Backup and Restore

Regular backups protect your content from accidental deletion, platform issues, or migration needs. microfeed stores data in two Cloudflare services that you need to backup separately.

What to Backup

microfeed stores data in two locations:

D1 Database - SQLite database containing all metadata (channels, items, settings)
R2 Storage - Media files (audio, video, images, documents)

You need to backup both to have a complete copy of your microfeed instance.

Backing Up D1 Database

The D1 database contains all your content metadata. You’ll use Wrangler CLI to export it.

Prerequisites

Install Wrangler if you haven’t already:

npm install -g wrangler

Authenticate with Cloudflare:

wrangler login

List Your Databases

First, find your database name:

wrangler d1 list

You should see output like:

┌──────────────────────────────────────┬──────────┬─────────────┐
│ Database ID                          │ Name     │ Created     │
├──────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼─────────────┤
│ xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx │ FEED_DB  │ 2024-01-15  │
└──────────────────────────────────────┴──────────┴─────────────┘

The database is typically named FEED_DB.

Export Database

Export the entire database to a SQL file:

wrangler d1 export FEED_DB --output=microfeed-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

This creates a file like microfeed-backup-20260301.sql containing:

Complete database schema
All table data as SQL INSERT statements
Timestamps and metadata

Export Specific Table

To export only one table:

wrangler d1 execute FEED_DB --command "SELECT * FROM items" > items-backup.json

Verify Backup

Check that your backup file was created:

ls -lh microfeed-backup-*.sql

You should see the file size. For reference:

Small blog: ~100KB - 1MB
Medium podcast: 1MB - 10MB
Large site: 10MB+

Automated Backups

Create a backup script that runs daily:

#!/bin/bash
# backup-microfeed.sh

DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d)
BACKUP_DIR="$HOME/microfeed-backups"

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"

# Backup D1 database
wrangler d1 export FEED_DB --output="$BACKUP_DIR/db-$DATE.sql"

# Keep only last 30 days
find "$BACKUP_DIR" -name "db-*.sql" -mtime +30 -delete

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/db-$DATE.sql"

Make it executable:

chmod +x backup-microfeed.sh

Run it manually:

./backup-microfeed.sh

Or schedule it with cron (daily at 2 AM):

crontab -e

Add this line:

0 2 * * * /path/to/backup-microfeed.sh

Backing Up R2 Media Files

R2 stores all media files uploaded to your microfeed. You’ll use S3-compatible tools to download them.

Why R2 Backup is Important

As of February 2023, Cloudflare does not provide a built-in UI to browse or bulk download R2 files. You need to use S3-compatible APIs.

Using AWS CLI

The AWS CLI works with R2’s S3-compatible API.

Install AWS CLI

# macOS
brew install awscli

# Linux
sudo apt-get install awscli

# or use pip
pip install awscli

Configure AWS CLI for R2

Create an AWS profile for R2:

aws configure --profile r2

Enter your R2 credentials:

AWS Access Key ID: [your R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID]
AWS Secret Access Key: [your R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY]
Default region name: auto
Default output format: json

Download All Files

Sync your entire R2 bucket to a local directory:

aws s3 sync s3://your-bucket-name ./microfeed-media \
  --endpoint-url https://[account-id].r2.cloudflarestorage.com \
  --profile r2

Replace:

your-bucket-name with your R2 bucket name (from .vars.toml or GitHub secrets)
[account-id] with your Cloudflare account ID

List Files

To see what’s in your bucket:

aws s3 ls s3://your-bucket-name \
  --endpoint-url https://[account-id].r2.cloudflarestorage.com \
  --profile r2

Using rclone

rclone is another powerful tool for syncing cloud storage.

Install rclone

# macOS
brew install rclone

# Linux
curl https://rclone.org/install.sh | sudo bash

Configure rclone for R2

rclone config

Follow the prompts:

Name: r2
Type: s3
Provider: Cloudflare
access_key_id: [your R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID]
secret_access_key: [your R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY]
endpoint: https://[account-id].r2.cloudflarestorage.com

Sync R2 to Local

rclone sync r2:your-bucket-name ./microfeed-media

Automated R2 Backup Script

#!/bin/bash
# backup-r2.sh

DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d)
BACKUP_DIR="$HOME/microfeed-backups/media-$DATE"
BUCKET="your-bucket-name"
ACCOUNT_ID="your-account-id"

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"

aws s3 sync "s3://$BUCKET" "$BACKUP_DIR" \
  --endpoint-url "https://$ACCOUNT_ID.r2.cloudflarestorage.com" \
  --profile r2

echo "R2 backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR"

Scripted Backup Example

Here’s a Python script to backup R2 files:

import boto3
import os
from datetime import datetime

# Configuration
R2_ACCESS_KEY = os.environ['R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID']
R2_SECRET_KEY = os.environ['R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY']
ACCOUNT_ID = os.environ['CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID']
BUCKET_NAME = 'your-bucket-name'
BACKUP_DIR = f'./microfeed-media-{datetime.now().strftime("%Y%m%d")}'

