Where your data is stored

You do not need to be technical to understand this page, and it is worth reading: knowing where your data lives is what lets you avoid losing it.

In your working folder

Everything lives in the folder chosen on first run:

Your working folder
├── database_manoscritti.json     all records and transcriptions
└── allegati_manoscritti/         attached images and PDFs

Nothing else. No hidden database, no proprietary archive, no files scattered around the system.

Why it matters

• No technological lock-in. The .json file is a structured text file: it opens with any editor, it can be read and inspected. If one day ArchiView no longer existed, your data would remain readable and recoverable.
• Transferring is copying. There is no export procedure to learn in order to move an archive: you copy the folder.
• Backup is copying. See Backup, export and transfer.

Attachments are copies

When you attach an image or a PDF, the file is copied into allegati_manoscritti. The original can be moved or deleted without affecting the record, but the disk space used doubles compared with the original files.

Things not to do

WARNING

• Do not edit database_manoscritti.json with a text editor while ArchiView is open: your changes would be overwritten, or the file damaged.
• Do not keep the working folder inside a folder synchronised by a generic cloud service (Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive) if you work on the same archive from several computers: two simultaneous synchronisations can corrupt the file. To work on several machines use the built-in synchronisation.
• Do not rename files inside allegati_manoscritti by hand: records look for them under the name they had when they were attached.

What about personal data?

ArchiView works offline: if you do not enable synchronisation, nothing leaves your computer. What is processed when you enable it is detailed in the Privacy Policy.