How do I backup my Oyma Markdown vault using Time Machine or external drives?

Native Backup Compatibility Without Special Tools

Because Oyma does not hide your documents inside inaccessible application containers or closed relational databases, backing up your knowledge requires no specialized export routines or export plugins.

Any backup tool that works with the macOS filesystem automatically protects your entire Oyma vault.

Option 1: Apple Time Machine (Recommended)

macOS Time Machine provides continuous, automated, versioned backups of your entire Mac drive, including your Oyma vault:

• Hourly Snapshots: Time Machine captures hourly revisions of any .md files modified during the day.
• Accidental Deletion Recovery: If you accidentally delete a note or overwrite a key paragraph, you can enter Time Machine, navigate back in time to yesterday or last week, and restore the exact file.
• Zero Configuration: If Time Machine is enabled on your Mac, your Oyma notes are already backed up without any action required in Oyma.

Option 2: Encrypted External Hard Drives

For cold-storage backups and off-site archives:

# Example rsync command to backup your vault to an encrypted external volume
rsync -av --delete ~/Documents/KnowledgeVault/ "/Volumes/EncryptedBackup/KnowledgeVault-Backup/"

Because CommonMark files are lightweight text, an entire vault of 5,000 comprehensive notes typically consumes less than 40 megabytes of storage, making backups instantaneous.

Option 3: Local Network Attached Storage (NAS)

If your office or home network features a Synology, QNAP, or TrueNAS system, you can replicate your vault folder over SMB or NFS using standard automated backup software like Carbon Copy Cloner, ChronoSync, or native macOS launchd scripts.

Mac Workstation (NVMe)
        |
        +---> [Time Machine: Hourly Local APFS Snapshots]
        |
        +---> [Encrypted External SSD: Cold Archive]
        |
        +---> [Local NAS: Nightly rsync Backup]

Disaster Recovery in Seconds

If you migrate to a brand new Mac:

1. Restore your Documents folder via Time Machine or copy your vault directory from your backup drive.
2. Install Oyma.
3. Choose File > Open Vault... and point to the restored folder.

Within three seconds, your entire knowledge base, backlinks, and meeting notes are completely restored.

Automated Backup Redundancy and Recovery Invariants

A robust backup strategy ensures your intellectual work is protected against hardware loss or accidental file deletion:

• Time Machine Versioning: Every hour, macOS Time Machine captures changes made to your vault, allowing you to restore earlier versions of notes with a few clicks.
• Cold Storage Encryption: When copying your vault to external drives, format the volume as APFS (Encrypted) to preserve hardware-level confidentiality.
• Offsite Redundancy Options: While Oyma operates locally, you can choose to place your vault folder inside encrypted local network drives or external archival volumes for automated backup protection.