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Backups & restore

Automated cloud backups, USB exports, and step-by-step restore on a fresh device.

6 min read· Updated 2026-04-18

Cloud backups capture everything you’ve built on a Pi — menu, media, sequences, settings — and ship it to encrypted cloud storage so a dead SD card doesn’t mean lost work. You can restore a backup onto a new Pi in minutes, or back onto the same Pi after a factory reset.

What’s in a backup

IncludedNot included
Menu data — strains, categories, items, unit pricesReal-time display state (live playback position)
Media assets — uploaded images and videosHardware-specific calibration (TV vendor CEC cache)
Sequences and screen configurationOS-level state (Wi-Fi passwords, hostname, etc.)
Themes, templates, announcements, deals, educationYour Blazeboard account or license — those live on the cloud side
Compliance profiles, state disclosures
Audit log & settings

Automatic cloud backups

Schedule
Nightly at 2 AM, when the device is online
Storage
Encrypted cloud object storage
Transport-encrypted via HTTPS; at-rest encryption handled by the storage provider.
Retention
30 days
Older backups are auto-deleted. Download or restore anytime within that window.
Plan
Cloud plan required
Free-tier orgs can still back up to USB (see below) but cloud storage is part of the Cloud plan.
Size cap
10 GB per backup
Most customers are well under this. If you have lots of 4K source video, consider down-converting.

Backups are triggered by the Pi itself, not the cloud, so a store that’s offline at 2 AM simply misses that night’s backup — there’s no queue that piles up. The next time the Pi is online past 2 AM, nightly backups resume automatically.

Trigger a manual backup

Before making risky changes (bulk menu edits, swapping templates, testing a new sequence), trigger a backup so you have a clean rollback point.

  1. 1
    Open the Backups page

    Visit blazeboard.co/dashboard/backups.

  2. 2
    Pick the device

    If you have multiple Pis, select which one you want to back up. Only online devices can run a manual backup.

  3. 3
    Click “Back up now”

    The Pi starts the backup immediately. You’ll see its status go from pending → uploading → complete. Expect 30 seconds for small stores, a few minutes for stores with lots of media.

Restore a backup

Restoring overwrites the target Pi’s current database and media. Anything on the target that wasn’t in the backup will be lost — so restoration is a “blast and replace” operation, not a merge.

  1. 1
    Pick a backup from the list

    At /dashboard/backups, click a backup to see its details (size, date, source device).

  2. 2
    Pick a target device

    The target must be online. If you’re restoring to a brand-new Pi, get it on Wi-Fi first — see pair a Pi over Wi-Fi.

  3. 3
    Confirm

    We’ll ask you to type the device name to confirm. The Pi downloads the backup, swaps its database and media, and restarts the app container. Plan on ~5 minutes of downtime while the restore completes.

Plan & retention

  • Cloud plan: nightly automatic backups, 30-day retention, manual trigger, restore to any device in your org.
  • Free plan: no cloud backups, but USB exports and manual admin-side exports still work.
  • Retention: 30 days. Need longer? Open a ticket — enterprise plans have extended retention.
  • Add-on storage: if you’re hitting the 10 GB per-backup cap, additional storage is available as an add-on. Contact us for pricing.

Troubleshooting

  • Backup stuck in “pending”. Check that the device is online. If so, the network may have dropped mid-upload — it should retry on the next scheduled run, or you can manually retry.
  • Restore failed partway. The Pi reverts to the state it was in before the restore started (atomic swap). Open a ticket with the backup ID — we can usually tell you which file caused the failure.
  • Nightly backup not running. The Pi skips the run if offline. Verify the device is green in /dashboard/devices. Also check you’re on the Cloud plan — nightly auto-backups are part of that plan.
  • I can’t restore from a new Pi. The new Pi must be registered to the same org as the source. Fresh out-of-box Pis register automatically on first boot — if yours hasn’t appeared in the devices list, see pair a Pi over Wi-Fi.