What a backup contains and how it is checked
last updated at: Sep 11, 2026
A backup made from the Backup section in Admin is a single archive of one user or one team. This page lists what goes into that archive, what stays out, how Eigen checks it, and where the panel's limits are. To make or restore a backup, see Back up a user or team and Restore a user or team.
What is in a backup
One archive covers one user or one team, and nothing else on the server.
| Item | In the backup? |
|---|---|
| All files in Drive | Yes |
| Earlier versions of a file | Yes |
| Trashed files | Yes |
| Thumbnails | Yes |
| Documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and boards | Yes |
| Chats | Yes |
| Yes (for a user) | |
| Calendars | Yes |
| Contacts | Yes (for a user) |
| The account's settings | Yes |
| The user's profile picture | Yes (for a user) |
| Who each file is shared with | Yes |
| Files stored in S3 | Yes, downloaded and included in full |
| Other users or teams | No |
| Server-wide settings | No |
| The server's own configuration | No |
A team backup is the same shape as a user backup, minus the parts a team has no equivalent for, such as mail and contacts.
The archive file
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | .tar.zst, a compressed tar archive you can open with standard tools (tar --zstd) |
| Name | home-<id>-<date>-<time>.tar.zst, for example home-a1b2c3-20260911-140322.tar.zst |
| Where it lands | The server's backups folder: EIGEN_BACKUPS_DIR if set, otherwise backups/ next to the data directory |
Files stored in an S3 bucket are downloaded and written into the archive, so a restore never depends on the bucket, its credentials, or the storage type staying the same.
An archive holds every file, every mail, saved passwords, and any S3 keys the account uses. Treat it like a password. Downloads are admin-only. Keep any copy you take off the server encrypted, and delete it when you are done.
How verification works
Eigen checks every archive after it is made, again whenever you click Verify, and once more at the start of every restore. Three checks run in order:
- Files: every file in the archive has exactly the size and checksum recorded for it, and there is nothing extra.
- Databases: each of Eigen's own databases passes an integrity check.
- Documents: a sample of the largest documents is opened and decoded to confirm the content reads back.
Each archive shows one of three badges:
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Verified | All three checks passed. You can restore from it. |
| Failed | A check failed. The archive is kept for reference, but the panel will not restore from it. |
| Not verified | The archive has not been checked yet. This is normal for one you copied onto the server by hand. |
Click Verify on any archive to run the checks again and update its badge.
Limits
| Limit | Detail |
|---|---|
| Scheduling | None. Every backup is started by hand. |
| Clean-up | None. Old archives and safety copies stay until you delete them. |
| Whole server | The panel backs up one user or team, not the whole server. |
| Concurrent jobs | One at a time per user or team. A second request is refused while one runs. |
| Restore target | An archive restores only to the same user or team it came from. |
| Upload size | About 1 GB through Upload backup. For a larger archive, copy the file into the backups folder by hand. |
Whole-server backup
The panel covers one user or team at a time. To back up the whole server, use the scripts/backup.sh script on the server. It stops Eigen, archives the whole data directory plus the production environment file into the backups folder, and starts Eigen again, so there are a few seconds of downtime and no verification.
Use scripts/backup.sh for disaster recovery of the entire server. Use the Backup panel when you want a verified copy of a single user or team, or a restore that does not take the server down.