Restore Lost Content
You deleted a note you needed. A bulk reorganize went sideways. A teammate cleared out the wrong folder. Basic Memory Cloud has two recovery tiers — pick the one that matches what you lost.
| Lost what? | Use |
|---|---|
| One note, recent edits | File history — open the note and roll back from its version timeline |
| A folder, a project, or older content | Snapshots — find a snapshot from before the change and restore from it |
Start with File history if you can — it's faster and works without leaving the note. Drop to Snapshots when the change is bigger than a single note or older than the note's recent history.
File history
File history is per-note. Every save creates a new version, so you can step back to any earlier state of a single note without touching anything else.
Open the note
Find and open the note in the web app. (If the note itself was deleted, skip ahead to Snapshots.)
Open File history
Click the File history icon (clock) in the note's toolbar.
Pick the version you want
Select a version from the timeline on the left. The diff on the right shows it side-by-side with the current note.
Restore it
Use the > revert controls in the diff to bring back exactly what you need (or just edit the right-side draft manually), then click Apply. This saves the merged content as a new version — your existing history stays intact.
See File History for the full reference, including who can apply and what to do if Apply is disabled.
Snapshots
Snapshots are workspace-wide point-in-time backups. Use them when you need to roll back more than one note — a deleted folder, a botched reorganization, or a project you wish you hadn't deleted.
1. Find a snapshot from before the loss
You need a snapshot that contains the content as it was before the deletion or change.
bm cloud snapshot list
Settings → Snapshots
Pick the most recent snapshot with a timestamp before the change you regret. Note its ID (a UUID) — you'll use it in the restore step.
2. Look inside the snapshot
Before restoring, peek at what the snapshot actually contains — it saves a step if it turns out the file isn't there.
# List everything in the snapshot
bm cloud snapshot browse <snapshot-id>
# List a specific folder
bm cloud snapshot browse <snapshot-id> --prefix my-project/notes/
# Show snapshot metadata
bm cloud snapshot show <snapshot-id>
The web app's snapshot browser does the same thing under Settings → Snapshots — select the workspace, then the snapshot.
3. Restore
Restore is targeted — you pick the file, folder, or project you want back, not the whole snapshot.
A single note
bm cloud restore my-project/notes/important.md --snapshot <snapshot-id>
Or in the web app: browse the snapshot, find the file, choose Restore.
A folder
bm cloud restore my-project/research/ --snapshot <snapshot-id>
Restores everything under that path as it existed in the snapshot.
A whole project
If you lost most of a project — or deleted it — restore the project root:
bm cloud restore <project-name>/ --snapshot <snapshot-id>
4. Verify
After the restore, open the affected notes in the app and confirm they look right. Spot-check a few:
- File content matches what you expected.
- Frontmatter intact (tags, type, status).
- Wikilinks resolve to the right targets.
If the restore didn't get you everything, try a different snapshot — there may be a more recent one that still has the content but also includes other changes you want to keep.
What if I deleted a whole project?
You can recover a deleted project the same way: find a snapshot from before the deletion, browse its <project-name>/ path, and restore the project root. The CLI is the most direct path here:
bm cloud snapshot list
bm cloud snapshot browse <snapshot-id> --prefix my-project/
bm cloud restore my-project/ --snapshot <snapshot-id>
Restore recreates the project entry automatically if it's missing — after restoring, open Settings → Projects to confirm the project reappeared.
What if the snapshot is too old?
If no snapshot predates the loss — the content was created and deleted between snapshots, or the change is very old — two backstops:
- Local sync copy. If you had cloud sync set up, your local folder is an independent copy. Check there.
- A project ZIP download. If you'd previously downloaded the project as a ZIP (Settings → Projects → the project's
⋮menu → Download), unpack it locally and re-upload to the project.
For ongoing safety: take a manual snapshot before any change you might want to roll back. They're free and instant.
bm cloud snapshot create "Before reorganizing research/"
Still stuck? Contact support
If you've lost content and no snapshot or backstop covers it, don't give up — Basic Memory runs nightly backups of cloud data independently of your snapshots, and we may be able to recover it for you.
Email support@basicmemory.com — or use the feedback button in the app's lower-left navbar — with your account email, the workspace and project, roughly when the content was lost, and what it was. See Contact Support for what else to include.
Related
- File History — per-note version timeline and diff/merge restore
- Cloud Snapshots — the full snapshot reference (creation, browsing, restore, CLI options)
- Cloud Sync — a synced local folder gives you a local backstop
- Copy Content Between Workspaces — for restoring from a downloaded project ZIP
- CLI Reference — every
bm cloud snapshotcommand