Backing up the local store

No cloud sync means you back up maskwright-data. If the disk dies and you did not copy the store, the profiles are gone. We cannot restore them. This how-to is the operator’s job: copy the store, test the restore, and keep the copy off the work profiles.

The page lives in Privacy because a backup is a second cookie store.

What to copy

The whole maskwright-data directory: encrypted profiles.json plus every profiles/<uuid>/. Disk use explains why it is large. Close launched browsers first. Copying a live Chromium tree is how you get a corrupt backup.

Prefer an encrypted volume or a disk you control. Not a random Drive folder named “chrome backup.” That is emailing the session with extra steps.

How I restore

Install MaskWright. Stop it. Replace the store directory with the copy. Start it. Launch one profile. Confirm the login. If the hostname/username changed and you did not set MASKWRIGHT_STORE_KEY, the derived key may not open profiles.json. Set the same env var you used before, or restore onto the same Windows user. AES-256-GCM is unforgiving. That is the point.

Cookie-only restore: export/import cookies and localStorage. That is a partial session. Cookie-based session management is the definition. A full folder copy is the real backup.

What a backup is not

Not an audit log. No SIEM. Not ads. Ads in the dashboard and owned ad slots do not replicate your store. What leaves this machine: we do not hold a replica. You do, if you made one.

On Windows I copy to a BitLocker USB labeled with a date, then a second copy on a NAS that is not world-readable. I do not keep the only backup in the same laptop bag as the laptop. I test restore on a spare Windows user so I learn about MASKWRIGHT_STORE_KEY before the disk dies.

File History and OneDrive are easy and also how cookie trees land in a cloud you did not mean to use. If OneDrive is backing up Desktop and you parked a zip there, you synced the session. Exclude maskwright-data from consumer cloud folders unless you intended that landlord.

Size: Chromium caches bloat. Disk use is the sibling. I still copy the tree. A partial copy that misses the cookie DB is a fake backup.

Pushback I hear: “OneDrive is my backup.” Then you hired a cookie landlord named Microsoft unless you excluded maskwright-data. Consumer cloud folders are sync. We refused sync in the product so you would notice when you turn it on yourself. Encrypted USB plus a NAS you control is the boring version that still works.

FAQ

How often?

Whenever losing yesterday’s logins would hurt. Weekly is a minimum for money profiles.

Can I exclude cache to save space?

You can try. You can also miss a file Chromium expected. I copy the tree. Disk is cheaper than a mystery.

Will you offer cloud backup later?

That would be sync. Download MaskWright and own the copy.

Should I back up while a profile is running?

No. Quit Chromium first. A live tree copy is how you restore a mystery. The restore you never tested is still not a backup. Copy, then open it once on a spare user.

Exclude maskwright-data from OneDrive unless you intended that landlord. File History is easy and also a second copy you forgot.

The restore you never tested is not a backup. Copy the store. Open it once on purpose. Then you get to call the architecture local-first without pretending disks live forever.