Restore from a Backup
| Article Metadata | |
|---|---|
| Category | Your Data & Backups |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Target OS | Windows · macOS (coming soon) |
| Summary | Bring a project back from a backup .zip. |
A Cicero backup is a .zip with one project folder inside. Restoring means unzipping it and pointing Cicero at that folder.
Restore a project
Section titled “Restore a project”-
Find your backup file (for example,
my-novel-backup-2026-11-03.zip). -
Right-click it → Extract All… → choose a location, such as
Documents\Cicero Projects(macOS:Documents/Cicero Projects) → Extract.Extract it to a new location. Don’t extract over a project folder you’re still using.
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In Cicero, open the Project Hub → click Open Project.
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Click Choose Folder… → open the extracted folder → select the project folder inside it (the one that contains
project.db) → click Select Folder.
The project appears in your grid with everything restored: sheets, lore, relations, images, and project details.
If something goes wrong
Section titled “If something goes wrong”“This folder doesn’t look like a Cicero project. No project.db found.”
You selected a folder one level too high. Open the extracted folder and select the folder inside it, the one containing project.db.
“… is already in your Projects list.” That exact folder is already in your Project Hub. To keep both the current version and the backup, extract the backup to a different location first.
For any other message, see A Project Won’t Open.
Restoring an older version alongside the current one
Section titled “Restoring an older version alongside the current one”You can have both listed in the Project Hub at once. They’ll have the same name, so rename the restored copy: right-click its card → Edit → change the Project Name (for example, add (restored Nov 3)).