Move team data between environments

A team's settings screen can pack the team's data into a single file and read that file back into another team. Use it to carry your data from one environment to another — a test site into the live one — or to keep a copy of it outside the product.

Both actions live in the team's Settings, in the Import and export data tab. The tab is only shown to members who can edit the team's settings; a member without that is not offered it, and cannot reach either action.

Export a team

1. Open Import and export data and press Export team.
2. The window lists the data this team has, with how many Records there are of each. Data with no records at all is listed too, and can be exported.
3. Everything is ticked to start with. Untick what you want to leave behind, and press Export.
4. The file is put together on the server, so the window answers straight away. You can close it and carry on: a large team can take a few minutes.
5. When the file is ready you get a notification in the product, Team data export ready, with a Download button, in the bell and in the notification centre. Open Export team again and the window offers Download too, for anybody in the team who can edit its settings.
6. A .zip file downloads. Keep it somewhere safe: it holds your team's records as they are, in plain files that anyone with the file can read.

One export at a time per team. While one is being put together, the window says who started it and when, and does not offer Export until it ends.

The file waits 7 days. After that it is deleted, the notification says it expired, and you export again to get a new one. It does not use the team's space.

If the export fails, you get Team data export failed instead. Nothing is left half-way: open Export team and try again.

The file takes only the team's own data. Members, roles and invitations never travel, and neither does the team's activity history. Members are real accounts rather than team data; a role would arrive without the permissions attached to it, which are kept apart from the role itself; and an invitation is addressed to one person. In the team you import into, you set those up again.

Import a team

Importing brings the data into the team you are working in right now. Switch to the team that should receive it before you start.

1. Open Import and export data in that team and press Import team. The window names the team the data is going into.
2. Choose the .zip file under Package file. It has to be a file exported by this screen. The file starts uploading straight away, with a bar showing how far it has got. There is no size limit of the product's own: a file too big for the storage your site uses is refused before it starts, with a message saying how much it weighs and how much the storage accepts.
3. Keep the window open until the upload finishes. If your connection drops, the upload waits and carries on by itself when it comes back. If you close the window or leave the page, the upload is cancelled and you have to choose the file again. Cancel upload stops it on purpose.
4. Once the file is up, the window shows Checking the package while the file is read. A file that is not a team package, or is damaged or incomplete, ends here with The file could not be read, and nothing is imported.
5. When it is Ready to import, the window shows which team the file came from, the date it was exported, and the same table of data and record counts — this time, the ones inside the file. Data that this product no longer has is listed with its count and a note saying so, and has no tick box.
6. Everything the file brings that this product recognises is ticked to start with. Untick what you do not want, and press Import. If you picked the wrong file, press Choose another file instead.
7. The import now runs on the server, marked In process. You can stay and watch, or close the window and carry on with something else: closing it does not stop the import. When it ends while you are away, you get a notification in the product — Team data import finished or Team data import failed — that takes you back to the team's settings.
8. Open Import team again at any time to see where it is. When it is Finished, the window shows how many records went into each kind of data, and anything that was left out with the reason.
9. A notice tells you how it went. When nothing at all came in — every kind of data you ticked was empty, or everything in it was left out — it says so as a warning instead of reporting success, so a package that brought you nothing is never mistaken for one that worked. Read the detail underneath for the reason.
10. Press Import another package to start over with a new file.

When an import fails

If something stops the import, the window shows Failed with the reason, and nothing is imported: no records and no files are left half-way. The file you uploaded is removed, so to try again, upload it again.

• The team does not have enough space — the files that come with the data do not fit in the team's space. Free some space or buy more.
• The server does not have enough temporary space — the server has no room to work on a file this size. Ask whoever runs the site to make room.
• The package is no longer available — the uploaded file was removed before the import could read it, for example after being left waiting for a long time.
• The import stopped before it ended, or The import failed — something on the server stopped it.

What importing does and does not do

• Everything is created new. Nothing in the receiving team is overwritten and nothing is deleted. The records arrive alongside whatever is already there.
• The same file imported twice creates everything twice. There is no matching against what you already have, so import a file once per team.
• One import at a time per team. While a team has an import in process, a new file cannot be uploaded to it and a second Import is refused with a message. Wait for it to end.
• The team it came from is untouched. Exporting reads; it changes nothing.
• Links between records are kept, as long as both sides are in the same import. A record that points at something you chose not to bring in is left out, and the result says how many.
• A record that names the person it belongs to keeps that same account. A category saved as one member's own, for example, arrives still pointing at the account it had in the team it came from. Accounts do not travel, so in another environment that account may be somebody else, or nobody.
• Anything this product no longer recognises is left out, and named, instead of stopping the import.
• Records keep the dates they had. An imported record shows the date it was created in the team it came from, not the date you imported it.
• Anything in the bin stays behind. Records that were deleted in the source team are not in the file, so they do not arrive.
• Imported files go to the folder of their record and use the team's space. Each file that comes with the imported data lands in the team's files, in a folder named after the kind of record and, inside it, one named after the record's number — the same folder a file uploaded from that record would use. A file the record took from the team's files — a call's recording, a chat attachment — keeps the folder it had in the team it came from instead. They count toward the team's space. If they do not fit in the space the team has left, the whole import is refused with The team does not have enough space and nothing comes in: free some space or buy more, and try again.

The file is a copy of your data taken at the moment you exported it. Records created in the source team afterwards are not in it — export again to pick them up.