# Create S3 client for R2
s3 = boto3.client(
    's3',
    endpoint_url=f'https://{ACCOUNT_ID}.r2.cloudflarestorage.com',
    aws_access_key_id=R2_ACCESS_KEY,
    aws_secret_access_key=R2_SECRET_KEY
)

# Create backup directory
os.makedirs(BACKUP_DIR, exist_ok=True)

# List and download all objects
paginator = s3.get_paginator('list_objects_v2')
pages = paginator.paginate(Bucket=BUCKET_NAME)

for page in pages:
    if 'Contents' in page:
        for obj in page['Contents']:
            key = obj['Key']
            local_path = os.path.join(BACKUP_DIR, key)
            
            # Create directories if needed
            os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(local_path), exist_ok=True)
            
            # Download file
            print(f'Downloading {key}...')
            s3.download_file(BUCKET_NAME, key, local_path)

print(f'Backup completed: {BACKUP_DIR}')

Run it:

python backup-r2.py

Restoring from Backup

Restore D1 Database

To restore a D1 database from a backup:

wrangler d1 execute FEED_DB --file=microfeed-backup-20260301.sql

Warning: This will overwrite existing data. Make sure you want to restore before running.

Restore Specific Records

If you only need to restore specific items, edit the SQL file to keep only the relevant INSERT statements, then run:

wrangler d1 execute FEED_DB --file=partial-restore.sql

Restore R2 Files

To restore media files back to R2:

aws s3 sync ./microfeed-media s3://your-bucket-name \
  --endpoint-url https://[account-id].r2.cloudflarestorage.com \
  --profile r2

Or with rclone:

rclone sync ./microfeed-media r2:your-bucket-name

Backup Best Practices

Frequency

Daily backups for active sites
Weekly backups for infrequently updated sites
Before major changes (always backup before updates)

Storage Locations

Store backups in multiple locations:

Local machine - Fast access, but vulnerable to hardware failure
External drive - Offline backup protection
Cloud storage - AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, Dropbox, etc.
Version control - Git for database schema (not full data)

Retention Policy

Keep backups for:

Daily backups: 7 days
Weekly backups: 4 weeks
Monthly backups: 12 months
Yearly backups: Indefinitely

Testing Restores

Regularly test your backups:

Restore to a test environment
Verify data integrity
Check that media files load correctly
Confirm feed generation works

Test at least once per quarter.

Migration to Another Platform

If you need to migrate away from Cloudflare:

Export D1 database - You’ll have a standard SQLite database
Download R2 files - S3-compatible tools work with any platform
Convert data - Write scripts to transform data for your new platform
Import to new system - Most CMSs support SQL imports

The SQLite format and S3 compatibility make microfeed data portable.

Support

If you encounter issues with backups:

Get Started

Installation

Core Features

Configuration

Advanced

Backup and Restore

What to Backup

Backing Up D1 Database

Prerequisites

List Your Databases

Export Database

Export Specific Table

Verify Backup

Automated Backups

Backing Up R2 Media Files

Why R2 Backup is Important

Using AWS CLI

Install AWS CLI

Configure AWS CLI for R2

Download All Files

List Files

Using rclone

Install rclone

Configure rclone for R2

Sync R2 to Local

Automated R2 Backup Script

Scripted Backup Example

Restoring from Backup

Restore D1 Database

Restore Specific Records

Restore R2 Files

Backup Best Practices

Frequency

Storage Locations

Retention Policy

Testing Restores

Migration to Another Platform

Support

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get Started

Installation

Core Features

Configuration

Advanced

​What to Backup

​Backing Up D1 Database

​Prerequisites

​List Your Databases

​Export Database

​Export Specific Table

​Verify Backup

​Automated Backups

​Backing Up R2 Media Files

​Why R2 Backup is Important

​Using AWS CLI

​Install AWS CLI

​Configure AWS CLI for R2

​Download All Files

​List Files

​Using rclone

​Install rclone

​Configure rclone for R2

​Sync R2 to Local

​Automated R2 Backup Script

​Scripted Backup Example

​Restoring from Backup

​Restore D1 Database

​Restore Specific Records

​Restore R2 Files

​Backup Best Practices

​Frequency

​Storage Locations

​Retention Policy

​Testing Restores

​Migration to Another Platform

​Support

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

What to Backup

Backing Up D1 Database

Prerequisites

List Your Databases

Export Database

Export Specific Table

Verify Backup

Automated Backups

Backing Up R2 Media Files

Why R2 Backup is Important

Using AWS CLI

Install AWS CLI

Configure AWS CLI for R2

Download All Files

List Files

Using rclone

Install rclone

Configure rclone for R2

Sync R2 to Local

Automated R2 Backup Script

Scripted Backup Example

Restoring from Backup

Restore D1 Database

Restore Specific Records

Restore R2 Files

Backup Best Practices

Frequency

Storage Locations

Retention Policy

Testing Restores

Migration to Another Platform

Support