Where your data lives. Export and import
This is the most important article in the whole Help, and it is short. Until you create an account, every transaction, account and category you have lives in this browser's storage on this device. Nowhere else. We do not see them, they never reach our server, and we have nothing to restore them from — we never had them.
So your records disappear if you:
- clear site data, or clear history “including data”, in your browser settings;
- run a third-party cleaner over the browser;
- open the app in a private window — there it starts from scratch every time;
- lose or reset the device.
Hence one rule: export. The backup file is the only copy that survives a browser cleanup. If this data matters to you, export once a week and keep the file somewhere you will find it: a cloud drive, an email to yourself, another device.
Settings also has “Protect storage”. That button asks the browser not to evict our data when the device runs out of room — useful, but it will not save you from your own cleanup. The only real backup is the file.
“Export data” downloads a single .json file with the date in its name, holding all transactions, accounts, categories and sources. Under the button you see when you last made a backup — if it is empty or the date is old, that is your answer to “should I do it now”.
“Import data” reads such a file back. It matters that import does not add to what you have — it replaces it entirely: whatever is in the browser now is erased and replaced by the contents of the file. That is why the app first shows what is inside the file and asks you to confirm.
A foreign file will not be accepted: if it is not a Ko-Ko Money backup, if it is corrupted, or if it was made by a newer version of the app, the import refuses and says what is wrong instead of quietly ruining your data.
While the free beta runs, export and import are available to everyone, account or not. That is how it should be: your right to take your own data with you must not depend on a subscription.