Back up and restore the shop’s data

SOP SYS-08 · Technical systems manual

1 Purpose

Save a copy of everything the shop has recorded, so it can be put back if the computer fails, the database storage is deleted, or a change goes wrong.

2 Applies to

The person responsible for the shop’s database: at the end of each day the shop is open, before any change to the app or to Docker, and whenever the shop’s data must be put back.

3 Before you begin

The shop’s app is running. See SYS-03 Start, stop and check the shop’s app.

4 What a backup holds

A backup is one file, named with the date and time it was made, such as shop-backup-2026-10-16_20-50-55.zip. The time is in UTC (Greenwich time), so it can differ from the shop’s clock by several hours. Every backup is kept in the backups folder inside the dog-groomer-platform folder.

Part	What it is
`grooming_demo`	The shop’s database: every client, dog, booking, haircut, allergy and paperwork record entered in the shop’s screens
`grooming_test`	The test database. See SYS-07
`private/`	Every file in the `private` folder: the copies of paperwork and the dog photos that the records point to

A backup holds real clients’ details

The file holds names, phone numbers, vaccine paperwork and photos. Keep every copy of it as carefully as the paperwork itself. The backups folder is never published to GitHub.

5 Procedure

5.1 Make a backup

Open the Technical workbench at http://localhost:8501.
In the left menu, click Run & test.
Click the Database tab.
Scroll down to Backups, at the bottom of the tab.
Click Back up now. The output appears below the button. It finishes with Backup saved: and the name of the new file. Nothing in the shop’s data is changed.

5.2 Keep a copy away from this computer

A backup on this computer is lost if the computer is lost. Once a week, and after any large change:

Open File Explorer.
Open the dog-groomer-platform folder, then the backups folder.
Copy the newest file to a USB drive kept away from the computer. The newest file is the one with the latest date and time in its name.

5.3 Restore a backup

Restoring replaces the shop’s data with the copy in the backup. Everything recorded in the shop’s screens since that backup was made is replaced. Before it replaces anything, the restore saves a backup of what is there now, so a restore can itself be undone.

Open the Technical workbench at http://localhost:8501.
In the left menu, click Run & test.
Click the Database tab.
Scroll down to Backups, at the bottom of the tab.
Click the Backup to restore list, below the Back up now button. The backups appear, newest first.
Click the backup to restore.
Click Restore this backup…. A box opens that says what will be replaced.
Click Yes, restore it. The output appears below. It finishes with Restored from and the name of the backup.
Open http://localhost:3000, or reload it if it is already open. The shop’s screens show the data as it was when the backup was made.

To restore a backup from a USB drive, first copy the file into the backups folder, then follow steps 9 to 17.

5.4 Do the same from a terminal instead

The same commands, without the Technical workbench. Open a terminal in the dog-groomer-platform folder.

To make a backup, type this command and press Enter:

docker compose exec review python shop_backup.py save

To see the backups, newest first, type this command and press Enter:
```
docker compose exec review python shop_backup.py list
```
To restore the newest backup, type this command and press Enter:
```
docker compose exec review python shop_backup.py restore
```
The command says what it will replace, then asks Type yes to restore. Type yes and press Enter to restore. Type anything else to stop without changing anything.

To restore an older backup, type its name after restore, for example:

docker compose exec review python shop_backup.py restore shop-backup-2026-10-16_20-50-55.zip

6 Result

After a backup, the backups folder holds a new file with the date and time in its name. After a restore, the shop’s screens show the clients, dogs, bookings and photos exactly as they were when that backup was made.

7 If something goes wrong

7.1 Stopped: cannot reach the database

The app is not running. Start it (see SYS-03), then repeat the procedure.

7.2 Stopped: the backup’s grooming_demo would not load. The shop’s data was not changed.

The backup file is damaged or incomplete. The shop’s data is exactly as it was before the restore. Choose an older backup and restore that instead.

7.3 Stopped: there are no backups in backups/ to restore.

The backups folder is empty. If a backup is on a USB drive, copy it into the backups folder first.

7.4 The wrong backup was restored

Every restore first saves what was there, in a file whose name ends in before-restore. Restore that file to undo the restore: in step 14, click the newest file ending in before-restore.

7.5 The database storage was deleted

This happens after docker compose down -v. Start the app (see SYS-03). On the first start it builds a fresh demo database holding only the made-up demo dogs. Then restore the newest backup, following steps 9 to 17. If the backups folder was lost with the computer, copy the newest backup from the USB drive into it first.