Backup and restore

Back up the whole Linux system to a file you keep, encrypt it with a password, back up automatically while the device charges, take snapshots, and restore any of them.

Your Linux system lives in the app's private storage, which means uninstalling Breadstick takes it with it. Back up on the home screen writes the whole thing to one file you keep.

Backing up and restoring are free. Breadstick Pro adds encrypted backups, automatic backups and snapshots. Restoring never needs Pro, whatever made the backup: nobody is locked out of their own system.

Taking a backup

Home screen, under Environment, tap Back up, then Choose where to save. You choose where the file goes through the normal Android file picker, so it can land on the device, on a memory card, or in whatever cloud storage app you already use.

The backup contains the entire Linux system: installed software, your home directory, your configuration, everything. It is a single file, and it is large, roughly the size of your Linux system on disk. The file is named breadstick-backup- followed by the date and time, and ends in .tar.gz.

Take one before anything you might regret: a big upgrade, an unfamiliar package, or an experiment with system files.

Encrypted backups

Breadstick Pro.

Turn on Encrypt with a password before choosing where to save, and type a password of at least eight characters twice. Only that password opens the backup.

Breadstick does not keep the password and cannot recover it. Without it, nobody can open the backup, you included. Keep it somewhere you will still have if this device is lost.

The file is in the open age format and ends in .tar.gz.age. It opens in Breadstick, and on a computer with age installed:

age -d breadstick-backup-20260926-1015.tar.gz.age > breadstick-backup.tar.gz

age asks for the password. To look inside, unpack it into a new folder. GNU tar prints a warning about an unknown header keyword for every file unless you tell it not to; the contents are fine either way:

mkdir breadstick-backup
tar --warning=no-unknown-keyword -xzf breadstick-backup.tar.gz -C breadstick-backup

Restoring

Restore on the home screen replaces the current Linux system with the contents of a backup. The system you have now is discarded, so take a fresh backup first if there is anything in it you want.

An encrypted backup asks for its password. The password is checked before anything is touched, so a wrong one changes nothing. A backup that was cut off while it was being made is refused as incomplete, and your system is left as it was.

This is also how you move to a new device. Back up on the old one, install Breadstick on the new one and set it up, then restore, and you have the same system with the same software and files.

Automatic backups

Breadstick Pro.

Back up automatically, under Settings, Automatic backups, backs Linux up on a schedule, without you:

• Daily or Weekly, while the device is charging and idle and Linux is not running. Android picks the moment, sometimes a few hours after the schedule says, and a run that finds Linux in use waits for the next chance.
• Where: on this device, where each backup appears in the Snapshots list, or in a folder you choose. A folder your cloud storage app syncs takes the backups off the device.
• Keep 2, Keep 3 or Keep 5: the newest are kept and older ones are deleted. Devices that share one synced folder each keep their own, and never delete each other's.

Last backup shows when the last one ran and how it went, and Back up now makes one straight away, even while Linux is running. If a scheduled backup does not finish, Android shows a notification that says why. Android gives background work about ten minutes, and a backup it stops is deleted rather than left looking whole; if that happens three times in a row, the notification suggests backing up while plugged in, or weekly.

Encrypting automatic backups

Backups to a folder can be encrypted with Encrypt. You set a password once, and type it only to restore: Breadstick encrypts each backup to a key made on this device, and keeps that key in a file locked with your password. The key file, breadstick-backup-key- followed by a short id and .age, is saved in the same folder as the backups.

To restore one after reinstalling Breadstick, or on another device, choose the backup, then the key file when Breadstick asks for it, then type the password. Keep the key file with the backups: an encrypted automatic backup cannot be opened without it. On a computer, age opens one with the key file and the same password:

age -d -i breadstick-backup-key-ID.age BACKUP.tar.zst.age > backup.tar.zst

age asks for the password you set for automatic backups. Use the key file whose id matches the end of the backup's name: a backup ending in -ID.tar.zst.age opens with breadstick-backup-key-ID.age. Unpack it the same way:

mkdir breadstick-backup
tar --warning=no-unknown-keyword -xf backup.tar.zst -C breadstick-backup

Backups kept on this device are not encrypted: they are in the app's private storage, like the Linux system itself.

Snapshots

A snapshot is a restore point kept on this device, to take before you try something risky. Under Settings, Snapshots, give it a name and tap Save. Each one in the list has Restore, Export and Delete, and Import from a file brings back one you exported.

Taking a snapshot is part of Breadstick Pro. Restoring, exporting, importing and deleting them are not.

Snapshots live in the same private storage as Linux, so uninstalling Breadstick removes them too. Export one, or use Back up, to keep a copy somewhere else. They are large: if you keep several, they are usually the biggest thing you have.

Repair

Repair is for a system that still exists but is not working: an upgrade interrupted partway through, a package left half configured, a desktop that stopped starting. It fixes the package state without touching your files, and is worth trying before a restore.

Where the file goes

Everything happens through the Android file picker, which means the backup is yours. It is not uploaded to us. Breadstick has no server that receives your data, and no account to store it against.

If you keep it in a cloud storage folder, remember that the file is large and your provider will sync all of it.

Imported SSH keys are part of the Linux system, so they are in every backup and snapshot. Treat those files as secret, or encrypt them.

Multiple environments

Breadstick Pro supports more than one Linux environment on the same device, kept separate from each other. That is useful for keeping a stable setup you rely on apart from one you are experimenting in, without either being able to break the other.