Backup, restore, setup profiles and factory reset

What a backup zip contains, how import works, what a setup profile carries (and what it deliberately leaves out), and what factory reset does and does not touch.

Settings › System › Download backup produces a zip with:

• the brain's ops database (settings, inventory, roster, journals, history, alerts, rules, bindings),
• a manifest of settings and inventory,
• the Pi's environment file (contains device API keys — keep the zip private),
• the Zigbee2MQTT data (pairings and network keys).

Take one before every update and before any Zigbee change. Import backup zip restores it in place and restarts the brain. Before you import, download a fresh backup if you want to keep anything logged since the one you are restoring. Expect the short fleet-offline window; a plug that waits longer than its limit (heater 60 s, heat mat and humidifier 90 s, dehumidifier 240 s) switches itself off while the brain restarts. Afterwards, confirm the version under Settings › System › About and that the Overview fleet chip is ok.

Restoring onto a fresh SD image. Download the backup while the old kit is still running (if the card has already failed, use the newest zip you saved). Boot the new image, then go to Settings › System › Backup › Import backup zip and pick the zip. A confirm dialog appears with an optional passphrase field: fill it in only if the backup was exported with Include secrets. The brain checks the archive and refuses the whole file if anything in it is unsafe. It snapshots the current data first, stages the restore and applies it when the brain restarts. A plain download has its secrets removed, so anything the fresh brain lacks is listed as needing re-entry. A restore brings back the ops database only: the Zigbee network state and the Pi's environment file are not restored, and the fleet has the firmware keys and the Pi hotspot passphrase compiled in, so keep the same ones.

A setup profile is a JSON export of the kit's configuration meant for sharing or for a second kit: zones, targets, stage rail, automation rules, alert preferences, device roles and placements, fixtures. It carries no secrets (no API keys, no camera credentials, no Wi-Fi passwords) and no history. Import shows a diff of what would change and applies only on confirm. If the profile shortens a journal's retention so that existing entries would be deleted, the dialog says how many per journal and the brain refuses to apply anything until that is confirmed too — download those journals first from Journals & storage if you want a copy. How much the kit keeps, and for how long, is in Storage, retention and housekeeping.

Settings › System › Reset › Factory-reset brain data: type the AP SSID (the hotspot name on your kit card) to confirm. The brain writes a backup zip and a database copy first, drops its tables, and restarts into first-boot state (setup wizard, empty roster). It does not:

• touch device firmware or the hub's own stored targets and Wi-Fi,
• change the Pi's hotspot or network config,

It does erase camera frames, timelapses and journal photos: they belong to the wiped tables and are not in the backup zip, so copy the media folder off the Pi first if you want to keep them.

The hub portal's own Factory reset fleet config is a separate action for the fleet's Wi-Fi and pairing.

Reset this browser's preferences clears only this browser's appearance, units, home, chart and alert-delivery choices.

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DSC-Brain user guide · Backup, restore, setup profiles and factory reset · this page is edited on the site; the Notion original was retired after the mirror