# Data Management System Beta

🚧 Feature under development

The data management system is under development. Not all use cases are covered by the initial release. You can provide feedback about desired functionality on the Strapi feedback website (opens new window).

Occasionally you need to move data out of or into a Strapi instance. The data management system allows you to efficiently extract data from an existing instance or archive and import that data into a separate instance. Strapi provides CLI-based commands that allow you to export and import data. Common use cases include:

  • creating a data backup,
  • restoring data from a backup.

The following documentation details examples of how to use the strapi export and strapi import commands.

🤓 Using the Command Line Interface (CLI)

The strapi export and strapi import CLI commands with all of the available options are listed in the Command Line Interface documentation.

# Export data using the CLI tool

The strapi export command by default exports data as an encrypted and compressed tar.gz file. The default export command exports:

  • the project configuration,
  • entities: all of your content,
  • links: relations between your entities,
  • assets: files stored in the uploads folder,
  • schemas,
  • the metadata.json file.

✋ CAUTION

Admin users and API tokens are not exported.

# Name the export file

Exported data are contained in a .tar file that is automatically named using the format export_YYYYMMDDHHMMSS. You can optionally name the exported file by passing the --file or -f option with the strapi export command. Do not include a file extension.

# Example: Export data with a custom filename


# Configure data encryption

The default strapi export command encrypts your project data using aes-128-ecb encryption and adds the file extension .enc. To use encryption you need to pass an encryption key using the -k or --key option or enter an encryption key when prompted. The encryption key is a string with no minimum character count.

💡 Encryption keys

Strong encryption keys are encouraged to protect sensitive data in your project. OpenSSL (opens new window) is a resource for generating encryption keys.

To disable encryption, pass the --no-encrypt option with the strapi export command.

# Example: Export data without encryption


# Example: Export data with the encryption --key option


# Disable data compression

The default strapi export command compresses your project data using gzip compression and adds the .gz file extension.

To disable compression, pass the --no-compress option with the strapi export command.

# Example: Export data without compression


# Import data using the CLI tool

️❗️ WARNING

strapi import will delete all of the existing data prior to importing the backup file. Restored data does not include the users table, which means that createdBy and updatedBy are empty in a restored instance.

To import data into a Strapi instance use the strapi import command in the project root directory. Specify the file to be imported using the -f or --file option. The filename, extension, and path are required. If the file is encrypted, you will be prompted for the encryption key before the import starts.

# Example: Minimum command to import data from a file in the Strapi project root


# Provide an encryption key

If you are importing data from an encrypted file the encryption key can be passed with the strapi import command by using the -k or --key option.

# Example: Pass the encryption key with the strapi import command


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