Backups and Recently deleted

Get back something you deleted

Sidebar › Tools › Recently deleted

When you delete a manual or document, Sopycat asks first, then moves it to Recently deleted. It stays there for 30 days.

Right after deleting, a message says Moved to Recently deleted. Press Undo within a few seconds to put it straight back.

Later on:

1. Click Recently deleted in the sidebar, under Tools. You can also type it in the command palette (Ctrl+K).
2. Find the item. Each row shows who deleted it and when, the folder it was in, and how many days are left. Rows with 3 days or fewer turn amber.
3. Press Restore.

The item goes back into the folder it came from. If something with the same title is already there, the restored one is named "(restored)" so nothing is replaced.

If you follow a link to an item that has been deleted, Sopycat tells you it is in Recently deleted and offers Restore it. Records of who read or completed a manual are kept either way.

Delete something for good

• Delete forever on a row removes that item now: the recording, its pictures and every earlier version.
• Empty Recently deleted does this for everything in the list.

Both ask you first and cannot be undone. Anything older than 30 days is removed by itself, a few seconds after Sopycat starts and then once a day while it is open.

Go back to an earlier version

Every item keeps its own history, so you can undo a change made days ago.

• Manuals: open the manual, then ⋯ › Earlier versions. Pick one and press Put back. Sopycat keeps the newest 30 versions. Edits made within a few minutes of each other count as one version. Putting a version back can itself be undone from the same list.
• PDFs and other documents: open the document, then ⋯ › Versions. You can always go back to the original file as you added it, plus the 20 most recent saves.

See Editing a manual and Edit a PDF for more.

Back up the whole library

Settings › Backup › Back up the library…

A backup is one .zip file with everything in the library: every manual and document, what is in Recently deleted, your folders, form profiles, completion and reading records, and the audit log.

1. Open Settings › Backup.
2. Press Back up the library…. Sopycat shows roughly how big the backup will be.
3. Press Choose where to save it…. The suggested name is "Sopycat backup" followed by the date and time, in your Documents folder.
4. Wait for the progress bar. When it finishes, Sopycat tells you where the file was saved, its size and how many documents are in it.

If your library is very large

One backup file holds at most 4 GB. If the library is bigger, the recordings' videos are left out and Sopycat tells you so. Every manual, picture and document is still in the backup. If you want the videos kept safe too, also copy the library folder itself now and then.

If the library is over 4 GB even without the videos, Sopycat cannot make a backup file. Close Sopycat and copy the library folder itself in File Explorer instead. See Find your library folder.

Back up automatically once a week

Settings › Backup › Back up automatically once a week

1. Tick Back up automatically once a week.
2. Choose the folder the backups should go into. Pick one on another drive, or one your IT backs up.

Sopycat makes the first backup shortly after it starts, then a new one whenever a week has passed. The last 4 are kept and older ones are deleted. The section shows the folder and the date of the last backup. Use Choose another folder… to change the folder, or untick the box to stop.

Restore from a backup

Settings › Backup › Restore from a backup…

1. Open Settings › Backup and press Restore from a backup….
2. Choose the backup .zip file.
3. Sopycat shows when the backup was made, which version made it, its size and what is in it. Press Restore.

Restoring adds to your library. It never writes over what is already there:

• Items that are exactly the same are skipped.
• An item that has changed since the backup comes back beside the current one, named "(from backup)". Compare the two and delete the one you do not want.
• Items that were in Recently deleted go back into Recently deleted.
• Folders, form profiles, records and the audit log are merged without duplicates.

Restoring the same backup twice adds nothing the second time. When it finishes, Sopycat tells you how many items were added and how many were already there.

If the backup will not open

If Sopycat says the file is not a Sopycat backup, it is either not a .zip file or a .zip that Sopycat did not make. Check that you picked the right file. Restoring reads the whole backup at once, so a very large backup needs enough free memory on the PC.