Cloud backup and recovery

Two different disasters need two different tools:

Backup and sync are not the same thing

Sync (free during early access) keeps every device showing the same library, continuously. Sync copies your charts, setlists, and notes faithfully - mistakes included: delete a song and it is deleted everywhere. Attached artwork and PDF charts stay on the device they were added on; sync carries text, not files. If your bands sync, the cloud already holds a live copy of them - replacing a device is just signing in.

Cloud backup (free with sign-in) is a snapshot: one copy of your library's text - every chart, setlist, and note - latest state, saved in the cloud. It exists for the content sync does not cover - free accounts, and local-only bands you never synced. If that device dies, the snapshot is how you get those songs back.

Trash is for your own mistakes. A deleted song comes back with one tap - just that song, nothing else touched - but how long it stays recoverable depends on the band:

• Local-only bands keep a deleted song recoverable on that device for 90 days.
• Synced bands (free during early access) also keep a separate 1-year cloud copy - Cloud Trash, not the local one.

When you would actually use a backup

Lost, stolen, broken, or replaced device - that is the whole list. If everything you have syncs, you may never use it: signing in on the new device brings your synced bands down automatically, and the backup only matters for the rest.

Free cloud backup

Sign in with a BandBinder account (Google, Apple, or email) - no purchase - and BandBinder keeps one snapshot of your library in the cloud:

• All songs and their ChordPro or text charts
• Setlists
• Line-anchored practice notes
• Band memberships (band names and codes you have joined)

Not included: PDF charts and attached artwork. The backup dialog counts both, so you know what's missing. Keep copies of those files elsewhere. (The BandBinder Tour's own covers come back on their own after a restore.)

One snapshot, one slot

Your account has one backup slot, holding your most recent snapshot. No version history, no rollback. The slot is shared across all your devices; whichever device backed up last owns it.

How free backups run

• Automatic: Once signed in, BandBinder backs up in the background, throttled to avoid unnecessary uploads.
• Manual: Open Band Hub, then Cloud backup. The dialog shows the current snapshot (date, device name, song and setlist counts) and a Back up this device button.

The one-device rule

On the free tier, only one device is protected at a time. If phone A holds the slot, phone B's automatic backup stands down rather than overwrite it.

Phone B's Cloud Backup dialog names the device that holds the slot and its backup date, and prompts you to confirm before it replaces that backup. Once you confirm, phone B owns the slot and phone A stands down in turn.

Paid plans sync continuously, so the snapshot slot stops being your safety net - sync is.

Paid plans: continuous sync

Solo Plus and the Band Plan replace the single snapshot with continuous sync: changes travel to every device as you make them, so what's protected is what you just played, not what a background job last uploaded. Deleted songs land in Trash on every synced device, recoverable there for a full year - independent of the on-device Recently Deleted setting above.

• Band Plan adds the shared band library on top: one library, unlimited members, pinned notes travelling with the chart.

PDF charts and attached artwork still stay local for now, on every plan - cloud PDF storage is coming to the paid plans.

Compare the plans

How to restore, and exactly what it does

1. Install BandBinder on the new device.
2. Open Band Hub and sign in with the same account you used before: Sign in with Google (G), Sign in with Apple, or Sign in with Email (Shift+M).
3. Choose Cloud backup. The dialog lists your account snapshot, plus any older per-device snapshots from before the current backup model.
4. Pick a snapshot and choose Restore.

Restore is all or nothing: it replaces this device's entire library with the snapshot. You cannot pick individual songs, and anything added on this device since is overwritten. BandBinder saves a safety copy of your current local library first, so this can be reversed - use Restore from backup... and point it at the safety copy if you change your mind. Synced bands then re-download their current cloud state, so restore's real effect is on your local-only content. To rescue one deleted song, use Trash, not restore.

Guest accounts and backup

Backup requires an account. A guest identity (a band code, no sign-in) lives only on the device that created it - lose the device, lose the library. See Join your band for how to upgrade a guest identity before that happens.

Summary of free-tier limitations

Every limit below belongs to the free tier's one-snapshot model. Paid plans don't lift these limits one by one - they replace the model with continuous sync, which has no slot to begin with.