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Scout can download a snapshot from Station, decrypt it with its own key, and extract it back into the job’s folder.
Restore overwrites local files that are also in the snapshot. Files that aren’t in the snapshot are left untouched. Check the preview before confirming.

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Restore the latest snapshot

1

Open Restore

On the job in Selected Jobs, click Restore.
2

Leave the fingerprint empty

An empty Snapshot fingerprint means the latest snapshot.
3

Preview

Click Preview Restore. Scout shows how many files the snapshot has, and how many would replace existing files or be added.
4

Confirm

Click Restore These Files to write the files into the job’s folder. Search and the All, Replace, and Add filters only change what the preview shows. They don’t pick a subset to restore.
Scout restore preview with Add and Replace file actions and a Restore These Files button

Restore preview showing one missing file to add and one local file to replace.

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Restore a specific snapshot

Each snapshot’s fingerprint is part of its filename on Station, and is shown as FP next to each snapshot in Station’s UI:
Enter those eight characters (or the full 64-character fingerprint) in Snapshot fingerprint, then preview and confirm as above. Forced backups can share a fingerprint. When several snapshots match, Scout restores the newest. To get an older one, use its Download button in Station instead. A job can only restore its own snapshots. You can’t restore one job’s snapshot into another job’s folder.

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Requirements

  • Scout must be able to reach Station, with a valid credential.
  • Scout must have the same encryption key that encrypted the snapshot. If it doesn’t, the restore fails with “unable to decrypt snapshot with this Scout key”.
After you rotate the key, Scout can no longer restore snapshots made with the old key, and Station’s UI stops accepting the old key after Scout’s next upload. Download any older snapshots you need before rotating.

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Rebuilding a lost machine

Scout only restores snapshots belonging to its own instance ID, which is stored in config/installation.id. A fresh install gets a new instance ID, so it can’t restore the old machine’s snapshots through Scout on its own. If you have the old Scout’s whole config folder (it includes installation.id, encryption.key, and the saved settings and credential):
1

Put the config folder back

Place it next to docker-compose.yml before starting Scout for the first time.
2

Use the same Scout ID

Set SCOUT_ID to the old value in .env.
3

Recreate the job and restore

Create the job with the same job name, then use Restore.
If you only have encryption.key, download the snapshots from Station’s UI with that key, and extract them by hand:
Backing up Scout’s whole config folder, not just the key, makes this much easier.