Book Tracker

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Where are my backups stored?

Book Tracker gives you two storage destinations for backups, and you choose which one to use. Both work identically for restore. The difference is in where the .zip file actually lives.

The two destinations

📱 Local storage (on this device)

Backups are stored only on the device that created them. They’re not shared with your other iPhones, iPads, or Macs.

Pros:

  • No iCloud account or quota required.
  • Backups remain accessible even if iCloud is temporarily unavailable.
  • Privacy-conscious: the files never leave the device.

Cons:

  • If you delete and reinstall Book Tracker, all local backups are gone.
  • Other devices can’t see or restore from them, you’d need to export them manually first.

Backups are saved in the Book Tracker folder of your iCloud Drive. All your devices signed into the same Apple ID can see and restore from them.

Pros:

  • Available on every device.
  • Survive the app being uninstalled and reinstalled on any single device.
  • You can browse the backup files in the Files app on iPhone/iPad or in Finder on Mac.

Cons:

  • Counts against your iCloud storage quota.
  • Needs iCloud Drive to be enabled and working, though backups fall back to local storage if iCloud Drive is temporarily unreachable.

How to choose the destination

Open Book Tracker → Settings → Backup & Restore → Backup destination and pick one. You can change it at any time. Changing the destination only affects future backups, existing backups stay where they were created.

Each device manages its own list

This is an important detail for multi-device users. When you’re on iCloud Drive destination, the backups you see in the list include backups created by every device, but the rotation (how many backups are kept before older ones are deleted) applies per device.

For example, with rotation set to 7:

  • Your iPhone keeps its 7 most recent backups.
  • Your iPad keeps its 7 most recent backups.
  • Your Mac keeps its 7 most recent backups.

You may see more than 7 backups total in the list when you’re synced through iCloud Drive, that’s expected, and each device’s own count is still 7. Each device only deletes its own old backups; it never touches another device’s.

You can also export a backup outside the app

Regardless of the destination you’ve chosen, you can export any backup to Files, AirDrop, email, or an external disk:

  1. Open Settings → Backup & Restore.
  2. Long press (or right-click on Mac) the backup.
  3. Tap Share.

This is the most portable option, perfect for archiving or for moving to a different Apple ID.

What’s inside a backup file

A backup is a .zip file containing:

  • backup.json with your entire library data (books, statuses, progress, notes, quotes, ratings, tags, smart lists, positions, challenges, loans, purchase info).
  • A files/ folder with the binary files of all custom covers.

It’s a complete snapshot, a restore brings the library back exactly as it was at the moment the backup was created.