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Back up, move and uninstall

Everything Reelcraft keeps is in one Docker volume, reelcraft-data: your projects, media, settings, saved keys, the Codex and Claude sign-ins, and the passwords Reelcraft generated on its first start (/data/secrets.env). Backing up means saving that volume to a file.

These commands run in a terminal: PowerShell on Windows, Terminal on macOS and Linux. They assume your container is named reelcraft and the volume reelcraft-data, as in Run Reelcraft.

Back up​

Stop Reelcraft first, so the database is saved in a consistent state. Then save the volume to reelcraft-backup.tgz in the folder your terminal is in, and start Reelcraft again:

docker stop reelcraft
docker run --rm --entrypoint tar \
  -v reelcraft-data:/data -v "${PWD}:/backup" \
  zohaibkhan97/reelcraft \
  -czf /backup/reelcraft-backup.tgz --numeric-owner --exclude=./qwen-tts -C /data .
docker start reelcraft

On PowerShell, put the docker run command on one line, or end each line with a backtick (`) instead of \.

--exclude=./qwen-tts leaves out the software and voice models of the local Qwen3-TTS voices, if you set them up. They are several gigabytes and can be installed and downloaded again, so a restored Reelcraft asks you to set them up again when you use them.

This uses the Reelcraft image you already have, so nothing extra is downloaded. Keep the backup file somewhere safe, such as an external drive. It contains your saved API keys and the key that unlocks them, so treat it like a password.

Restore or move to another computer​

  1. On the new computer, install Docker Desktop and copy the backup file into a folder there.

  2. In a terminal in that folder, create an empty volume and unpack the backup into it:

    docker volume create reelcraft-data
    docker run --rm --entrypoint tar \
      -v reelcraft-data:/data -v "${PWD}:/backup" \
      zohaibkhan97/reelcraft \
      -xzf /backup/reelcraft-backup.tgz --numeric-owner -C /data

  3. Run Reelcraft with that volume as usual.

Restore only into a new, empty volume. To restore over an existing installation, stop and delete the container, delete the old volume (see below), and then follow these steps.

The backup can be restored on any computer, whatever its chip (Intel/AMD or Apple Silicon/ARM).

Uninstall​

  1. Delete the container. In Docker Desktop, open Containers, stop reelcraft and delete it. Or run docker rm -f reelcraft.
  2. Delete the image to free about 3 GB. In Images, delete zohaibkhan97/reelcraft. Or run docker rmi zohaibkhan97/reelcraft.
  3. Delete your data, only if you are sure. In Volumes, delete reelcraft-data. Or run docker volume rm reelcraft-data.
danger

Deleting the reelcraft-data volume permanently deletes all your projects, media, settings and saved keys. Back it up first if you may want them again.

If you keep the volume, running the image again with it brings everything back.