It's always a good idea to back up your important digital documents to head off unforeseen hardware problems before they become an issue. A good rule of thumb is if you would be upset if a single piece of data (like a sketch you've done) was lost forever, then it should be backed up.

 

 

Automatically Backup Via iCloud

 

There are several ways to back up the work you create with Linea for safekeeping. The first way to make sure your artwork is safeguarded is to enable iCloud support within Linea itself. When iCloud is activated within the app, as it is by default, Linea uploads all of your projects and the sketches contained therein to your iCloud account where they can be accessed on additional devices and even via iCloud Drive.

 

Open your iCloud Drive (either in the Finder on the Mac or via the Files app in iOS) and look for the Linea folder. If you schedule a regular backup of your Mac's HD, be sure to include this Linea folder. You'll sleep better knowing your hard work is safe and sound and can be restored at will should the need arise. In addition, when iCloud support in Linea is active, you can recover deleted sketches for up to 30 days by logging into iCloud.com.

 

 

Manually Via Encrypted Backups

 

If you choose not to enable iCloud support in Linea Sketch, another way to safeguard your work is to simply schedule an encrypted backup your iOS device to iCloud on a regular basis. When your iPad or iPhone is backed up to iCloud, all of your Linea documents and data are included in the archive. When you restore your device, all of the sketches and projects that were present at the time of backup will be restored to your device and you'll be able to pick up where you left off.

 

 

The Foolproof, Quick and Easy Way

 

No matter how secure iCloud backups are, it's always best to make your own backups from time to time. This process is pretty trivial if you own a Mac, but also quite easy if you only access iCloud via the Files app on iOS.

 

Via the Mac:

 

- In the Finder, open your iCloud Drive and locate the Linea folder.

 

- Copy the contents of the Linea folder (all of the folders, projects and sketches) to a separate directory on your Mac's HD. This could be the desktop, but an external HD is better for safekeeping.

 

- Control-click on the copied folder and select "Compress" to create a ZIP archive of the folder for safekeeping.

 

- Put this ZIP archive someplace safe that's not on iCloud. Storing it on Dropbox, a Google Drive or external HD is the safest destination.

 

This way if iCloud loses your data you have a manual copy you can un-ZIP and restore at any time. We personally run this procedure once a month and we sleep much better knowing our Linea work is safe and sound.

 

Via the Files App on iOS:

 

- Open the Files app and navigate to iCloud Drive

 

- Tap "Select" from the menu at the top of the screen

 

- Select the Linea folder then tap the ... menu > Copy

 

- Create a new folder called "Linea Sketch Backup" or something similar in a new, separate directory 

 

- Open the folder and tap and hold in an empty area of the screen and select > Paste

 

Files will copy all of the contents of the Linea folder into the new directory. From there you can tap and hold on the folder to Compress it and store the resulting ZIP archive on an external HD or service like Dropbox. 

 

Once you've made these backups of your Linea folder, you can always restore them if something bad happens with iCloud. Check out our How to Restore Missing Drawings article and scroll all the way down to step 7 which explains how to restore your sketches from these backups if you need to.