Back up your data

What to copy out of the Data folder — the database, the device key, the Users folder — and how to restore it on the same machine or a new one.

Everything Voxta owns lives in the Data folder next to the executable. Backing up Voxta is copying the right parts of that folder somewhere else — there is no export step, no cloud sync, no separate backup format.

Three things carry your data, and a backup missing any one of them is incomplete: the database, the Users folder where every image lives, and the device key that opens your secrets. The database only points at the files in Users — copying one without the other leaves you with characters that have no portrait and chats whose pictures are gone.

Close Voxta first. The database is being written to while the server runs, and a copy taken mid-write can restore as a corrupt file. Shut down the Desktop App, check the system tray, and make sure no Voxta.Server.exe is still running.

What to back up

Data/
├─ Voxta.sqlite.db        the database — chats, characters, scenarios, settings
├─ Users/                 every image — generated pictures, portraits, assets, samples
├─ device.key             protects your API keys and, in Device mode, your encryption key
└─ appsettings.User.json  hand-edited server settings

Item	Holds	Lose it and…
`Voxta.sqlite.db`	Chats, characters, scenarios, memory books, module configuration, users	Everything is gone. This is the one file to never lose.
`Users/`	Every image Voxta generated or you uploaded, under `Users/{user}/Chats/{chat}/Assets`, plus character portraits and assets, memory book attachments, voice samples, profiles and packages	Every picture is gone for good. The database keeps the chats and the characters, but each one now points at a file that no longer exists.
`device.key`	The key that protects module secrets and OAuth tokens, and — in Device mode — your encryption key	API keys and connected accounts must be entered again. With encryption on in Device mode, your content cannot be opened at all.
`appsettings.User.json`	Server settings you edited by hand (host URLs, logging, experimental features)	Voxta starts on defaults. Easy to redo, cheap to keep.

If a Voxta.sqlite.db-wal or Voxta.sqlite.db-shm file is sitting next to the database, copy those too. They only exist while the server is running or after an unclean shutdown, and the database is not complete without them.

Worth keeping, but optional

Data/Formatting and Data/Benchmarks — your own prompt formatting folders and custom benchmarks.
Data/Audio/VoiceSamples — shared voice samples you dropped in yourself. The ones attached to a character live in Users/.
Data/Agents — agent working folders, including Claude Code's persistent memory.

Skip these

Models, Python, Native, Tools, Cache, Temp and Logs are downloaded or generated. They are the bulk of the folder size and Voxta rebuilds them — re-running the service installers after a restore is faster than copying tens of gigabytes of model weights around.

Restoring

Install the same version, or newer

Restore into an install of the version the backup came from, or a later one. Voxta migrates a database forward on first start; it cannot migrate one backward.

Close Voxta

Copy the files back

Put Voxta.sqlite.db, device.key, Users/ and appsettings.User.json into the new install's Data folder, replacing what is there. Copy Users/ whole — it is one folder per user, and the file names inside it are the handles the database stores, so renaming or merging parts of it breaks the link.

Launch, then run the service installers

Manage Services → Run All Installers re-downloads the Python dependencies and models you deliberately left out of the backup.

Moving to another machine

The database and the Users folder move anywhere without ceremony — take both, always together. device.key does not.

On Windows the key file is wrapped with DPAPI and bound to the machine that created it, so a copy taken to a different PC cannot be opened there. Voxta refuses to start rather than quietly minting a new one, since that would turn every stored secret into bytes nobody can read.

What to do about it depends on what the key was protecting:

Module secrets and OAuth tokens. Delete device.key on the new machine, start Voxta, and enter your API keys again and re-connect the accounts. Nothing else is affected.
Encrypted content in Device mode. The device key is the only thing that opens it. Before moving, switch that user to Password mode on the encryption screen, or turn encryption off — either one rewraps the key, and neither re-encrypts your content, so both are quick.
Encrypted content in Password mode. Your password opens it on any machine, and the recovery code is the fallback. Nothing to do.

On Linux and macOS, device.key is a plain file protected only by its permissions. It travels between machines fine — and so does anyone who copies your Data folder. Treat a backup of it as being as sensitive as the data itself.

If you use encryption

At-rest encryption changes what a backup is worth in both directions:

A stolen backup is inert without the key, which is the point of the feature.
A backup you cannot open is also inert. Write your recovery code down somewhere that is not the machine Voxta runs on, and keep device.key in the backup.

Exports are the exception: chat and character exports, and packages, are written in the clear (or under the passphrase you give the export), not under your encryption key. They restore anywhere, which makes them a reasonable second copy of the content you care most about.

How often

The database and Users/ are what keep changing: the database on every message, Users/ every time an image is generated or a character gets a new portrait. Back the two up together — a database newer than the images it points at is as broken as the reverse. A copy taken whenever you have done work worth keeping — after building a character, after a long chat, after a session that produced pictures you want — covers most of the risk.

device.key and the settings file change rarely, but they cost nothing to include. A full copy of all four before every Voxta upgrade is a good habit, and gives you a rollback if an upgrade goes badly.

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