Backup & Restore

Export all your notes as a password-protected backup file, and restore them on any device running KeyScribe.

Creating a Backup

  1. Go to Settings > Backup & Restore
  2. Enter a strong password
  3. Tap Create Backup
  4. Choose where to save the backup file

What Happens During Backup

  1. All notes are decrypted using your device’s private key
  2. The plaintext notes are serialized to JSON
  3. A key is derived from your password using PBKDF2WithHmacSHA256 (100,000 iterations) with a random salt
  4. The JSON is encrypted with AES-256-GCM using the derived key
  5. The result is packaged into a backup file containing the salt, IV, encrypted data, and note count

The backup file is useless without the password. There is no password recovery.

Restoring a Backup

  1. Go to Settings > Backup & Restore
  2. Tap Restore Backup
  3. Select the backup file
  4. Enter the password you used when creating the backup

What Happens During Restore

  1. The password is used to derive the same key via PBKDF2
  2. The backup data is decrypted with AES-256-GCM
  3. Each note is re-encrypted using the current device’s RSA key pair
  4. Notes are inserted into the local database

This means backups are portable - you can restore on a different device. The notes will be re-encrypted with that device’s key pair.

Important Notes

  • Remember your password - There is no way to recover it. If you forget it, the backup is permanently inaccessible.
  • Restoring adds notes - It does not overwrite existing notes. Duplicate notes may appear if you restore twice.
  • Backup contains plaintext temporarily - During the backup process, notes exist in plaintext in memory. The backup file itself is encrypted.