The backup script on the plank website is not working

[UhlhornHH]

I found a backup script on the website:
Planka: Backup & Restore
But the script doesn't work because it contains errors. It tries to copy a folder named /app/public/favicons, which doesn't exist.

Exporting favicons ... cp: cannot stat '/app/public/favicons': No such file or directory

972c9bbe2dec:/app$ ls public/
asset-manifest.json        index.html                 logo512.png                project-background-images  static
favicon.ico                logo192.png                manifest.json              robots.txt                 user-avatars

 
The following script runs on my system and it runs without a temporary Ubuntu container:

#!/bin/bash

# Stop on Error
set -e

# Configure those to match your PLANKA Docker container names
PLANKA_DOCKER_CONTAINER_POSTGRES="planka-postgres-1"
PLANKA_DOCKER_CONTAINER_PLANKA="planka-planka-1"

# Create Temporary folder
BACKUP_DATETIME=$(date --utc +%FT%H-%M-%SZ)
BACKUP_DIR="$BACKUP_DATETIME-backup"
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"

# Dump DB into SQL File
echo -n "Exporting postgres database ... "
docker exec -t "$PLANKA_DOCKER_CONTAINER_POSTGRES" \
  pg_dumpall -c -U postgres > "$BACKUP_DIR/postgres.sql"
echo "Success!"

# Helper function for safe copy
safe_copy() {
  local container_path=$1
  local target_path=$2
  local label=$3

  echo -n "Exporting $label ... "
  if docker exec "$PLANKA_DOCKER_CONTAINER_PLANKA" test -e "$container_path"; then
    docker cp "$PLANKA_DOCKER_CONTAINER_PLANKA:$container_path" "$target_path"
    echo "Success!"
  else
    echo "Skipped (not found)"
  fi
}

# Export files/directories safely
safe_copy "/app/public/favicon.ico" "$BACKUP_DIR/favicon.ico" "favicon"
safe_copy "/app/public/user-avatars" "$BACKUP_DIR/user-avatars" "user-avatars"
safe_copy "/app/public/project-background-images" "$BACKUP_DIR/project-background-images" "project-background-images"
safe_copy "/app/private/attachments" "$BACKUP_DIR/attachments" "attachments"

# Create tgz
echo -n "Creating final tarball $BACKUP_DATETIME-backup.tgz ... "
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DATETIME-backup.tgz" -C "$BACKUP_DIR" .
echo "Success!"

# Remove source files
echo -n "Cleaning up temporary files and folders ... "
rm -rf "$BACKUP_DIR"
echo "Success!"

echo "Backup Complete!"

(ChatGPT wrote this script for me.)

And here is the restore script, which I have not yet tried myself:

#!/bin/bash

# Stop on Error
set -e

# Configure to match your PLANKA Docker container names
PLANKA_DOCKER_CONTAINER_POSTGRES="planka-postgres-1"
PLANKA_DOCKER_CONTAINER_PLANKA="planka-planka-1"

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
  echo "Usage: $0 <backup-file.tgz>"
  exit 1
fi

BACKUP_TGZ="$1"

if [ ! -f "$BACKUP_TGZ" ]; then
  echo "Backup file $BACKUP_TGZ not found!"
  exit 1
fi

# Create temporary folder
RESTORE_DIR="restore-tmp"
mkdir -p "$RESTORE_DIR"

echo -n "Extracting backup archive ... "
tar -xzf "$BACKUP_TGZ" -C "$RESTORE_DIR"
echo "Success!"

# Restore database
if [ -f "$RESTORE_DIR/postgres.sql" ]; then
  echo -n "Restoring postgres database ... "
  cat "$RESTORE_DIR/postgres.sql" | docker exec -i "$PLANKA_DOCKER_CONTAINER_POSTGRES" psql -U postgres
  echo "Success!"
else
  echo "Skipped postgres restore (no postgres.sql found)"
fi

# Helper function for safe restore
safe_restore() {
  local source_path=$1
  local container_path=$2
  local label=$3

  echo -n "Restoring $label ... "
  if [ -e "$source_path" ]; then
    docker cp "$source_path" "$PLANKA_DOCKER_CONTAINER_PLANKA:$container_path"
    echo "Success!"
  else
    echo "Skipped ($source_path not found)"
  fi
}

# Restore files/directories
safe_restore "$RESTORE_DIR/favicon.ico" "/app/public/favicon.ico" "favicon"
safe_restore "$RESTORE_DIR/user-avatars" "/app/public/user-avatars" "user-avatars"
safe_restore "$RESTORE_DIR/project-background-images" "/app/public/project-background-images" "project-background-images"
safe_restore "$RESTORE_DIR/attachments" "/app/private/attachments" "attachments"

# Cleanup
echo -n "Cleaning up temporary files ... "
rm -rf "$RESTORE_DIR"
echo "Success!"

echo "Restore Complete!"

⚠️ Important:

• Before restoring, you should stop the containers or run Planka in maintenance mode to avoid inconsistencies.
• Restoring the database (psql < postgres.sql) overwrites all content—i.e., everything that has happened since the backup will be lost.

[meltyshev]

Hey! Thanks for reporting.

I think the issue might be that your version of PLANKA doesn't match with the backup/restore script (for example, favicons were added only in v2).

If you're using v1, you can also try these scripts (container names should be changed):
https://github.com/plankanban/planka/blob/ad7fb51cfad0e1835f655413459b7ca250eb0a31/docker-backup.sh
https://github.com/plankanban/planka/blob/ad7fb51cfad0e1835f655413459b7ca250eb0a31/docker-restore.sh

[UhlhornHH]

I updated my version of Planka just before creating the script. It is now at version 1.26.3. If there is already a version 2, why wasn't it updated?

[UhlhornHH]

Ah, okay, I see that v2 is currently a release candidate and not yet a productive version.