Boards
Versions and recovery
Boards snapshot themselves every few minutes, and the guards that stop a bad write are more useful than the restore.
You open a board and something is missing. Before reaching for a restore, it is worth knowing that most of the ways a board could go wrong are prevented rather than recovered from, and the prevention is the part you interact with. ## What protects a board **Version stamping.** Every write to a board carries a version that must be higher than the last one. A tab holding a stale copy of the document cannot write over a newer one, because its version is behind and the write is refused. **The single-tab claim.** Open the same board in two of your own tabs and only one holds the edit claim. The other goes read-only. Two copies of you writing, one of them holding a half-loaded document, is the specific failure this exists to stop. **Content guards.** A write that would replace a board holding many items with one holding far fewer is treated as suspect rather than accepted. :::note[Why this is built the way it is] These guards came out of a real incident, and they are deliberately conservative. The read-only second tab annoys people occasionally; losing an afternoon's work annoys people permanently. ::: ## Snapshots Beneath all of that, the board copies itself every few minutes. Snapshots are deduplicated by content, so a board nobody touched does not accumulate identical copies, and they are kept for **24 hours**. Snapshots protect against something going wrong this morning, not against a decision you regret from last week. :::caution[24 hours, not forever] If a board mattered and it changed in a way you might want to undo, the reliable move is to duplicate it, not to rely on a snapshot being there in three days. Snapshots are an incident backstop rather than version control. ::: ## If a board looks wrong 1. **Reload before anything else.** A rendering problem and a data problem look identical, and the first is far more common 2. **Check you are not in the read-only tab.** If your edits are not landing, another tab of yours may hold the claim 3. **Check the workspace.** A board that looks empty is occasionally the right name in the wrong workspace 4. **Ask a teammate what they see.** If the board is fine on their screen, it is your session and not the document 5. **Report it** with what changed and roughly when Restoring from a snapshot is a workspace-owner-level operation, so if it comes to that, raise it rather than hunting for a button. The bug reporter takes a screenshot before it opens, and <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>B</kbd> opens it from anywhere. ## What is never at risk Your assets. The board is a document describing an arrangement of things; the things themselves live in the library with their own records. A board going wrong is a layout problem. Every image, mesh, clip and vector that was on it is still in the library, still searchable, still carrying what made it.You open a board and something is missing. Before reaching for a restore, it is worth knowing that most of the ways a board could go wrong are prevented rather than recovered from, and the prevention is the part you interact with.
What protects a board
Section titled “What protects a board”Version stamping. Every write to a board carries a version that must be higher than the last one. A tab holding a stale copy of the document cannot write over a newer one, because its version is behind and the write is refused.
The single-tab claim. Open the same board in two of your own tabs and only one holds the edit claim. The other goes read-only. Two copies of you writing, one of them holding a half-loaded document, is the specific failure this exists to stop.
Content guards. A write that would replace a board holding many items with one holding far fewer is treated as suspect rather than accepted.
Snapshots
Section titled “Snapshots”Beneath all of that, the board copies itself every few minutes. Snapshots are deduplicated by content, so a board nobody touched does not accumulate identical copies, and they are kept for 24 hours.
Snapshots protect against something going wrong this morning, not against a decision you regret from last week.
If a board looks wrong
Section titled “If a board looks wrong”- Reload before anything else. A rendering problem and a data problem look identical, and the first is far more common
- Check you are not in the read-only tab. If your edits are not landing, another tab of yours may hold the claim
- Check the workspace. A board that looks empty is occasionally the right name in the wrong workspace
- Ask a teammate what they see. If the board is fine on their screen, it is your session and not the document
- Report it with what changed and roughly when
Restoring from a snapshot is a workspace-owner-level operation, so if it comes to that, raise it rather than hunting for a button. The bug reporter takes a screenshot before it opens, and Ctrl Shift B opens it from anywhere.
What is never at risk
Section titled “What is never at risk”Your assets. The board is a document describing an arrangement of things; the things themselves live in the library with their own records.
A board going wrong is a layout problem. Every image, mesh, clip and vector that was on it is still in the library, still searchable, still carrying what made it.