When Backups Are Created
A backup is created automatically each time you successfully unlock your journal, whether by password or key file. If the unlock fails — wrong password, missing key file — no backup is taken.
Backup Location
Backups are stored in a backups/ subfolder inside the same directory as your diary.db. Default journal directories by operating system:
- Windows:
%APPDATA%\com.minidiarium\backups\ - macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/com.minidiarium/backups/ - Linux:
~/.local/share/com.minidiarium/backups/
If you have changed your journal location in Preferences, backups are created in {your chosen directory}/backups/ instead.
Backup Filenames
Each backup is named backup-YYYY-MM-DD-HHhMM.db, for example backup-2024-01-15-14h30.db. The timestamp reflects local time at the moment of unlock.
Rotation
Mini Diarium keeps the 50 most recent backups. When a new backup would push the count above 50, the oldest backups are deleted automatically. Only files matching the backup-*.db naming pattern are counted; any other files you place in the backups/ folder are left untouched.
Custom Journal Locations
When you move your journal to a different folder via Preferences, diary.db is physically moved to the new location and all future backups will go into {new location}/backups/.
Existing backups in the old folder are not moved automatically. If you want to keep your backup history, copy the old backups/ folder to the new journal directory before or after the move.
Cloud-Synced Locations
If you place your journal directory inside a cloud-synced folder — Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud Drive, and so on — both diary.db and the backups/ subfolder will be included in the sync, giving you off-site backup on top of local rotation.
Keep in mind that Mini Diarium does not coordinate concurrent access. Do not open the same journal from two devices at the same time. The encrypted database file is not designed for simultaneous multi-device write access.
Backups Are Encrypted
Backup files are exact copies of diary.db at the moment of unlock. They are fully encrypted with the same password and key as your live journal. A backup without your password is unreadable.