--- title: "Automatic backups for OpenClaw" description: "HolaClaw now backs up your OpenClaw assistant, manually or on a schedule, so you can upgrade or change settings and roll back to a known-good state if something breaks." updated: 2026-07-30 canonical: https://holaclaw.ai/blog/automatic-backups-for-openclaw --- If you've run OpenClaw for a while, you've probably hit the moment where an upgrade or a settings change leaves your installation broken. It doesn't necessarily take your data with it, but even having to stop, diagnose, and reconfigure the assistant is a tedious, unexpected task you didn't plan for. HolaClaw makes it easy to install and run OpenClaw, and one of our goals is to make upgrades seamless. But going back matters even when nothing breaks. A smooth upgrade can still leave you on a version that doesn't behave the way you expect, or change a workflow you rely on in some fundamental way you only notice days later. Being able to return to exactly how things were, and to compare the new state against the old, is as valuable as recovering from a bad install. That's why our latest release adds **backups**. You can snapshot everything important before a major upgrade or a risky change, either manually or automatically on a schedule, and roll back to a previous known-good state whenever you need to. ![The Snapshots & restore view in HolaClaw, listing manual and automatic backups with their date, OpenClaw version, and size, each with a Restore button](/images/blog/automatic-backups-for-openclaw/snapshots-and-restore.webp) Here's what a backup actually contains, how it works, and the tradeoffs we made. ## What a backup is A backup is a point-in-time snapshot of one assistant, and you choose how much of it to capture: - **Everything**: configuration, credentials, sessions, and workspaces. That's all it takes to bring the assistant back exactly as it was. - **Config only**: just the settings, without the conversation history or the credentials. Useful when you want to preserve a working configuration before a risky change without carrying everything else along. Either way, the snapshot is stored locally, on your own Mac, next to the assistant it belongs to. Nothing leaves your machine. Each backup is a single, self-contained file in your HolaClaw data folder. That matters later, when we get to moving an assistant to a new Mac. ## Automatic backups From the moment you create an assistant, HolaClaw takes a snapshot **once a day and keeps the last 7**, with no setup on your part. The idea is that the backup has already been taken before you realize you need it. Those defaults aren't fixed. Both how often snapshots are taken and how many are kept can be adjusted to whatever fits your workflow, and automatic backups can be turned off entirely. The scope is up to you too: schedule full snapshots, or config-only ones if that's all you want kept around. ![The Automatic backups dialog, with a Frequency selector set to Daily and a Keep selector set to Keep 7](/images/blog/automatic-backups-for-openclaw/automatic-backups-configuration.webp) ## Manual backups Automatic backups run on a schedule. You can also take one on demand before rewriting a persona, connecting a new service, or trying anything you're not sure about. Click **Create backup**, give it a name, pick the scope, and go. The assistant pauses for a few seconds while the snapshot is captured, then resumes on its own. The new backup appears at the top of the list. Manual backups are **never pruned**. Unlike automatic ones, HolaClaw won't age out a snapshot you took deliberately; it stays until you delete it. ## Restoring We paid special attention to being able to restore the data. A backup is only useful if you can trust you will be able to bring the data back when you need it. ![The restore confirmation dialog for an automatic snapshot, showing when the backup was taken, how long ago, the OpenClaw version, and a warning that data created since the backup will be lost](/images/blog/automatic-backups-for-openclaw/restore-backup-dialog.webp) Pick a backup and HolaClaw shows you what you're restoring: its name, when it was taken, whether it was automatic or manual, and which version of the assistant it captured. Confirm, and it stops the assistant, loads the snapshot, and verifies everything came back healthy. If the snapshot was taken on an older version, HolaClaw reinstalls that matching version first, so you get back the assistant you actually backed up rather than an approximation. The important property is what happens **if a restore fails**. Before touching anything, HolaClaw sets your current, live assistant aside instead of overwriting it, then lays down the snapshot. If any step fails, it puts the live assistant back, restarts it, and gives you the details of what went wrong. A failed restore leaves you exactly where you started, up and running, so trying a restore is safe. Deleting backups works from the same view: remove any snapshot, manual or automatic. Deleting one doesn't affect the automatic schedule; the next snapshot still arrives on time. ## Moving to a new Mac Because each backup is a single self-contained file that isn't tied to the machine that made it, the same mechanism that undoes a bad change can also migrate an assistant to new hardware. Take a fresh snapshot, copy that file to the new Mac the way you'd move any file (an external drive, a Time Machine restore, your usual transfer), and restore it there. HolaClaw rebuilds the assistant on the new machine, reinstalling the exact version the backup was taken on, so it comes back with the same memory, personality, and connections it had before. ## Wrapping up Backups are a step toward our larger goal: making OpenClaw something you can upgrade and change without fear of losing your setup. Automatic snapshots run in the background, you can take your own before any big change, and a restore can't leave you worse off than you started. The [download page](/download) has the latest build, and our [Discord](https://discord.gg/FbxAbS5sGQ) is where the conversations are happening. If you've been holding off on an upgrade because the last one broke something, this release is for you.