Managing Checkout Backups

Checkout store backups contain an entire store, including its employees and any imported custom templates, custom store logo and preferences.

Custom reports must be backed up manually. They are located in the

Because employee login credentials are dependent on how a Checkout store is loaded into the Checkout database, all employee passwords must be reset when a store backup is restored. Checkout uses a random 6-character database name when creating a store or loading a store backup into its database. This internally-used database name is changed whenever a store backup is restored. Therefore users will need to reselect the store at the login window on all computers after restoring from a backup.

• Creating a Checkout Backup
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• Restoring a Checkout Backup
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• Scheduling Checkout Backups
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• Importance of Backing Up
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• Rebuilding Your Checkout Database
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To create a backup of your store:

1. Click on the word Checkout next to the little apple in the upper left-hand corner of your screen
2. Scroll to Manage Checkout Stores...
   
   
3. Enter a Name and password of a user on your Mac that has Administrator privileges
4. 
5. Select the store by highlighting it in the left window
7. Click the Backup button
8. Indicate the name and location of the Backup file

The icon of your store backup will look like this in the Mac Finder:

To restore a backup of your store:

1. Log out of the store
2. Click on the word Checkout next to the apple in the upper left-hand corner of your screen
3. Choose "Manage Checkout Stores..." from the drop down menu.
4. 
   
5. Click the Restore button
6. Navigate to the folder where the backup is located, select the backup, and click Open
7. Enter a Name and password of a user on your Mac that has Administrator privileges
8. 
   
9. Enter a new password for your store
10. 
    
11. Close the Manage Checkout Stores window, and log in to your restored store using the new password

Scheduling Checkout Backup

• In Checkout, click the Manager icon
• Select This Mac from the General tab
• Click the Scheduled Backup checkbox
• Use Time of Day to schedule up to six backups a day

Use the Choose button to save the backup file to another location. Each backup is labeled in an easy to read file name, and are compressed, gzipped, to save space.

Scheduled backups are created on the computer hosting the Store, and must be running Checkout while the backup is running.

Importance of Creating Backups

We all have some form of insurance. Life, car, house, apartment, liability, health and maybe even pet. Would you be interested in some insurance that costs nothing?

When is the last time that you backed up your Checkout store? Has it been a while? What happens if your Mac had a hardware issue and your current hard drive wasn't recoverable?

How long would it take you to find your last backup and get it up to date?

If your answer to the last question gave you an uneasy feeling in your stomach, then the time to backup is now.

How do I backup? Launch Checkout and select Manage Stores from the Checkout pulldown menu.

Where should I save the backup? It's best to have it safely off your Mac. While a CD/DVD or USB drive can be used, you can also compress the backup and email it to yourself.

How often should I backup? While once a day is suggested, the big question is how hard would it be to get up and running if you had to restore and use your last backup.

Hopefully this quick and free insurance will allow you to sleep a little better tonight. Pleasant dreams.

Depending on Time Machine to make Checkout backups isn't as reliable as creating your own backups. Additionally, restoring Checkout backups from Time Machine hasn't been tested, and it's unclear what the result of a Time Machine restore process will be.

Rebuilding Your Checkout Database

From time to time it may be necessary to actually rebuild the Checkout database. This can resolve certain inconstancy issues and can lead to increased performance.

To rebuild the Checkout database:

1. Create a Checkout Backup
   
2. Launch the Checkout software
   
3. Choose Checkout > Reveal Database from the menu bar at the top of the screen
   
4. Leave the Finder window where it is and quit Checkout
   
5. Rename the Checkout Database (it should still be in the correct Finder window)
   
   • Checkout 3: Rename Database.checkout to OLDdatabase.checkout
   • Checkout 4: Rename Database_93.checkout to OLDdatabase.checkout
6. Relaunch Checkout and follow the instructions to Restore a Checkout Backup