Backup & Restore

A backup is a snapshot of an entire project — every drillhole, table, column, record, and template setting — captured in a single file. Use backups to:

• Roll back if you make a destructive change (e.g., accidentally delete a column or import bad data)
• Migrate a project between accounts
• Hand off a complete project to a colleague or successor
• Archive a project at the end of a campaign before you delete it

This page covers backup and restore from inside Blue Butterfly. For schema-only sharing (no data), see Drillhole Template → Share a template.

Open the backup panel

From the Dashboard, settings gear (⚙) → Project Settings → Backup & Export. The panel shows a summary of what’s in the project (e.g., 12 drillholes · 6 data tables · 6088 records).

Two formats

Pick JSON when your goal is to back up so you can restore later. Pick SQL when your goal is to take the data out of Blue Butterfly to use somewhere else.

Download a backup

In the Backup panel:

1. Pick the format (Project Backup or SQL Export)
2. Click Download

The file is generated and downloaded immediately. Save it somewhere durable — your team’s shared drive, a backups folder, cloud storage. The Project Backup file is the only artefact you need to fully restore the project.

Sensitive data warning. Backup files contain everything in the project, including any sensitive notes or coordinates. Treat them like the underlying data — store securely.

Restore from a backup

Restoration replaces every byte of the project with the contents of the backup. All current data is overwritten. This is irreversible — make a fresh backup before restoring if you’re unsure.

1. From Project Settings → Backup & Export, click Restore from Backup
2. Select the previously-downloaded .json file
3. Confirm the warning dialog

The restore runs locally first and syncs to the cloud immediately afterward. Drillholes, tables, columns, and records all return to the state captured in the backup.

Only .json backup files restore. SQL files cannot be restored back into Blue Butterfly. For external use, see the SQL section below.

SQL Export

The SQL Export is a Postgres-compatible dump containing the schema and data of your project. Use it when you want to:

• Run analytics in your own data warehouse
• Hand off raw data to a DBA or analyst working outside Blue Butterfly
• Archive the project in a format you can read directly years from now

The dump includes:

• Table definitions matching your data tables
• Insert statements for every drillhole and record
• Reference data for templates and column metadata

Load the file into a Postgres database with psql -d your_db -f export.sql or your favourite SQL client. The file is text — you can also grep and awk it directly if you only need a subset.

Blue Butterfly cannot import a SQL file back in. If you want round-trip restoration, use the JSON Project Backup format.

When to back up

A few practical rhythms:

• Before any destructive change. Deleting columns, restoring from another backup, large imports — back up first.
• At project milestones. End of a phase, end of a quarter, end of a campaign.
• Before handing off. If a colleague is taking over the project, ship them a backup along with credentials.
• Routine. Weekly or monthly, depending on how active the project is.

Blue Butterfly stores all data in the cloud as well, so this is belt-and-braces — but a local backup is the only thing that protects you against your own mistakes.

Tips

• Name backups with dates. golden-ridge-2026-04-30.json beats backup.json. Three months later, you’ll thank yourself.
• Keep more than one. Don’t overwrite the same file each time. Disk is cheap; recovering deleted holes is not.
• Test a restore once. Knowing it works is reassurance worth a few minutes of effort.