Books use your subscription slots

Active and archived books both count. Backing up does not free a slot. Archive and Unarchive change visibility only. Separately deleting a book with Delete Forever releases its slot; restoring a book uses one slot. Projects organise books and do not provide extra capacity.

Back up

From Projects choose Back up books, then a project and one, several or all books. A book's backup action preselects it. Review the contents and download the `.plotdirector` file. Common project definitions and required files travel with the selected story data. Dependencies that cannot safely be split require including connected books.

Keep backups private: they can contain prose, research, images and personal information. A successful download response does not prove the file is stored safely. Verify your local file before separately deleting online copies. Backups never automatically delete anything. Use the existing Archived Items Delete Forever action when you deliberately want to release a book's capacity; read its confirmation carefully and keep a tested local backup first.

Restore

Choose Restore books from backup, upload your file, select books and choose a new project or an existing project you own. Review slots, destination and shared-data handling, then confirm. Existing books and shared records are not overwritten. Known, unchanged source identities can reuse compatible shared records; conflicts create independent copies. Maps are restored as independent bundles. Destination project settings stay in place.

A repeated submission of the same confirmation records the same restore operation. To restore again after deliberately deleting those books, start a new preview. If the destination changes before confirmation, preview again.

Historical files and writing connections

Supported older project backups can be read with warnings. Data or uploaded-file bytes absent from an old file cannot be reconstructed. A current backup includes saved prose and author review/Intent decisions, not unsaved Word changes or your original `.docx` file.

Restored native review captures are historical and disconnected from live Word sessions. Server encryption keys, credentials, consent authority and active jobs are never replayed. Intent evidence can remain stale after identity remapping; author decisions stay available for review, and reassessment is explicit.

Other kinds of recovery

Saved Restore Points rewind the same project and create a safety snapshot first. They are separate from adding books from a downloaded backup. Unarchive only brings an existing book back into view.

Packages are limited to 64 MiB; choose fewer books if needed. Restore previews identify special files that must be recovered as binary downloads for safety. Their original bytes are preserved.

Word paragraph data

Current backups include saved Word paragraph identities, scene groupings, evidence passages and author review decisions. Books with this data use project snapshot format 1.5 inside book package 2.1. Older supported backups remain readable.

Restoring preserves paragraph, scene and evidence identities while remapping database references to the destination. Live Word sessions are not restored. Select the restored book in Companion and use Manuscript structure and evidence → Synchronise from Word; choose On Save there if you want subsequent saved changes synchronised automatically.