Paperless-NGX // Backup & Restore

Here is the procedure to backup and restore the Paperless-NGX application and all of its data.

Backup

On a terminal, enter the following command:

docker compose exec -T <paperless_webserver> document_exporter -z ../export

Where:

• -T is used to suppress "The input device is not a TTY" error ;
• -z is used to zip the export ;
• ../export is used because this path inside the container is automatically mounted on your host on the folder export.

Restore

You'll need to unzip the previous export!

On a terminal, enter the following command:

docker compose exec -T <paperless_webserver> document_importer ../export/<unzipped_directory>/

Where:

• -T is used to suppres "The device is not a TTY" error ;
• ../export/<unzipped_directory>/ is the path to your previous backup unzipped.