Basic Memory
Cloud

Restore Lost Content

Recover a single note from File history, or roll back a bigger change from a Snapshot — pick the right tier and follow the exact steps.

You deleted a note you needed. A bulk reorganize went sideways. A teammate cleared out the wrong folder. Basic Memory Cloud has two recovery tiers — pick the one that matches what you lost.

Lost what?Use
One note, recent editsFile history — open the note and roll back from its version timeline
A folder, a project, or older contentSnapshots — find a snapshot from before the change and restore from it

Start with File history if you can — it's faster and works without leaving the note. Drop to Snapshots when the change is bigger than a single note or older than the note's recent history.

File history

File history is per-note. Every save creates a new version, so you can step back to any earlier state of a single note without touching anything else.

Open the note

Find and open the note in the web app. (If the note itself was deleted, skip ahead to Snapshots.)

Open File history

Click the File history icon (clock) in the note's toolbar.

Pick the version you want

Select a version from the timeline on the left. The diff on the right shows it side-by-side with the current note.

Restore it

Use the > revert controls in the diff to bring back exactly what you need (or just edit the right-side draft manually), then click Apply. This saves the merged content as a new version — your existing history stays intact.

See File History for the full reference, including who can apply and what to do if Apply is disabled.

Snapshots

Snapshots are project-wide point-in-time backups. Use them when you need to roll back more than one note — a deleted folder, a botched reorganization, or a project you wish you hadn't deleted.

Basic Memory Cloud creates snapshots automatically every day, and you can create manual ones before risky changes. As long as the content existed in some snapshot, you can get it back. For the snapshots reference itself — what they are, retention, automatic vs manual — see Cloud Snapshots.

1. Find a snapshot from before the loss

You need a snapshot that contains the content as it was before the deletion or change.

bm cloud snapshot list

Pick the most recent snapshot with a timestamp before the change you regret. Note its ID (e.g. snap_abc123) — you'll use it in the restore step.

Not sure when the loss happened? Pick the snapshot just before your last known-good edit. Worst case, restore a single file to a sandbox folder first and confirm it has what you expect before doing a bigger restore.

2. Look inside the snapshot

Before restoring, peek at what the snapshot actually contains — it saves a step if it turns out the file isn't there.

# List everything in the snapshot
bm cloud snapshot browse snap_abc123

# List a specific folder
bm cloud snapshot browse snap_abc123 --path notes/

# Show snapshot metadata
bm cloud snapshot show snap_abc123

The web app's snapshot browser does the same thing under Settings → Snapshots → (snapshot).

3. Restore

Restore is targeted — you pick the file, folder, or project you want back, not the whole snapshot.

A single note

bm cloud snapshot restore snap_abc123 --file notes/important.md

Or in the web app: browse the snapshot, find the file, choose Restore.

A folder

bm cloud snapshot restore snap_abc123 --path research/

Restores everything under that path as it existed in the snapshot.

A whole project

If you lost most of a project — or deleted it — restore the project root:

bm cloud snapshot restore snap_abc123 --path <project-name>/
Restore is additive, not destructive. Restored files are written back into the project. If a file with the same name exists in the live project, the restored version replaces it. Files in the live project that aren't in the snapshot are left alone — restore won't wipe newer work elsewhere in the project.

4. Verify

After the restore, open the affected notes in the app and confirm they look right. Spot-check a few:

  • File content matches what you expected.
  • Frontmatter intact (tags, type, status).
  • Wikilinks resolve to the right targets.

If the restore didn't get you everything, try a different snapshot — there may be a more recent one that still has the content but also includes other changes you want to keep.

What if I deleted a whole project?

You can recover a deleted project the same way: find a snapshot from before the deletion, browse its <project-name>/ path, and restore the project root. The CLI is the most direct path here:

bm cloud snapshot list
bm cloud snapshot browse snap_abc123 --path my-project/
bm cloud snapshot restore snap_abc123 --path my-project/

You may need to re-create the project entry in the workspace before the restored files appear as a live project — open the app, go to Settings → Projects, and verify.

What if the snapshot is too old?

Snapshots cover the recent history of your cloud workspace. If the content you want is older than your retention window, two backstops:

  • Local sync mirror. If you had hybrid editing set up, your local folder is an independent copy. Check there.
  • A project ZIP download. If you'd previously downloaded the project as a ZIP (Manage Projects → Download), unpack it locally and re-upload to the project.

For ongoing safety: take a manual snapshot before any change you might want to roll back. They're free and instant.

bm cloud snapshot create "Before reorganizing research/"

Related

Edit Locally and in the App

Happy-path setup for hybrid editing — work on the same project in Obsidian or VS Code locally and in the cloud app, with bidirectional sync keeping both sides in step.

File History

Per-note version history in the cloud — open File history on any note to see every saved version and restore or merge in old content.