Backups

Dubby stores all its persistent state in the data directory. Regular backups protect against data loss from hardware failure, corruption, or accidental deletion.

What to back up

Data	Location	Contains
Database	`DUBBY_DATA_DIR/dubby.db`	Users, libraries, metadata, watch progress, settings
WAL files	`DUBBY_DATA_DIR/dubby.db-wal`, `dubby.db-shm`	Uncommitted database transactions
Image cache	`DUBBY_METADATA_CACHE_DIR`	Cached TMDB artwork
Trickplay sprites	`DUBBY_TRICKPLAY_CACHE_DIR`	Seek preview thumbnails

What you can skip

Transcode cache — Temporary files, regenerated on demand
Log files — Useful for debugging but not critical
Media files — Back these up separately; Dubby doesn’t modify your media

Manual backup

1. Stop the server (recommended)

For a consistent backup, stop Dubby first to ensure the SQLite database isn’t being written to:

docker compose stop dubby

2. Copy the data directory

cp -r /path/to/dubby-data /path/to/backup/dubby-data-$(date +%Y%m%d)

3. Restart

docker compose start dubby

Hot backup (without stopping)

SQLite in WAL mode supports concurrent reads during writes. You can copy the database while the server is running, but you must copy all three files together:

sqlite3 /path/to/dubby-data/dubby.db ".backup '/path/to/backup/dubby.db'"

The .backup command creates a consistent snapshot even while the database is in use.

Automated backups

Cron job

Create a daily backup with a cron job:

0 3 * * * root sqlite3 /path/to/dubby-data/dubby.db ".backup '/backups/dubby-$(date +\%Y\%m\%d).db'" && find /backups -name "dubby-*.db" -mtime +7 -delete

This backs up at 3 AM daily and removes backups older than 7 days.

Docker volume backup

If using Docker named volumes:

docker run --rm \
  -v dubby-data:/data:ro \
  -v /path/to/backups:/backup \
  alpine tar czf /backup/dubby-data-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C /data .

Restoring from backup

1. Stop the server

docker compose stop dubby

2. Replace the data directory

rm -rf /path/to/dubby-data/*
cp -r /path/to/backup/dubby-data-YYYYMMDD/* /path/to/dubby-data/

3. Start the server

docker compose start dubby

The server checks for pending migrations on startup and applies them if needed.

What’s preserved in a backup

All user accounts and sessions
Library configurations and paths
All metadata (titles, descriptions, artwork references)
Watch progress and continue watching state
User preferences and settings
Feature flag configurations
Invite codes and permissions

What’s not preserved

Active streaming sessions (ephemeral)
Cached transcodes (regenerated on demand)
Trickplay sprites (regenerated on demand, but backing up saves regeneration time)