Backup and Restore

Backups protect local work. Use them before large imports, cleanup, device changes, or major drafting work.

Screenshot placeholder: Hamburger menu showing Backup/Restore.

Open the hamburger menu and select Backup/Restore.

The dialog contains two panels:

Quick Local Snapshot - Same-device restore capable: use Create Backup for an on-demand snapshot or Restore to recover a snapshot on this device.
Portable Backup - Same device and Cross-platform capable: use Create Backup for a portable copy or Restore to merge a portable backup on this or another device.

Each panel has its own Create Backup and Restore buttons. The daily startup snapshot runs separately and is controlled by the Auto Backup toggle in the hamburger menu. There is no automatic portable-backup control in this dialog. While an operation is running, its progress and status appear, and the action buttons and Close are temporarily unavailable.

Backups can include local Cases, documents, Canvas/PenPad files, annotations, generated entries, and related database content depending on the backup operation.

Before backup or restore, CogniVenue-Legal may require OCR and indexing jobs to finish so the backup is consistent.

Automatic snapshot philosophy

Automatic snapshots are designed to protect work on a predictable schedule. Autosave continues separately while you work; an automatic snapshot is a fuller recovery copy created shortly after startup.

Scheduled startup snapshot

Auto Backup is enabled by default. Use the Auto Backup toggle in the hamburger menu to turn the daily startup snapshot on or off; the choice is saved across app sessions.

About five minutes after the app starts, CogniVenue-Legal attempts the daily automatic snapshot. It does not wait for general foreground-idle time. If restore, audio recording, or another snapshot is active at that moment, CogniVenue-Legal retries shortly afterward instead of starting an overlapping backup. The app does not need to move to the background.

Snapshot preparation

Before the automatic snapshot is created, CogniVenue-Legal performs a pre-snapshot autosave of dirty document ink and Canvas/PenPad changes. Backup hashing and compression are performed away from the drawing interface so foreground pen input remains usable while the snapshot is prepared.

Daily frequency and manual control

CogniVenue-Legal keeps automatic startup snapshots to at most one successful snapshot per calendar day. It also avoids repeating the automatic attempt within the same app session after an attempt has run, except when it is retrying after a restore, audio recording, or another snapshot collision. If today’s automatic snapshot file already exists, another startup snapshot is not created. If today’s file is deleted or missing, Auto Backup can create it again on the next startup attempt.

Manual snapshot and portable backup actions remain available on demand. They are not replaced by the automatic policy and should still be used before major changes, device migration, or any event for which you want a specific recovery point.

Backup locations and retention

Backups are saved automatically beneath the app’s Documents/CogniVenue-Legal/BackUp folder. Snapshots use snapshot/date subfolders; portable backups use portable. Creation does not prompt for a destination folder. The completion status identifies the created file.

After a startup snapshot succeeds, older automatic snapshot files are pruned. Manual snapshots and portable backups are retained until you delete them. Create a manual backup when you want to keep a particular recovery point.

Snapshot and portable backup compatibility

Backup and restore work only with the same verified email account that owns the backup, whether restoring on the original device or another device.

An automatic startup snapshot or a manually created Quick Local Snapshot can be restored on the same device only.
A Portable Backup, created with its Create Backup button, can be restored on the same device or across devices and supported platforms.

Use a portable backup when preparing to move or restore work to another device. Use a snapshot backup for recovery on the device where it was created.

Screenshot placeholder: Backup/Restore screen showing Quick Local Snapshot and Portable Backup, each with Create Backup and Restore, plus status and Close controls.

Create a backup

Sign in with a verified email and make sure the device is online for account and backup ownership checks.
Open the hamburger menu.
Select Backup/Restore.
Select Create Backup under Quick Local Snapshot or Portable Backup.
Wait until the backup completes and review its status, file name, and storage location.
Select Close when finished.

For an additional recovery copy, copy a completed portable backup from the reported folder to a location you control, such as an encrypted drive or trusted folder.

Restore a backup

Sign in with the verified email that owns the backup and make sure the device is online for ownership validation.
Open the hamburger menu.
Select Backup/Restore.
Select Restore in the panel matching the backup type.
Select a compatible file from the listed backups, or choose Browse to select an .ltbackup or .zip backup from another location.
Read Restore Quick Local Snapshot? or Restore Portable Backup? and choose Restore to continue, or Cancel to keep the current workspace.
Wait until restore completes and review the status.

Restore merges the backup into the current workspace: items also present in the backup are overwritten with their backup versions; newer items absent from the backup are preserved. After restore, check the Case list, document list, Canvas files, and section entries.

Matching local embedding data can be reused. Data that does not match the local model setup is re-indexed in the background, so search and related results may take time to become complete again.

Screenshot placeholder: Restore file list with Browse and a selected backup, followed by the restore merge confirmation.

Backup ownership

CogniVenue-Legal checks backup ownership using the verified account email. A backup can be restored only while signed in with the same verified email account that created it.

Snapshot backups remain limited to same-device restore. Portable backups support same-device and cross-device restore, but the verified email must still match on every device.

If restore is blocked, confirm:

You are signed in.
The email is verified.
The email matches the backup owner.
The backup is complete and not damaged.

See Restore troubleshooting.

When backup is blocked

Backup or restore can be blocked if background document processing is still running.

Stop and save any active audio recording first. Account-owned backup and restore also require the verified account and a working connection to the account service; an ownership or validation error is shown in the dialog’s status area.

Wait for OCR, text extraction, semantic indexing, or recovery tasks to finish, then try again.

For automatic snapshots, no action is normally required: if a startup snapshot cannot begin because restore, audio recording, or another snapshot is active, CogniVenue-Legal retries shortly afterward while Auto Backup remains enabled. For a manual backup, wait for the active processing to finish and try the command again.

Related topic: OCR, text extraction, and indexing.

Deleting local content is a separate operation. See Delete Items.