Backups and restore

AuraPOS performs automatic backups of your accounting data in line with Belgian obligations (7-year retention). Everything is local, no cloud — you keep control of your data.

Backup strategy

Two complementary levels:

Daily (10 days)

One backup per day, triggered when the application closes if more than 24h have passed since the last one. The 10 most recent are kept, older ones are auto-deleted.

Folder: %AppData%\AuraPOS\Backups\Daily\

Weekly (7 years)

One backup per week, added if no backup has been made in the past 7 days. Kept for 7 years (Belgian legal duration), then auto-deleted.

Folder: %AppData%\AuraPOS\Backups\Weekly\

Backup format

The format depends on the database engine in use:

• Single-register mode (SQLite): full copy of the AuraPOS.db file (.db extension).
• Multi-register mode (PostgreSQL): full SQL dump via pg_dump.exe (.sql extension), restorable with psql.exe.

⚠️ The PostgreSQL tools (pg_dump.exe, psql.exe + DLLs) are bundled with AuraPOS in Tools\Postgres\. You don't need PostgreSQL installed on the machine for backups to work — useful for slave registers.

File names

Format: AuraPOS_backup_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.db (or .sql).

Example: AuraPOS_backup_20260426_180042.db = backup from 26 April 2026 at 18:00:42.

Sortable alphabetically by date, which simplifies manual searches.

Manual backup

You can force a backup at any time from Settings > Backups > Backup now.

This option is useful:

• Before a major change (bulk import, country change)
• Before a major update
• Before a restore test on another machine

List and inspect backups

From Settings > Backups > List: table with date, type (Daily/Weekly), file size, full path. You can:

• Open folder: opens Windows Explorer on the backup folder
• Copy: copy the backup to another location (USB stick, OneDrive, etc.)
• Delete: deletes the backup (rare — let AuraPOS manage retention)

Restore a backup

⚠️ Destructive action: all current data is overwritten. A safety backup of the current state is automatically created before the restore (prefix AuraPOS_avant_restauration_*).

Procedure:

1. Settings > Backups > Restore
2. Choose the backup to restore from the list
3. Confirm (warning popup)
4. AuraPOS restores then asks you to restart the application (required for changes to take effect)

In multi-register mode, the restore must be done on the master register. Slaves will automatically see the restored state on the next refresh.

Off-site backup (recommended)

AuraPOS does not auto-backup to the cloud during beta. We strongly recommend regularly copying backups off-site:

Simple option: OneDrive / Dropbox / Google Drive

Create a shortcut from %AppData%\AuraPOS\Backups\ in your synced OneDrive folder. Backups will be automatically uploaded to the cloud.

More robust option: Windows scheduled task

Create a Robocopy task that copies the %AppData%\AuraPOS\Backups\ folder every night to an external drive or local NAS.

Example scheduled command:

robocopy "%APPDATA%\AuraPOS\Backups" "D:\AuraPOS_Backups" /MIR /R:3 /W:5

Recovery in case of hardware failure

If the PC hosting AuraPOS fails:

1. Install AuraPOS on a new PC (same config: single or multi-register master)
2. Run the first-launch wizard, configure your shop
3. Once on the main screen, Settings > Backups > Restore → choose your latest backup (from your USB stick / cloud / NAS)
4. Restart the application — all your data is back

Allow 10-15 minutes in single-register, 20-30 in multi-register with Postgres.

Tips

• Verify a backup works: take a manual backup, copy it to another machine, install AuraPOS on it, restore. If you get your data back, your backup strategy is validated. Do this at least once a year.
• Disk space: a daily backup is typically 1 to 10 MB (medium shop, 1 year of sales). 10 daily + 52 weekly = about 60 MB. No reason to skimp.
• Backup before uninstall: if you uninstall AuraPOS, take a manual backup first and copy it outside the %AppData%\AuraPOS folder (which could be manually deleted).