Back up Fountain and restore it on a new device
One encrypted file holds every key and saved vault in Fountain. Save it somewhere safe, keep your passphrase apart from it, and you can bring everything back on a new computer or phone in a few minutes.
1. What you need
- Fountain with your keys in it.
- The passphrase you unlock Fountain with. The backup is encrypted with it, and nothing else opens the file.
- Somewhere safe away from this device, like a USB stick, a second computer or cloud storage.
Writing each key's 24 words on paper is also a good backup, and either one brings a key back. This guide covers the file, which also brings back your saved vaults and settings in one go.
2. Open Export backup
In Fountain, open Settings. The Backup card has three buttons. Choose Export backup.
3. Name the file and enter your passphrase
Change the middle of the file name if you like, for example to say which device it came from. Spaces turn into hyphens, and the start and the .sbk ending stay the same, so searching any device for .sbk finds your backups. Type the passphrase you unlock Fountain with into both boxes. It is not a new password, and the same passphrase opens the backup later. Choose Save backup.
4. Save it away from this device
Choose where the file goes. A USB stick, a second computer or a cloud folder all work, but a copy kept only on this device is lost along with it. Fountain reads the file back after writing it, so a backup it reports as saved is complete.
5. Keep the passphrase somewhere else
Write the passphrase down or keep it in a password manager, never in the same place as the file. Anyone with both can open your keys, and without the passphrase nobody can open the file, SignBit included. One file holds every key in this Fountain, which is why each key of a vault belongs in a different Fountain, as Create a vault with Fountain explains.
A backup only holds what Fountain had when you made it, so make a new one whenever you add a key or save a vault.
6. Install Fountain on the new device
Install Fountain on the new computer or phone and open it. It asks you to create a passphrase. Skip that and choose Restore it, under Create keystore.
7. Choose your backup file
Copy the backup file onto the new device, or plug in the USB stick that holds it. Choose the file button on Restore your keys and pick your backup. Backups made before Fountain 0.6.5 end in .json instead of .sbk, and they restore the same way. If you cannot find the file, search the device for .sbk, or for "signbit-" to find an older one.
8. Unlock it with the same passphrase
Fountain shows the file it is restoring from. Type the passphrase Fountain unlocked with when you made the backup, not a new one, and choose Restore & unlock. A wrong passphrase changes nothing, so you can simply try again.
9. Check everything came back
Open Keys and check that every key is there with the fingerprint you expect. Then open Vaults and check your saved vaults. When everything matches, the new device is ready to sign.