PesaTrack Get on Play

Updated 15 September 2026

Backup and restore

Export a full copy of your PesaTrack database and restore it on the same or a new device.

Why back up

PesaTrack stores everything on-device. That is a privacy feature — but it means you own the durability. If you factory-reset your phone or move to a new one, you need a backup to keep your history.

Creating a backup

  1. Open Settings → Backup & Restore → Create backup.
  2. Choose where to save: your phone’s local storage or a folder you have sync’d (Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.). PesaTrack does not upload — you control the destination.
  3. Confirm.

The backup is a single file containing the full Room database (all expenses, categories, budgets, learned recipient mappings) and DataStore preferences (budget cycle, PIN settings hashed).

Where the file goes

Backups are written under Android/data/com.pesatrack/files/backups/ on the phone unless you pick a different destination via the Android share sheet.

Filename format: pesatrack-backup-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM.pesatrack.

The file is not encrypted at rest. Treat it like any other financial document. If you sync it to Drive or share it, that copy is only as private as the destination you chose.

Restoring a backup

  1. On the target device, install PesaTrack from the Play Store.
  2. Open the app once so the database is initialised.
  3. Settings → Backup & Restore → Restore from file.
  4. Pick the .pesatrack file.
  5. Confirm the overwrite. Restoring replaces the current database entirely.

If the backup file was created on a newer version of PesaTrack than what is installed, update the app first — old versions may not understand new schema.

What the backup does not include

  • SMS content. PesaTrack never stores raw SMS; only the parsed transaction rows.
  • Firebase analytics history. The anonymous analytics identifier resets on install and is scoped to that install.
  • Your PIN or biometric secret. The salted PIN hash is included, but biometrics are re-enrolled per device by Android.

Automating

There is no auto-backup schedule yet. A weekly reminder to back up is on the roadmap. In the meantime, a good habit is: back up after any month-end review.