Backing up application data

Backing up your Bisq data is crucial to ensure you can retain control over trades, disputes, payment accounts, and funds in case of issues with your machine (e.g., drive failure) or Bisq itself (e.g., critical bugs).

All Bisq data is stored right on your computer—it's never stored (or even sent) to a central server, so backing it up is your job.

To see how to restore data to Bisq, see Restoring application data.

Back up the entire Bisq data directory

The safest, quickest, easiest, and most comprehensive thing you can do to safeguard your data is to back up the whole data directory at regular intervals. See the various elements of the data directory detailed here.

In addition, to make restoring payment accounts easier, you may want to back up an export of your payment accounts.

While Bisq is running

Go to Account > Backup and put in a location for your backup to be exported to (note that this section is titled "Backup wallet" in the software but it actually exports the entire data directory).

Data directory backup screen.

While Bisq is closed

When Bisq is closed, you can simply copy the entire data directory and paste it somewhere safe. Find the location of your data directory by clicking on the Open Directory button (see screenshot above) or see data directory locations here.

Encrypt your backup

Backup files are not encrypted. If you’ve set a wallet password, your wallet files will be encrypted, but all your other data will not be encrypted.

We recommend encrypting the whole backup folder with something like gpg, 7-Zip, Cryptomator, etc.

Back up payment accounts

If you just want to back up your payment accounts, export them from Account > National Currency Accounts.

Be advised: exporting your accounts this way only exports metadata. Aging and signing status are not included. To include account aging and signing status, you also need to save the btc_mainnet/keys/sig.key file from your data directory.

Because of the way restoring payment accounts works, it's best for most users to back up the whole data directory and back up a payment account export.

Export fiat payment accounts here. You can export altcoin accounts from the Altcoin Accounts tab.

Back up your wallet seed

Please be sure to properly back up your wallet seed.

Export Tor state

If you want to carry over a particular onion address (and keep your local reputation), you can replace the btc_mainnet/tor/hiddenservice folder in your data directory with the one from your backup.

Export trade history

In Portfolio > History you'll find an Export to CSV button to export your trade history.

There's no way to import this data back into Bisq, but it can be useful to have a copy of this data for yourself for record-keeping, analysis, etc.

Export transaction history

In Funds > Transactions you'll find an Export to CSV button to export your trade history.

There's no way to import this data back into Bisq, but it can be useful to have a copy of this data for yourself for record-keeping, analysis, etc.