Backing up taproot assets (tapd data) in Lightning Terminal

Bitcoin and Lightning
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Lightning Labs currently has a warning to users who are using Taproot Assets on their Lightning Terminal app (Release Lightning Terminal v0.12.1-alpha · lightninglabs/lightning-terminal · GitHub). Uninstalling Lightning Terminal from your Umbrel will delete tapd data and can result in permanent loss of assets/funds if you have not backed up tapd data from your Lightning Terminal installation.

Currently there is no way to backup tapd data from the Lightning Terminal app through its UI, and there is no simple way to backup app data on Umbrel (yet :wink:). So as an interim measure people can back up their tapd data by following these steps:

  1. Create a directory to store your backup files:
  • You can create a directory on your computer or on an external drive
  1. Run the Backup Command:

  • Open a terminal on your computer and execute the following command to copy the tapd data over to your local machine.

  • Replace <path/to/backup/directory/on/local/machine/> with the folder path where you want the backup to be saved on your computer/external-drive.

  • If you’re on Linux and your Umbrel installation directory is different, replace ~/umbrel with your specific installation path.

  • You may be asked to type in a password. This is the password to your Umbrel device (the same one you use to log in to the dashboard). Nothing will show up in the terminal as you type your password, so just type it in and press ‘Enter’.

  • Command Format:

scp -r umbrel@umbrel.local:~/umbrel/app-data/lightning-terminal/data/.tapd/ <path/to/backup/directory/on/local/machine/>
  • Example:
    To back up tapd data to /Users/nmfretz/lightning-terminal/backup/ on a Mac, you would run:
scp -r umbrel@umbrel.local:~/umbrel/app-data/lightning-terminal/data/.tapd/ /Users/nmfretz/lightning-terminal/backup/
  1. Viewing the Hidden tapd Directory:

  • The tapd data directory is hidden (it starts with a dot: .tapd ), so it won’t show up in normal file listings.

  • To see it, use the ls -a command in its parent directory in the terminal, or else enable viewing hidden files/folders in your File Explorer.

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Thanks for the detailed info.
I still am struggling to save this .tapd file to my local mac laptop. I have logged in successfully to my Umbrel and can navigate the folders and see the correct .tapd hidden file. When I try to copy It keeps saying in my mac terminal “no such file or directory” on the target directory. I already created the directory and replaced nmfretz with my directory name. This might be a terminal syntax copying from above or I am missing something really basic:

scp -r umbrel@umbrel.local:~/umbrel/app-data/lightning-terminal/data/.tapd/ /Users/nmfretz/lightning-terminal/backup/

How do I know if I am using .tapd before I upgrade and possibly lose my funds and hard work? Maybe I can just upgrade with no extra work.

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ah, sorry about that @tommy_buho. I posted in a hurry and stupidly wrote that you should SSH into your device. That was my mistake. Instead you should run the command from your computer (your local mac in your case).

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How do I know if I am using .tapd before I upgrade and possibly lose my funds and hard work? Maybe I can just upgrade with no extra work.

If you are just updating the app through your umbrel dashboard then .tapd (and all other app data) will be persisted across the update, so you don’t have to worry about losing assets. It is only if you uninstall the app that this data will be permanently deleted.

It’s still not a bad idea to back up the file though. Let me know how it goes!

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That was the trick. Backed up the files correctly and upgraded the app. All good. Thanks.

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