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Station’s main page, Stored Snapshots, lists every Scout, each of its instances, their jobs, and each job’s snapshots. The newest snapshot of each job is tagged latest.
Station snapshot list showing a Scout instance, decryption key controls, and Download and Delete buttons

An expanded Scout instance with a stored snapshot in a local demo deployment.

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How snapshots are stored

Each snapshot is one encrypted tar.zst file in Station’s backup folder:
The fingerprint in the filename is the first eight characters of Scout’s path-and-size fingerprint. You can use it to restore a matching snapshot from Scout, but multiple snapshots can share it.

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Download a snapshot

Click Download on a snapshot. The first time, Station asks for that Scout’s encryption key.
Your browser does the decrypting, so open Station over HTTPS or through localhost. A plain HTTP address on your network won’t work.
1

Copy the key from Scout

In Scout’s UI, find Encryption Key and click Copy. See Encryption key.
2

Paste it into Station

Paste it when Station prompts. Station checks it against the key fingerprint that Scout reported, so a wrong key is caught before decryption starts.
3

Save the file

The snapshot is decrypted in your browser as it downloads, and saved as a regular tar.zst archive.
The key stays in that browser tab and is never sent to Station’s server. Clear removes it. Signing out, an expired session, or closing the tab clears every saved key. To extract the downloaded archive:
To put files back on the original machine, restore from Scout instead. It downloads, decrypts, and extracts for you.

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Delete a snapshot

Click Delete on a snapshot and confirm. This permanently removes the file.

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Retention

After each upload, Station keeps the most recent snapshots for that job and Scout instance and deletes older ones. Keep Last Snapshots in Edit Station Settings sets how many (default 3). Scout instances never prune each other’s snapshots, even if they share a SCOUT_ID. Age is judged by each file’s modification time, so keep those times when copying archives back into the backup folder.

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Unusual sizes

Station remembers the size of each job’s last 20 uploads. When a new archive is less than half or more than double the job’s usual size, and far outside its normal range, the snapshot gets an unusual size badge. Hover over it to see why, for example:
This archive is 39.1 KB, but this job’s archives are usually about 979.0 KB.
Station also sends an ntfy alert and passes the reason to the post hook. The check needs 5 earlier uploads and can be turned off with Unusual uploads in Edit Station Settings. Station only sees archive sizes, and by the time an archive arrives it has already left Scout, so it can flag but not hold. Scout’s own checks are stronger and can hold a backup before it uploads. See Unusual backups.

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Integrity checks

Station can re-check stored snapshots with SHA-256 to catch files corrupted or changed on disk. Each check covers the latest snapshot of every job, not the full history.
  • Run Now: start a check from the integrity bar on the snapshots page.
  • Scheduled: set Snapshot Integrity Check Interval (hours) in Edit Station Settings. 0 turns scheduled checks off.
Station reads the check interval when it starts. After changing it, restart Station: docker compose restart station.
The bar shows the latest result and when it ran. Results reset when Station restarts. Snapshots without a recorded checksum are skipped. A passing check confirms the stored bytes are intact, not that you still have the key to decrypt them.