Pancake Stack › Pancake Stack Manual

Back up a site's files and databases in one click or every day, restore them, copy them off-site encrypted, and move sites between Macs with Pancake Cloud.

12.1Back up and restore

The Backups pane lists every site with its last backup.

• Back Up saves the site's folder and its databases (MySQL, and PostgreSQL on FullStack) as one file in Pancake's storage. Back Up All Now does every site.
• Restore… puts the latest backup back. The site's current folder goes to the Trash first, and Pancake takes a save point, so even a restore can be undone.

Start All before backing up: with the servers stopped, a backup holds the files only, and Pancake says so.

12.2Daily backups

With Advanced on, the Schedule section has:

• Back up every day while Pancake is open: each site is backed up once it's more than a day since its last backup.
• Keep the newest N backups of each site: 14 unless you change it. Older ones are removed.
• Show backups folder.

All backups lists every backup with its date and size, and Restore…, Show and Delete (to the Trash) for each.

12.3Save points

Save points are named copies, made from the clock button on a site's card, and kept apart from the daily backups (the newest 20 of each site). Pancake makes them by itself before risky changes. See Save points.

12.4Off-site copies

FullStack Copy every backup to your own storage bucket, encrypted on your Mac first.

1. In Backups (Advanced), under Off-site copies, choose the Storage: Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, Wasabi or Other S3-compatible.
2. Fill in the bucket, region (or R2 account ID, or server), a folder in the bucket, and an access key limited to that bucket (read, write, list and delete).
3. Click Test, then Save, and turn on Copy every backup off-site.
4. Click Recovery Key… and keep the key in your password manager.

After each backup, new backups are encrypted and copied. Keep the newest N copies of each site there is 30 unless you change it. Your storage only ever sees scrambled files, and your provider bills you for the space.

On another Mac: set up the same bucket, open Recovery Key…, paste the key under Use the key from another Mac and click Use This Key. Then Download a backup from In the bucket and restore it from the list.

12.5Pancake Cloud

Pancake Cloud saves a site (files and databases), encrypted with your passphrase, to storage you own, and loads it back here or on another Mac. Saving is TallStack; loading works on every plan.

1. In the Backups pane, under Pancake Cloud, click Set Up….
2. Choose where to Save to:
   • My own server (SFTP): a server, user, password and folder (PancakeCloud unless you change it);
   • S3-compatible bucket: the same providers as off-site copies;
   • iCloud Drive: Pancake's own folder in your iCloud Drive, which your other Macs signed in to the same iCloud can see.
3. Choose a passphrase of at least 10 characters, and whether to Remember on this Mac (Keychain).
4. Click Test, then Save.
5. Click Save All to Cloud, or pick one site from Save a Site.

To bring a site back, click Load… next to it. If the site exists on this Mac, it's replaced (its current state is kept as a save point first). If it doesn't, Pancake creates it, offline, with the backup's files and databases. Each site keeps its newest 5 cloud backups unless you change it.