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Export and portability

An export is your whole book in one .zip file that any Open Net Worth install can load. Use it to move to a new computer, switch from a server to the desktop app (or back), or simply keep a copy of your data outside the app.

It’s different from a backup: a backup rolls this install back to an earlier point; an export carries your book into another install.

Export your book

Any of these saves the same file:

  • Settings → Data → Backup & restore → Export backup (.zip)
  • Desktop app: File → Export book… (⇧⌘E / CtrlShiftE), or Settings → Desktop → Your book → Export backup…. The desktop app asks where to save it; pick a place outside your book folder.

The file is named like open-net-worth-export-2026-10-10….zip.

What’s in it

  • Your ledger: accounts, transactions, categories, payees, budget, holdings and lots, owned assets, equity grants, commitments, goals and plans, watchlists and alerts.
  • Your files: attachments, receipt images, the statement files you imported, documents Lucius made for you, and your custom skills.
  • Lucius’s memory, your Automations (and their run history), and your chat history.
  • A manifest with a checksum for every part, so the import can tell if anything was damaged or altered.

What’s left out

  • Every credential: your login password, API token, connector passwords and keys, and AI provider key.
  • This install’s own settings: your AI provider and model choice, tool permissions, duplicate detection settings and backup settings.
  • Local working data: caches, logs and undo history.

Load an export into another install

On a brand-new install

  1. Install Open Net Worth on the new computer and open it.
  2. On the first setup screen, click I have a backup to restore. (Desktop app: if the app asks for a book folder, choose an empty one.)
  3. Under Choose a backup file, pick your export .zip.
  4. Check the preview — base currency, number of records and the main lists. Nothing has been written yet.
  5. Click Restore this backup. Setup then continues with connecting your AI provider.

Into an install you’ve already set up

  1. Open Settings → Data.
  2. Click Choose import file… (or Restore from a file instead… under the backup list — it does the same thing) and pick the export .zip.
  3. The import starts as soon as you pick the file — there’s no preview here — and the app reloads when it’s done (“Imported — reloading”).

It replaces everything. An import is not a merge: anything in this install that isn’t in the file is cleared. A checkpoint is saved first so the import can be undone, except that chat history replaced by an import can’t be brought back. Take a backup first (Back up now) if this install holds anything you want to keep.

After importing: reconnect

Credentials never travel, so on the new install:

  1. Connect your AI provider again (Settings → AI).
  2. Re-add each connector — email, Telegram, bank or brokerage sync, web search.
  3. Review Settings → Permissions and your backup settings.
  4. If other AI apps or phone shortcuts used your book, set them up again with the new install’s API token — see Use your book from other AI apps.

Safety checks

Before anything is written, the import checks the file:

  • every part is compared with its checksum in the manifest, and the file can only write to the places an export is allowed to;
  • the data is read and validated in full first, and your files are staged and verified before they replace the current ones — a damaged file stops the import with your book untouched;
  • only one import runs at a time.

Limits

  • An export made by a much older version can be refused: “This backup predates the seven-type account schema (2026-09-07)…”. Load it into a version from before that date, let it update, then export again.
  • The data part of an export (everything except attachments and other files) is limited to 200 MB in total. Attachments and files are limited only by free disk space.
  • Folder access for watched statement folders belongs to one computer and doesn’t travel.

Troubleshooting

“This file isn’t an Open Net Worth backup. Choose the .zip you exported from Settings → Data.” — you picked something other than an export (for example a downloaded backup, which can’t be loaded this way). Export from the old install and use that file.

“missing manifest.json” — the same: the file is a downloaded backup or another zip, not an export.

“schema_version mismatch” — the export is from an incompatible version; see Limits.

“an import is already in progress” — wait for the first one to finish.