Backing Up Your Data
Aventurine does not back itself up. It has no cloud to put a copy in, which is the point — and the trade-off is that keeping a copy is your job.
The good news is that a backup is one file.
What to copy
Your database file. It ends in .db and holds everything: transactions, categories, accounts, statements, portfolio, credit cards, and everything the app has learned from you.
If you do not know where it is, the title bar shows its name, and File → Save Database As will show you the current folder.
How to back it up
Close Aventurine first, or at least stop editing. Copying a file while it is being written to is the one way to get an incomplete copy.
Then copy it wherever you keep backups — an external drive, another folder, a synced folder, an encrypted archive.
Some options:
A synced folder. Keep the database in a folder that syncs to a service you already use, and every change is copied automatically. If you do this, encrypt the database first — a synced file is a file sitting on somebody else’s computer.
A manual copy. Once a month, after your import, copy the file somewhere with the date in its name: finances-2026-07.db.
Save Database As. This creates a copy — but it also switches you to working in the copy, which is usually not what a backup should do. Use it when you want to move where you are working. Use a plain file copy for backups.
How often
At minimum, after each monthly import. That is when the file has changed and when losing it would cost you the most work.
Restoring
Copy the backup file back, then File → Open Database and point at it. That is the whole procedure.
You do not need to reinstall or reconfigure anything. The database carries your data; the app is just the program that reads it.
Backing up an encrypted database
The copy is encrypted too, and needs the same password. A backup you cannot unlock is not a backup — store the password somewhere you will still have it if the machine is gone.
What a backup does not include
Your display preferences — theme, currency symbol, date format, and so on live on the computer, not in the file. Restoring on a new machine gives you your data with default appearance settings.
The app itself — download it again if you need to.
Exports are not backups
The Export feature writes your transactions to a CSV or OFX file. That is useful for moving data into other software, but it is not a backup: it does not include your Balance Sheet, Portfolio, Credit Cards, categories, or learned rules.
Export for portability. Copy the file for safety.
A note on file damage
When Aventurine opens a database it checks the file first. If the file is damaged it says so and leaves your current database open rather than switching to something broken.
If that ever happens, restore your most recent backup. There is no repair tool, which is the honest reason to keep copies.
Related: Where Your Data Lives · Databases and Passwords · Exporting Your Data