Backup and where your data lives

Everything FoxQuill knows is in one folder. Copy that folder and you have copied your work.

What is in it#

Where the folder is#

It is inside your user data directory.

A copy installed before the app was called FoxQuill keeps its books in the folder it made then, which carries the app’s earlier name. FoxQuill finds that folder by itself, so nothing needs moving.

FoxQuill never writes your work next to the program itself, so uninstalling or updating the app cannot touch it.

Backups FoxQuill makes on its own#

Each time FoxQuill starts, and every 24 hours while it stays open, it copies your books into backups/ as foxquill-YYYY-MM-DD.db, dated by the day it ran on the computer’s own clock. There is one copy per day: starting again on the same day leaves that day’s copy as it is. It keeps the last fourteen and deletes older ones, except the copies saved before a restore. A copy that could not be finished, for example on a full disk, is thrown away and tried again later, so it never takes the place of a good one. The copy is clean even if you are writing at the time.

Before an update#

When an update has to change how your books are stored, FoxQuill first saves a full copy of them as backups/before-update- and the date, time, and a number. It is made as FoxQuill starts, before anything changes, and only when there is something to change: a new install, or one that is already up to date, gets none. FoxQuill keeps the last three and removes older ones of its own kind, and nothing else. If the copy cannot be made, FoxQuill still starts. The 14-day clean-up never deletes these. The copy appears in the list beside Choose a backup file as Before an update, and restoring it works like restoring any backup.

Scene history is separate and finer. FoxQuill saves a copy of a scene when about fifty words of it differ from the last copy, and again after ten minutes of editing since the last copy. It keeps the last thirty per scene.

Readable copies#

Each time FoxQuill makes the day’s copy, it also writes every book as a plain Markdown file in backups/readable/, named like “Little Women (3f9a1c2e).md.” The eight letters and numbers come from the book, so two books with the same title keep two files. Each file is the book in reading order, so you can open it in any text editor, with or without FoxQuill. The next day’s files replace the last ones. Books in the Trash are left out. Only the book’s text is in them, with any passages you set aside at the end, under Set aside: no pictures, cards, or notes.

Settings > Files > Backup has an Open backups folder button that opens the folder on your computer. If the computer has no program set to open folders, it shows the folder in the file manager instead.

When Encrypt my data is on, no readable copies are written, because anyone could open them, and the ones already there are removed. See Encrypt my data.

Backups you make#

Settings has a Backup section. Download backup now zips every book and every picture and hands you the file.

This book only, as one JSON file, under Backup, is different: it is one book, in a readable format. It carries the words, cards, links, notes, plans, statistics, and goals, but no pictures. To move a book to another computer, use the book file below instead.

Move a book to another computer#

Each computer keeps its own books. To carry one across:

1. Open the book, go to Settings, then Files, and press Move this book to another computer. FoxQuill saves one file named after the book, ending in .foxquill.
2. Get the file to the other computer on a USB stick, by email, or through a shared folder.
3. On the other computer, open FoxQuill, go to Settings, then Files, and choose the file under Import. Look over the preview and press Import.

The file holds the whole book: every section and draft, archived sections, passages you set aside, flags, scene history, Library cards with their fields, folders, links, and map, notes, the Threads board, the bookmark, chats, statistics, goals, and every picture. It arrives as a new book with “(imported)” after its title. Nothing already on the other computer is changed. If that computer still has an older copy of the same book, both are there afterward; once you are sure the new one is right, delete the older one. It waits in the Trash for 30 days.

A few things stay behind because they belong to the computer rather than the book: the AI connection and its key, any dictionary you connected yourself, and share links. Set those up again on the other computer if you want them there. If a book has a very long scene history, the oldest of it stays behind so the file stays small enough to open.

To keep the file private on its way, check Protect the file with a password before you save it. Import asks for the password. Lose it and nobody can open the file, including you.

An older copy of FoxQuill cannot read a .foxquill file, so update the other computer first.

Restoring a backup#

Go to Settings > Files > Backup and press Choose a backup file, or pick one of the copies FoxQuill saved on its own from the list beside it and press Look inside. FoxQuill checks the file and shows what is in it, next to the books you have now, before anything changes. A backup made with a password is a .foxquillenc file, and FoxQuill asks for the password. A backup made by a newer FoxQuill needs an update first, and one made with Encrypt my data only opens on the computer that has its key. Books in the backup’s Trash come back in the Trash, with 30 days.

Press Restore and restart. FoxQuill saves your current books first, closes, and opens again with the backup in place. Until you restart, Restart now finishes it at once, and Cancel the restore takes the backup back out.

Your books and pictures as they are now are saved first, to backups/foxquill-before-restore- and the date and time, inside the data folder. That copy appears in the same list as Before a restore, so a restore can be undone the same way. The 14-day clean-up never deletes it. Settings then says when the restore happened and where your earlier books are. Pictures in your folder are never removed. Press Cancel to take a backup back out before you go ahead.

The daily copies and the copies saved before an update are in that list too, and each is the books without the pictures. Each can be restored the same way. A restore that waits more than a day for its restart is canceled, and your books are not changed.

If FoxQuill cannot open at all, write to foxquillstudio@gmail.com. Your books are still in the folder above. When something goes wrong, FoxQuill shows one plain sentence and where your books are, and offers Open log. The details go to foxquill.log in FoxQuill’s own folder, next to data.

The window opens where you left it, at the same size.

To restore one book without touching the rest, import its .foxquill book file or its JSON backup. Either one makes a new book and never writes over an existing one.