# Delta chat id backup? \[small archive without past messages\]

**URL:** <https://forum.delta.chat/t/delta-chat-id-backup-small-archive-without-past-messages/5203>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [May 10, 2026, 11:05am UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/delta-chat-id-backup-small-archive-without-past-messages/5203 "2026-05-10T11:05:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![paraglider](https://forum.delta.chat/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/e79b87/32.png) [@paraglider](https://forum.delta.chat/u/paraglider)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2026, 11:05am UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/delta-chat-id-backup-small-archive-without-past-messages/5203/1 "2026-05-10T11:05:55Z")

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I need the ability to recover the account/profile following a complete loss of all hardware devices I own. What do I need to back up - preferably as an encrypted .tar archive squirreled somewhere on the net - in order to reinstate the account/profile on a replacement device(s)? Please note I am only interested in the ability to recover the account/profile, NOT the past message content or list of correspondents.

TIA

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**Author:** ![WofWca](https://forum.delta.chat/user_avatar/forum.delta.chat/wofwca/32/1702_2.png) [@WofWca](https://forum.delta.chat/u/WofWca)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2026, 11:45am UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/delta-chat-id-backup-small-archive-without-past-messages/5203/2 "2026-05-10T11:45:07Z")

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All you need is a backup from Settings → Chats → Export Backup. It also contains your messages and contacts.  
You’ll have to care for encryption yourself though.

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**Author:** ![ian](https://forum.delta.chat/user_avatar/forum.delta.chat/ian/32/3164_2.png) [@ian](https://forum.delta.chat/u/ian)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2026, 11:45am UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/delta-chat-id-backup-small-archive-without-past-messages/5203/3 "2026-05-10T11:45:59Z")

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You can use the export backup feature already implemented.

If you find the file too large to handle, you need to prune the zip manually. You can remove past messages, xdc state updates, attachments, but not your avatar and then vacuum the database file with a few SQL commands.

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**Author:** ![WofWca](https://forum.delta.chat/user_avatar/forum.delta.chat/wofwca/32/1702_2.png) [@WofWca](https://forum.delta.chat/u/WofWca)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2026, 11:49am UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/delta-chat-id-backup-small-archive-without-past-messages/5203/4 "2026-05-10T11:49:37Z")

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> [@ian](#):
>
> If you find the file too large to handle, you need to prune the zip manually.

This doesn’t have to be manual. One may add another device and then delete older messages with Settings → Chats → Delete old messages from device. Then export the backup.

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**Author:** ![ian](https://forum.delta.chat/user_avatar/forum.delta.chat/ian/32/3164_2.png) [@ian](https://forum.delta.chat/u/ian)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2026, 2:35pm UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/delta-chat-id-backup-small-archive-without-past-messages/5203/5 "2026-05-10T14:35:46Z")

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Well, the shortest interval here in my client is `After 1 hour`. While this may seem good enough for all practical purposes, am I supposed to wait 1 hour for it to clear up fully for the above use case?

Does DC execute full vacuuming before each export? Past experience showed that an sql dump and then recreation of the database usually resulted in a smaller database overall.

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**Author:** ![Low](https://forum.delta.chat/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/ecae2f/32.png) [@Low](https://forum.delta.chat/u/Low)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 5:52pm UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/delta-chat-id-backup-small-archive-without-past-messages/5203/6 "2026-08-17T17:52:35Z")

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> [@ian](#):
>
> Well, the shortest interval here in my client is `After 1 hour`. While this may seem good enough for all practical purposes, am I supposed to wait 1 hour for it to clear up fully for the above use case?

Your client automatically does a backup for you every hour? That would be nice. I guess it’s like whatsapp integrating with google drive for you.

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**Author:** ![ian](https://forum.delta.chat/user_avatar/forum.delta.chat/ian/32/3164_2.png) [@ian](https://forum.delta.chat/u/ian)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 6:01pm UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/delta-chat-id-backup-small-archive-without-past-messages/5203/7 "2026-08-17T18:01:28Z")

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No, we were talking about the deletion interval of past messages. I.e., so the backup file won’t be that large. I actually take daily backups of my profiles like so:

> [@Daily exporting of all of your messages in a compact textual archive](https://support.delta.chat/t/daily-exporting-of-all-of-your-messages-in-a-compact-textual-archive/4884/1):
>
> #!/bin/sh get\_fingerprint() { cat \<\< EOF | select fingerprint from keypairs join public\_keys on keypairs.public\_key == public\_keys.public\_key order by is\_default desc limit 1 ; EOF sqlite3 -csv -batch "$1" } get\_messages() { local PRINT readonly PRINT="`get_fingerprint "$DB"`" cat \<\< EOF | .separator "&&" select '${PRINT}' as profile, m.chat\_id as chat\_id, m.id as m\_id, datetime(m.timestamp, 'unixepoch') as date, replace(replace(replace(replace(replace( case when instr(concat(…

To also retain your connections, you would need to dump a different set of tables, such as bobstate, broadcast\_secrets, chats, chats\_contacts, config, contacts, keypairs, public\_keys and maybe more. It’s usually easier the other way around: copy the database file, delete the blobs, messages and caches and vacuum so you won’t leave out anything important. Could still be done with a few lines of shell script, but I think it would be easier to install DC on a separate device (or a bot) with reduced message retention timeout in multi-device mode so it keeps syncing your ID from your main device as long as it’s online.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Low](https://forum.delta.chat/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/ecae2f/32.png) [@Low](https://forum.delta.chat/u/Low)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 6:07pm UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/delta-chat-id-backup-small-archive-without-past-messages/5203/8 "2026-08-17T18:07:19Z")

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Yeah, we need to make this more simple for people. Thank you for explaining it though!

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**Author:** ![r10s](https://forum.delta.chat/user_avatar/forum.delta.chat/r10s/32/1513_2.png) [@r10s](https://forum.delta.chat/u/r10s)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 3:40pm UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/delta-chat-id-backup-small-archive-without-past-messages/5203/9 "2026-10-06T15:40:54Z")

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