Backups and the data folder¶
Everything iopix writes lives in its data folder (DATA_DIR): /data in Docker, /opt/iopix/data with the installers, data/ in a checkout. It must not be inside your photo or digiKam folders; iopix refuses to start if it is.
What is in it¶
| Path | Contents | Safe to delete? |
|---|---|---|
viewer.db |
iopix's own database: accounts, settings, favorites, albums, edit log, AI results, its copy of the library (absent when on MariaDB) | no |
viewer-db.json |
where iopix's database is, when on MariaDB/MySQL | no |
index.db |
the search index, rebuilt in seconds | yes |
cache/ |
thumbnails, previews and face crops | yes |
embeddings*.npz |
content-search vectors | yes, recomputed |
models/, geonames/ |
downloaded models | yes, downloaded again |
secret |
signs session cookies; deleting it signs everyone out | yes |
sidecar-backups/ |
each sidecar as it was before iopix first changed it | your call |
file-backups/ |
each image file as it was before iopix first wrote into it | your call |
history/ |
sidecar copies for the edit log's Restore | your call |
deleted-photos/ |
photos deleted for good, with a record of what they were | your call |
db-backups/ |
copies of digiKam's database before destructive changes; the last 10 of each kind are kept | your call |
viewer.log |
iopix's own log | yes |
Sidecar and file backups are never deleted automatically. Allow disk space for them; Maintenance › Storage and backups shows how much each part takes.
Backing iopix up¶
Back up the data folder with the rest of your server, or use Maintenance › Storage and backups › Download a backup › iopix data, which gives iopix's database as SQLite plus the content-search index and the restore steps.
To restore: stop iopix, copy the files into the data folder, start it again.
Rolling back digiKam's database¶
iopix copies digiKam's database before destructive changes (deleting photos, deleting a tag, merging). To roll back, quit digiKam and copy a backup over digikam4.db, or restore the dump on MariaDB.