Backing Up Your ShopFactory Project

One of ShopFactory's key advantages is that your shop project is stored locally on your own computer - giving you full control over your data. However, this also means that keeping regular backups is your responsibility, and it's a critical one.

Hard drives fail, computers get stolen, files become corrupted, and disasters happen. A proper backup strategy ensures that none of these events can permanently destroy your business data.

Important: Your published online shop is not a backup. It only contains "runtime" files and cannot be used to restore your project.

The 3-2-1 Backup Rule

Follow this simple but effective strategy:

• 3 copies of your data - so no single event can destroy everything

• 2 different storage types - such as an external drive and a cloud service

• 1 copy offsite - to protect against fire, flood, or theft

Where Is Your Shop Project Stored?

By default, ShopFactory saves your projects here:

If you chose a custom location when setting up ShopFactory, navigate there instead.

Method A: Backup Your Existing Shop Project

This is the quickest way to create a backup of your current shop.

1. Close ShopFactory if it is currently running.

2. Open Windows File Explorer and navigate to your shop project folder (see paths above).

3. Right-click on your shop project folder and select Send To > Compressed (zipped) Folder. This creates a single, smaller zip file that is easy to store and transfer.

4. Once zipping is complete, a .zip file will appear in the same location.

5. Copy the zip file to an external hard drive, USB drive, or cloud storage service.

Method B: Save As a New Version Before Backing Up

This method is useful when you want to create a dated snapshot of your shop - for example, before making major changes.

1. Open your shop in ShopFactory.

2. Click File > Save As... and enter a name that includes the date, for example: myshop_2024-11-15. This makes it easy to identify the most recent version later.

3. Click Save, then close ShopFactory.

4. Open Windows File Explorer and navigate to your shop folder.

5. Right-click the newly saved project folder and select Send To > Compressed (zipped) Folder.

6. Once complete, copy the zip file to your external drive or cloud storage.

Transferring Your Shop to Another Computer

If you need to move your shop to a different machine - for example a home computer or a new work PC - follow these steps.

Before you start: Make sure ShopFactory is installed on the new computer. If it isn't, download and install it from shopfactory.com.

1. Plug in the external drive or USB stick containing your zip file.

2. Open Windows File Explorer on the new computer and navigate to: C:\ShopFactory\ShopFactory V14 Websites

3. Copy the zip file into this folder.

4. Right-click the zip file and select Extract Here.

5. Once extracted, open the shop project folder and double-click the .sfc file to open it directly in ShopFactory. Alternatively, open ShopFactory first and use File > Open to browse to the folder manually.

Backups take only a few minutes but can save you countless hours of lost work. Make it a habit to back up your shop after every significant update.