Backup & Restore

APM automatically backs up the SQLite database on a 7-day schedule and retains the 10 most-recent copies. Manual backups can be triggered at any time from the Admin panel.

---

Backup Location

Backups are written to the backups/ subdirectory of the database data directory (resolved at startup via ACCESSMAN_DB_PATH or the XDG default):

~/.local/share/accessibility_mgr/backups/
    accessibility_manager_20260601_093012.db
    accessibility_manager_20260608_093015.db
    ...

---

How Backups Work

APM uses sqlite3.Connection.backup(), which performs a WAL checkpoint before copying. The result is always a clean, consistent snapshot even while the application is running.

• Retention: 10 most-recent files are kept; older ones are pruned automatically.
• Space check: APM verifies there is at least 2× the database size of free space before starting. The backup is aborted with a clear error if space is insufficient.
• Audit trail: Every backup attempt (success or failure) is recorded in the backup_log table and visible on the Admin → Backups tab.

---

Trigger a Manual Backup

1. Navigate to Admin → Backups.
2. Click Run Backup Now.
3. The status label updates when the backup finishes (or reports an error).

---

Restore from a Backup

Warning: Restoring overwrites the live database. APM automatically creates a pre-restore safety snapshot before overwriting.

Via Admin Panel (recommended)

Backup restore is currently a CLI operation (see below). The Admin panel displays the backup directory path so you can locate the file.

Via Python / CLI

from accessibility_mgr.services.backup_service import BackupService

BackupService.restore_backup("/path/to/accessibility_manager_20260601_093012.db")

The call: 1. Validates the backup file is a readable SQLite database (PRAGMA integrity_check). 2. Saves a pre_restore_<timestamp>.db safety snapshot. 3. Copies the backup over the live database path. 4. Verifies the restored file passes an integrity check.

Raises RuntimeError on any failure so the caller can surface the problem to the user.

---

Retention & Pruning

Only the 10 most-recent accessibility_manager_*.db files are kept. Older files are deleted automatically after each successful backup. To keep more copies, edit BackupService._KEEP_BACKUPS in accessibility_mgr/services/backup_service.py.

---

Backup Log

The backup_log table stores every backup event:

Column	Description
backup_path	Absolute path to the backup file
size_bytes	File size at the time of backup
trigger	scheduled or manual
status	ok or error description
created_at	UTC timestamp

Query directly:

SELECT * FROM backup_log ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 20;