejarsume.backup`.
- It was written by a newer version of Rejarsume than the one you have. Update first,
  because restoring it here could lose part of it.
- It cannot be read, and the message says what is wrong and where in the file.

## Backup or bundle

A backup is the whole device, written to be kept. A bundle is one resume with its
images and fonts as a zip, written to be moved. See [Bundles](https://shopsalone.com/en/docs/export/bundles.md).