Backup & Restore
Protect your project data with backups and restore when needed
Overview
RoadAsset backups preserve all your project metadata including GPS tracks, tagged assets, road segments, and PCA data. Backups are lightweight (typically under 50 MB) and can be restored to create new projects with all your annotations intact.
What's in a Backup
Backups contain all your project metadata in a portable ZIP archive:
Included
- Project settings and metadata
- GPS track with all coordinates
- Tagged assets with bounding boxes
- AI analysis results and confidence scores
- Road segments and measurements
- PCA data points
- Frame extraction timestamps
Not Included (Regenerated)
- Video file (re-upload required)
- Extracted frames
- Thumbnails
- Cropped asset images
These are regenerated from the video during restore.
Creating a Backup
Create a backup of your project from the project settings page:
- Open your project and click Settings (gear icon)
- Scroll to the Data Management section
- Click "Download Backup"
- The backup ZIP will download immediately (typically 1-50 MB)
Backup File Naming
Backups are named with the pattern: backup-{project-name}-{timestamp}.zip
Example: backup-highway-survey-2026-1736123456789.zip
Restoring from Backup
Restore a backup to create a new project with all your saved data:
Step 1: Upload Backup
Go to Dashboard → Restore from Backup and select your backup ZIP file. The system will validate the backup and show you what will be restored.
Step 2: Review & Import
Review the backup contents (asset count, GPS points, segments) and click "Restore". A new project will be created with all your metadata imported.
Step 3: Upload Video
Upload the original video file. The system will match it against the backup metadata (file size and duration) to ensure compatibility.
Step 4: Regeneration
The system automatically regenerates thumbnails, extracted frames, and cropped asset images. This runs in the background and typically completes within a few minutes.
Restore Behavior
Creates New Project
Restores always create a new project. Your existing projects are never overwritten. The restored project will have "(Restored)" appended to its name.
New IDs Generated
All entities (assets, segments, GPS points) get new unique IDs during restore. Relationships between data are preserved through ID mapping.
Video Matching
The system validates uploaded videos by file size and duration. A warning is shown if the video doesn't match, but restore isn't blocked (the video may have been re-encoded).
Cross-Account Restore
Backups can be restored to a different account or organization. Useful for transferring projects between teams.
Security & Integrity
Backups include integrity verification to detect tampering:
- SHA-256 Checksums - Each file in the backup has a cryptographic hash stored in checksums.json
- HMAC Signature - The manifest is signed to prevent modification
- Schema Versioning - Backups include version info for forward compatibility
What Happens During Validation
- Manifest signature is verified
- Checksums are computed and compared
- Schema version compatibility is checked
- Data structure is validated before import
Best Practices
Backup Before Major Changes
Create a backup before deleting assets, re-importing data, or making bulk changes.
Keep Videos with Backups
Store backup ZIPs alongside the original video files. Both are needed for a complete restore.
Use Descriptive Filenames
Rename backup files to include the project date or milestone (e.g., "highway-final-review.zip").
Offsite Storage
Store backups in a different location than your primary data (cloud storage, external drive).
Troubleshooting
Backup validation failed
- Ensure the ZIP file wasn't corrupted during download or transfer
- Don't modify the contents of the backup archive
- Check if the backup was created with a compatible schema version
Video doesn't match backup
- The video may have been re-encoded or compressed - this is usually fine
- Ensure you're uploading the same video used for the original project
- Check the video duration matches the expected value in the manifest
Frame regeneration stuck
- Large videos may take several minutes to process
- Check the project status page for progress updates
- If stuck for more than 30 minutes, contact support
Missing assets after restore
- Wait for frame regeneration to complete - cropped images are generated from video
- Assets are imported immediately, but images need the video to be processed