Backups & restore
NowDoing protects your data with versioned backups, optional iCloud sync, and a custom storage location. Everything stays local on your Mac — the only non-local route is Apple’s own iCloud infrastructure, and only if you turn it on. See Data & privacy for the underlying principles.
Rolling snapshots
Section titled “Rolling snapshots”Before every write to data.json, NowDoing automatically places a versioned JSON copy into a backups/ folder next to the data file. A half-written file never reaches disk, and an accidental change stays recoverable. The snapshot format is identical to data.json and is documented as a JSON Schema in Specifications.
An automatic cleanup thins out the folder using a rolling strategy: many recent snapshots are kept, older ones are kept at larger intervals, very old ones are dropped. The backup folder will not grow indefinitely.
Manage & restore
Section titled “Manage & restore”Everything lives under Settings → Storage & Backups:
- A list of all snapshots with timestamp and size.
- Per-snapshot actions: Restore, Show in Finder, Delete.
Clicking Restore opens a confirmation dialog. Once confirmed, NowDoing replaces the active data.json with the chosen snapshot and reloads. Before doing so, it saves the state that is about to be replaced as a fresh backup — so a restore can itself be undone.
Storage location
Section titled “Storage location”Pick the storage location under Settings → Storage & Backups → Location or already in the welcome assistant. When you switch, NowDoing copies the current data.json once into the new folder — if one already exists there, it stays untouched. The file at the old path is not deleted.
| Option | Description | Data flow |
|---|---|---|
| App container (default) | ~/Library/Application Support/NowDoing/ | Local only |
| Custom folder | e.g. a Dropbox folder, external drive, encrypted volume | Local — any sync depends on the folder provider |
| iCloud sync | iCloud container of your Apple account | Apple iCloud Drive |
iCloud sync
Section titled “iCloud sync”Toggle it under Settings → Storage & Backups → “Sync with iCloud”. When enabled, NowDoing migrates the local file once into the iCloud container; when disabled, it migrates back — no data loss either way. iCloud Drive must be enabled in System Settings. Snapshots in the backups/ folder also land in the iCloud container.
If another Mac writes to the same file, NowDoing detects the external change and merges it entry by entry into your local state (most recent edit wins, deletions stay deleted) — local changes that hadn’t synced yet aren’t lost.
iCloud + custom folder at the same time? As long as iCloud sync is on, iCloud takes precedence; the custom folder sits idle. This prevents conflicts from two sources.
Manual export
Section titled “Manual export”For a portable copy of the full history as a spreadsheet, use Settings → Data → “Export” — German CSV format with ; as separator, UTF-8 BOM, RFC-4180-compliant. Details under CSV export. For custom formats (yearly report, JSON, Markdown …) see Export scripts.