Restore from a backup

Restoring replaces your current database with an earlier copy. Everything recorded since that backup was taken is gone. Read this before using it.

Where it is

Restore asks for a backup file, then replaces the live database and closes Mich. You reopen it against the restored data.

What Mich does to protect you

Restore is the most destructive action in the product, and it is built accordingly:

1. A safety snapshot first. Mich backs up your current database before touching anything, and aborts if that snapshot cannot be made. If you restore the wrong file, the state you just replaced still exists.
2. The live database is untouched until the last moment. The restored copy is staged alongside, and only swapped in once it is complete.
3. An interrupted restore is finished on next launch. Losing power mid-restore leaves a recoverable state, not a broken one.

Backups that are too old to trust

Invalidate Older Backups marks existing backups as no longer restorable. Use it after a password change if older copies may be compromised: rotating the password does not re-encrypt copies already made, so this is what stops an old one being restored to get around the new password.

Mich refuses to restore a backup older than that mark, unless you deliberately override it, and the override is audited.