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[GH-ISSUE #5794] [Bug]: "Export data" apparently can silently fail #92129
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Originally created by @kcollett on GitHub (Sep 26, 2025).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/issues/5794
Verified issue does not already exist?
What happened?
I periodically use the "Export data" button under Settings to make a backup of my AB data. Looking at the sizes of the resulting ZIP files, it seems like this is silently failing. So, two problems: 1) failures in "Export data" should be reported and 2) whatever is causing "Export data" to fail.
This is a screenshot of the directory where I stash the ZIP files that "Export data" produces:
How can we reproduce the issue?
Not sure beyond using "Export data".
Where are you hosting Actual?
Pikapods
What browsers are you seeing the problem on?
Microsoft Edge
Operating System
Windows 11
@youngcw commented on GitHub (Sep 26, 2025):
Are you assuming that the export failed because the file sizes are different? Have you tried importing those files to see if they actually are bad files?
@kcollett commented on GitHub (Sep 26, 2025):
That's a reasonable experiment, but I'm not willing to risk losing data to try it. Part of what is making me hesitant is I don't know which files are the outliers; are the 1MBish files complete and the 16M files bloated for some reason that was changed in the last week or so, or are the 16 MBish files the correct representation of my data and the 1MBish files missing something.
@youngcw commented on GitHub (Sep 26, 2025):
I can't think of a reason you would lose data by importing. You can use demo.actualbudget.org if you don't want to use your server/app
@kcollett commented on GitHub (Sep 26, 2025):
If I do an import and I see a bunch of missing data, how do I get back to where I was (without importing another, possibly corrupt, export)?
@youngcw commented on GitHub (Sep 26, 2025):
The import is a separate file. It isn't overwriting the old file.
@kcollett commented on GitHub (Sep 26, 2025):
I'm almost completely ignorant about how AB manages files and how that works in conjunction with PikaPods. (The only relevant documentation I could find, at https://actualbudget.org/docs/getting-started/manage-files, states it's specific to the desktop app.) So, even though it may be nonsensical to somebody who understands all this, I'm not willing to chance doing an import.
@youngcw commented on GitHub (Sep 26, 2025):
That page is referring to the keyboard shortcuts that are exclusive to desktop.
If you don't want to use your server then use demo.actualbudget.org and import your files there. The data all stays on your machine and doesn't get uploaded anywhere.
@kcollett commented on GitHub (Sep 28, 2025):
(Sorry for the delayed response. I went down a unrelated rabbit hole yesterday.)
I tried importing my latest backup to demo.actualbudget.org, and the data seems complete as far as I can tell. (There were some UI/view switches that were different, but that's to be expected.)
I still am puzzled by the abrupt change in the size of the export files. (One commenter on Reddit said that using emojis for category group names, account names, etc. can increase the size of the exports. That seems improbable that it would result in an approximately 16X change, but I thought I would mention it just in case.)
@MatissJanis commented on GitHub (Sep 28, 2025):
Have you recently clicked the "reset sync" or manually exported your budget and re-imported? That would explain it.