Backups and restoring

Your writing is saved on your device as you type. A backup is a second copy somewhere else, so that a lost laptop, a cleared browser or a bad afternoon does not cost you the book.

There are two kinds, and you can use either:

• A file you save: free, on every device, and kept wherever you like.
• Automatic backups to a folder: free, in the desktop app.

Automatic Cloud backups are coming soon to Onwarder Cloud.

Save your library to a file

1. In your library, open Settings, then Storage and backup.
2. Choose Save to file (on a phone, Save a copy). In the browser and on a phone, then choose Save library to file.
3. Choose where to keep it: a USB stick, a cloud drive, an email to yourself.

You get one file with every book, its story bible, its history and its pictures, named for the date, such as Onwarder library backup 17 Oct 2026.onwarder. In the desktop app, File, Save a Copy to File… does the same.

Keep it private. Backup files are not encrypted. Anyone who has the file can read your book.

The storage line in Settings reminds you when you last saved a file, for example Last saved to a file on 12 October.

Let the desktop app back up for you

The Mac, Windows and Linux app can copy your library to a folder by itself.

1. Open Settings, then Recovery.
2. Under Automatic backups, choose Choose backup folder and enable, and pick a folder. A folder your cloud drive keeps in step, such as Dropbox or OneDrive, is a good choice.

While Onwarder is open, it copies your library there at most every 30 minutes, whenever something has changed. Back up now makes a copy straight away. Old copies are never deleted automatically, so tidy the folder now and then.

Bring books back from a backup

1. Open Settings, Storage and backup. For a file, choose Open a library file (on a phone, Open a copy), then Open an Onwarder file and pick it.
2. Onwarder shows what is in it, for example Backup from 14 October 2026, 09:10, with each book, its word count and when it was last edited.
3. Books that are New to this library are ticked. Books you already have are not, and Onwarder tells you which copy is newer: You have this book. Yours is newer.
4. Choose Add 1 book (the number follows your ticks).

Adding never overwrites anything. If you add a book you already have, the copy is named for the backup, such as The Bell Keeper (from 14 Oct backup), and sits beside your current one.

Replace a book with its backup

If a book has gone wrong and you want it back exactly as it was in the backup:

1. Open the backup as above.
2. Next to the book, choose Replace this book with the backup….
3. Onwarder asks: Replace The Bell Keeper with the backup? Your book goes back to how it was at that date. Your story bible stays as it is.
4. Choose Replace book.

Before replacing anything, Onwarder keeps a copy of the book as it is now. You will see Replaced The Bell Keeper with the 14 October backup. with Undo.

Put it back

Changed your mind later? The copy Onwarder kept is in the book’s history as Before restoring the 14 October backup. Choose Put this back next to it at any time, and the book returns to how it was just before you replaced it.

Bring back one scene

For a single scene, you rarely need a backup. Use Scene history to go back to an earlier version, and Removed writing in the scene list for a scene you deleted.