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 /team/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. 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.

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.
2. Choose the .zip file under Package file. It has to be a file exported by this screen; anything else is refused with a message.
3. 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.
4. Everything the file brings that this product recognises is ticked to start with. Untick what you do not want, and press Import. The Import button only appears once the file has been read, so it is not there before step 3. Choosing a different file clears the table, the ticks and any result already on screen.
5. The result appears under the form: how many records went into each kind of data, and anything that was left out with the reason.
6. 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.

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.
• 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.
• 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 team's root folder and use its space. The files that come with the imported data land in the team's root folder and 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.