Backing up the database

A Fileship server keeps its data in two places. Back up both, at the same time:

What	Where (Docker)	Where (without Docker)
The database	the `pg_data` volume of the `postgres` service	your PostgreSQL server
The data folder	`data/` next to `docker-compose.yml`	`NUXT_DATA_DIRECTORY`

The data folder holds the files on the local storage, thumbnails, AI models and secret.key. Files on S3, SFTP or FTP storage are not in it; back those up with your storage provider's tools.

Important

Keep data/secret.key with every backup. Storage credentials, upload tokens, webhook URLs and signing secrets, and the email and single sign-on secrets are encrypted with it. Without it, those values cannot be read and have to be entered again (upload tokens regenerated).

Account backups in Settings → Backups are something else: one user's files and items, for that user to restore. See Backups.

With Docker

Back up

From the folder with docker-compose.yml:

docker compose exec -T postgres pg_dump -U postgres -Fc postgres > fileship-$(date +%F).dump
tar -czf fileship-data-$(date +%F).tar.gz --exclude=data/models --exclude=data/temp data

The dump is taken while Fileship runs and is consistent. The AI models (data/models) and temporary files are left out because Fileship downloads or recreates them; leave the excludes out to keep them.

To back up every night, put both lines in a script and run it from cron, then copy the results to another machine.

Restore

On a fresh installation (after docker compose up -d has created the stack):

docker compose stop fileship-blue fileship-green
tar -xzf fileship-data-2026-11-08.tar.gz
docker compose exec -T postgres pg_restore -U postgres -d postgres --clean --if-exists < fileship-2026-11-08.dump
docker compose up -d

Without Docker

Back up

sudo -u postgres pg_dump -Fc fileship > fileship-$(date +%F).dump
sudo tar -czf fileship-data-$(date +%F).tar.gz --exclude=models --exclude=temp -C /opt/fileship data

Restore

sudo systemctl stop fileship
sudo tar -xzf fileship-data-2026-11-08.tar.gz -C /opt/fileship
sudo -u postgres pg_restore -d fileship --clean --if-exists fileship-2026-11-08.dump
sudo systemctl start fileship

The restored database must belong to the user in DATABASE_URL; restore as that user (-U fileship) or add --no-owner --role=fileship.

Moving to another server

Install Fileship on the new server and start it once.
Stop Fileship on both servers.
Copy the dump and the data folder over and restore them as above.
Point your domain at the new server.

Moving between Docker and a non-Docker installation works the same way: the database dump and the data folder are the same in both.

Before PostgreSQL upgrades

The Docker stack upgrades PostgreSQL to new major versions by itself, in place (see Updating). A recent dump is your way back if anything goes wrong, so keep one before updates when your data matters.