Hello! I’m a beginner developer who started coding three months ago. My English isn’t great, but I carefully translate and study the guides while building the order-management app I need. I’m always grateful to the Retool team for creating such an excellent low-code app builder.
As I build my app in Retool, I have one concern: “What if the app I’ve worked so hard on gets deleted?” I worry about accidental actions—like clicking “Reset app state” by mistake, or “Replace app with JSON/ZIP” and overwriting my work.
I’ve been regularly using “Export to JSON” and “Export to Toolscript ZIP” to back things up. Would those methods alone be sufficient to fully restore my app later if needed?
I know this is a basic question, but I’m still new to app development and would appreciate your understanding. I’d be grateful to know whether these methods are enough for reliable backup and recovery. Thank you!
The short answer would be: Yes, the JSON files should be more than enough to restore apps in case they “get lost”, especially if you do the export frequently (every month or so).
HAve you tried re-importing them back to see how it works?
Hi @1_2, as @MiguelOrtiz mentioned, saving your app as a JSON is great idea if you want a copy of your app on your own.
It's worth also mentioning that you can always undo actions by looking in the "Releases and history" tab and clicking "History". Releases are a feature on paid plans but under the History you can see a list of changes you've made as well as how long ago you made them, which is helpful for undoing any accidental actions. This still works even if you replace your app with another JSON file. Also "Reset App State" is essentially like refreshing the page, which shouldn't be an issue unless you aren't persisting data into a database or localStorage.
Anyways, welcome to platform and feel free to come back to the community with any questions you might have! Happy building!