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Backups

A Kitly project is a plain folder, so a backup is just a full copy of that folder, either zipped or copied somewhere safe. Kitly automates both. There's no proprietary backup format and nothing to unlock later.

Two backup flavors

Both live under the File menu's Backup entry:

  • Zip Project... packs the whole project into one archive.
  • Copy To Directory copies the project into a timestamped folder at a location you set once.

Zip a project

  1. Choose File, then Backup, then Zip Project....
  2. Pick where to save. The suggested name is the project plus the date and time, like <project>-<date>-<time>.zip.
  3. Wait for the progress card (bottom right, with a cancel button). "Backup complete" appears and dismisses itself.

Kitly refuses destinations inside the project itself, which would otherwise nest a backup inside the thing being backed up.

Copy to a directory

  1. Choose File, then Backup, then Copy To Directory.
  2. The first time, a "Choose a Backup Directory" modal explains that each backup becomes a timestamped folder, saves your choice to Settings, and starts the copy immediately.
  3. Every later backup is one click: same menu item, straight to the progress card.

Change the target later under Settings > Backup, where the "Copy target" path has Browse and Clear buttons. The setting notes the split: it's "Where File > Backup > Copy To Directory places its timestamped project copies. Zip backups ask for a location each time instead."

Restoring

Because a backup is a plain folder or zip, restoring needs no special tool:

  1. Unzip the archive, or locate the timestamped copy.
  2. Put the folder wherever you keep projects.
  3. In Kitly, use Open Project (Ctrl+O), browse to the folder, and open it.

Everything comes back: assets, Kitly Assets and Takes, workflows, tracking sessions. The hidden .cgasset/ folder inside the backup carries the bookkeeping, which is why you should always back up the whole project folder rather than cherry-picking media out of it.

A sane habit

There is no autosave to save you

Kitly writes changes to disk as they happen, so a crash loses very little. But disk writes don't protect against a dying drive or a deleted folder. Zip before risky milestones (big cleanups in Storage, machine migrations) and point Copy To Directory at a second drive or synced location for the routine copies.

  • Before a Storage cleanup: zip.
  • End of a work session on anything client-facing: Copy To Directory, one click.
  • Archiving a finished project: zip, verify the zip opens, then delete the working copy if you must.