Backups, your data file, and moving to a new PC

Everything in the Windows app lives in your own TallyMint folder on your own disk: accounts, transactions, budgets, bills, investments, all of it. Your ledger is encrypted there, and it is made of two files that belong together: the data file and a small key file beside it. So keeping your own copy, syncing to your own cloud, and carrying everything to a new computer all come down to the same rule, take the folder, not just the data file. This guide covers all three.

On TallyMint Web there is no file to manage. Your ledger lives in our database and backing it up is our job, not yours. There is nothing to copy to a new computer either: sign in and it is there. What still applies to you is the export: use Export to pull your whole ledger out as QIF or CSV any time you want your own copy, which is worth doing occasionally on principle. See subscriptions and billing for what happens to your data if a subscription ends.

Your ledger is two files, and they travel together. Beside your data file (TallyMint.db, unless you named it something else) sits a small key file with the same name plus .keyenv. The data file is encrypted; the key file holds the key to it, wrapped up so that only your master password, or your recovery key, can unwrap it. That is why a copy of the data file on its own is not a backup: without the key file beside it, nobody can ever open it again, including us. Copy the folder and you never have to think about this.

Where your data lives

When you create a file on first run, TallyMint puts it in Documents\TallyMint by default, but you choose where it lives. Many people keep that folder inside Google Drive or OneDrive so their own cloud service carries an off-machine copy, and that is fully supported. Sync the folder rather than picking out the data file, so the key file rides along with it. What lands in your cloud is encrypted and stays that way until someone opens it with your master password.

To open a different file (a second ledger, a restored backup, or a file you moved), use Settings > General > Open a different file. TallyMint remembers recent files so switching back is one click.

Automatic backups

Backups are on by default. Here is how they behave:

TallyMint takes a full copy of your ledger when you unlock it, at most once every 24 hours, so normal daily use produces a rolling daily history.
Backups go to a backups folder next to your data file unless you pick a different folder in Settings > Backups. Pointing backups at a cloud-synced folder is a good way to get off-machine copies.
TallyMint keeps the most recent 14 backups by default; the retention count is adjustable in Settings > Backups.
Want one right now (before a big import, say)? Settings > Backups > Create Backup Now.

Each backup is a complete, standalone copy of your ledger, encrypted exactly like the original, and it opens with the master password the file had when the backup was made.

Backups are written as .zip archives, named after your data file and stamped with the date and time. Inside each one is the data file and its key file, kept together so the pair cannot be separated by accident. Your backups folder may also hold backups as a loose pair of files, a .db with its .keyenv beside it; those are backups too, and they open directly. Either way, copy the whole backups folder rather than picking individual files out of it.

Restoring a backup

A backup is a copy of your ledger, so restoring is opening it. Go to Settings > Backups to see the list with their dates, or browse the backups folder directly, then:

From a .zip: right-click it in File Explorer and choose Extract All. You get a data file and its key file side by side, ready to use. Open the data file via Settings > General > Open a different file and check that it has what you expected. Extract somewhere of your own choosing, such as a new folder on your desktop, rather than into the backups folder itself.
From a loose .db: open it via Settings > General > Open a different file. Its key file is already beside it, so there is nothing to extract.
To adopt it permanently, simply keep using it. The ledger you opened is your ledger now, and TallyMint carries on backing it up from there. Do not copy a data file on top of your existing one: the key file already sitting next to that name belongs to the old ledger, not to the copy, and the pair no longer matches. If you want the original name back, close TallyMint, move the old ledger's files somewhere else, then rename the data file and its .keyenv file together.

Moving to a new computer

The whole move is three steps:

1. Install TallyMint on the new PC from the website or the Microsoft Store.
2. Copy your whole TallyMint folder over (USB stick, your cloud folder, however you like) and open the data file inside it via Settings > General > Open a different file, or just open TallyMint and point it at the file. Take the folder rather than picking out the data file on its own: the .keyenv file beside it is what makes the ledger openable, and a data file that arrives without it cannot be opened on the new machine, or on any machine. Your master password comes with the ledger; nothing about it changes on new hardware.
3. Enter your license key in Settings > License. A TallyMint license includes up to three machine activations, so a new PC alongside or replacing your old one is covered. If you ever run out of activations because of replaced hardware, email support@tallymint.app and we will sort it out.

Bank sync connections travel inside the file too; your SimpleFIN link keeps working on the new machine without a new token.

One honest warning: the master password

Your ledger and every backup of it are encrypted, and your master password is what opens them. The password itself is stored nowhere: not on our servers (we do not have servers with your data) and not on your disk. There is one way back in if you forget it, and it has to be set up in advance. Go to Settings > General > Recovery key and generate a recovery key: it is shown once, never stored anywhere, and it lets you back in and set a new password. Without one, a forgotten master password means nobody can open the data, including us.

So there are three jobs, and they cover different failures: keep the password somewhere safe like a password manager, generate a recovery key and keep it somewhere else safe, and keep backups. A backup protects you from disk failure; only the password or the recovery key protects you from lockout.

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