SQLite is a file based database. This makes common tasks like back-ups trivial.

A database backup is essentially a snapshot of the database's current state. This is a useful thing to have, just in case you need to restore a database to an old state. Depending on the activity on your app you may want to back it up frequently.

Backing up

Backing up an SQLite database is as simple as copying the file. On a linux box you do this with the cp command.

cp database.db backup_database_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).db

The above command copies the database to a new file that is timestamped. I like to use the following timestamp format YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.

Restoring from a back up

To restore an sqlite database from a back up. We just need to copy the copy to the original location.

Copy the copy? He has a way with words.

This is basically the reverse of the backup command.

cp backup_database_20250116_091422.db database.db

This replaces the current database with the backup, maintaining the backup for future use.