Backup and Restore Your Inventory

Your inventory represents hours of work: photographing items, adding details, organizing projects. Losing that data would mean starting over. Retinelle’s backup and restore feature lets you save your entire inventory to a file you control, and restore it whenever you need to.

How backup works

1. Open the backup screen. Find it in the app settings.
2. Create a backup. The app packages all your projects, items, photos, and custom fields into a single backup file.
3. Save the file. Choose where to store it: on your device, in your Files app, on a computer via AirDrop, or on an external drive.

The backup file is self-contained. It includes everything needed to restore your inventory on any device running Retinelle.

How restore works

1. Open a backup file. Tap the backup file on your device or import it from Files.
2. Confirm the restore. The app shows you what will be restored and asks for confirmation.
3. Your inventory is restored. All projects, items, photos, and fields are recreated exactly as they were when the backup was made.

When to create a backup

• Before a major edit. About to reorganize a large project? Back up first so you can undo if needed.
• After completing a project. Finished documenting your home for insurance? Back up the result.
• Before switching devices. Moving to a new iPhone? Back up on the old one, restore on the new one.
• Periodically. Set a reminder to back up monthly or quarterly. Treat it like any other important data.

Transferring between devices

Since Retinelle does not use cloud sync, backup and restore is the way to move your inventory between devices:

1. Back up on device A.
2. Transfer the backup file to device B (AirDrop, email, shared folder).
3. Restore on device B.

This works between iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The backup format is the same across all platforms.

Auto-backup

Retinelle can create automatic backups on a schedule. Enable auto-backup in settings and the app will save a backup to your device periodically. This provides a safety net if you forget to create manual backups.

What is not included

Backups contain your inventory data. They do not include app settings or preferences. If you uninstall and reinstall the app, you will need to reconfigure your preferences, but your inventory data will be fully restored from the backup.

Related features

• Offline-First Privacy to understand how data is stored locally
• Export Your Inventory to PDF for shareable document exports
• All features