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Site Sync

Guide → Deploy the Roe app

Recovery: it’s probably note a disaster

Roe is built so your work is hard to lose. Everything you write lives as ordinary files, and when you have a live and loca site, Roe keeps more than one copy in more than one place. So if a laptop dies, a page gets deleted, or a sync goes sideways, getting back to normal is usually a few clicks — not a crisis.

This guide shows you where your work is kept and, should you ever need it, how to bring your site back.

Where your work is kept

Roe keeps your site safe in layers, so a single mishap is never the whole story:

  • Your content is plain files. Everything you write is Markdown, and your media sits beside it, in the /site folder. You can open, copy, and back these up like any other files — no database needed to read them.
  • A copy on your live site. Every time you Sync with Live, your content is mirrored between your computer and your live server — a second copy, in a second place, kept current as you work and sync.
  • Local backups. Roe keeps browsable snapshots of your whole /site folder. Each one is a complete copy you can restore from.
  • Live-database backups. Each sync also captures an encrypted backup of your live site’s database, so things like member accounts and saved settings are protected too.

A little preparation

You don’t need to do much, but two habits make recovery simple:

  1. Set a backup passphrase. On your live site, open Admin → Site Sync and set a backup passphrase. This is what locks — and later unlocks — your encrypted database backups. Keep it somewhere safe; a password manager is ideal.
  2. Sync now and then. Each Sync with Live refreshes the copy on your server and captures a fresh database backup. Syncing regularly keeps your safety net current. Roe will let you know with a small orange dot when there are changes that have not been synced.

With those in place, the sections below are simply here if you ever need them.

Restore something you deleted or changed

  1. Open your Roe folder in your computer
  2. Find your backups/ folder
  3. Open it and look for the most recent version you have backuped up
  4. Move the file to the same folder under site/

You can also restore and entire local backup:

  1. Open Admin → Site Sync and choose the Backups tab.
  2. Under Local Backups, find the snapshot from before the change.
  3. Click Restore next to it. Roe snapshots your current /site first, as a safety net, then restores the older copy.

If your live site still has the good version, you can also just Sync with Live to pull it back.

Rebuild on a new computer

Lost the machine Roe was on? Your live site still has everything since your last sync. To set up again:

  1. Install Roe on the new computer.
  2. Reconnect to your live site. Open Admin → Site Sync and set up the connection: enter your live site’s address, then make the sync token match on both ends. Your fresh install already has its own token — copy it into your live site’s Site Sync settings so both sides share the same one. See Site Sync → Setup for the walkthrough.
  3. Sync with Live to pull your content back down.

Your writing and media come home from the live copy, and you’re back where you left off.

Restore your live database

If your live site’s database is ever damaged or lost — important data (members, payments, newsletter history) lives there — restore it from one of the encrypted backups:

  1. On your local Roe, open Admin → Site Sync → Backups and choose the Public/Live Site Backups tab.
  2. Find the backup you want and click Download .enc.
  3. Open Site Sync on your live site, click RESTORE DATABASE…, and upload the file you downloaded.

Once your live site restarts, Roe checks that the restored keys can read the data — and if anything doesn’t line up, it quietly puts the previous database back. A restore can’t leave your site worse off than before.

Want to look inside a backup without touching anything live? Use Decrypt & download for a plain, readable copy on your computer. It never connects to any live database.

Keep your passphrase safe

Your encrypted database backups can only be opened with your backup passphrase. Roe never stores it for you — which is exactly what keeps those backups private. Save it somewhere you won’t lose it, like a password manager, and you’ll always be able to open a backup when you need one.