🔐Backups & Recover

Backing up your Alby Hub is essential to ensure your funds can be recovered in case you lose access to your node. Taking the time to do it right ensures everything is safe and easily recoverable.

This guide applies to the default node implementation of Alby Hub (LDK) only. If you're using a different node backend, please refer to its own documentation for backup instructions.

Jump directly to the setup that applies to you:

1. Alby Hub on Alby Cloud

2. Alby Hub self-hosted with an Alby account

3. Alby Hub self-hosted without an Alby account

Alby Hub on Alby Cloud

On-chain Balance and Spending Balance

Backup: Find and backup your 12-word recovery phrase in your Alby Hub here to recover your On-chain Balance and Spending Balance anytime.

Your Spending Balance data is securely encrypted using your 12-word recovery phrase and is dynamically updated in your Alby account (VSS). To see if VSS is enabled for your Hub go to Settings and select "Your Alby Account". If you cannot access your Hub anymore, contact our support.

Recover: Start a new Alby Hub in the same Alby account -> Select "Advanced Setup" -> enter your 12-word recovery phrase. Your On-chain and Spending Balance will be fully restored 🚀.

As Alby Cloud subscriber you only need to backup your recovery phrase and remember your Alby account.

Alby Hub self-hosted with an Alby account

On-chain Balance

Backup: Find and backup your 12-word recovery phrase in your Alby Hub here to recover your on-chain balance anytime.

Recover: Enter the 12-word recovery phrase into a new Alby Hub or another bitcoin wallet.

Spending Balance

Backup: Alby stores a static channel backup automatically in your Alby account.

Recover: Use this app to recover the sats of your Spending Balance. It asks your channel partners to force-close the channels to your node. Funds from channels may take up to 14 days to return to your on-chain balance. You will need to open new channels to continue sending and receiving transactions.

As an Alby account user you only need to backup your recovery phrase.

Soon you are able to rely on dynamic backups of your spending balance.

Alby Hub self-hosted without an Alby account

On-chain Balance

Backup: Find and backup your 12-word recovery phrase in your Alby Hub here to recover your on-chain balance anytime.

Recover: Enter the 12-word recovery phrase into a new Alby Hub or another bitcoin wallet.

Spending Balance

Backup: You need to make this backup each time you have a new lighting channel. If new channels were made after the backup, you could risk losing funds.

• Go to the working directory of your Alby Hub

• Back up the newest file in .data/ldk/static_channel_backups/

Recover: Use this app to recover the sats of your Spending Balance. It asks your channel partners to force-close the channel to your node. Funds from channels may take up to 14 days to return to your on-chain balance. You will need to open new channels to continue sending and receiving transactions.

Without an Alby account you need to manually back up your recovery phrase and create backups of your channels each time you have a new channel. If new channels were made after the backup, you could risk losing funds.

Previous guide Alby Hub v.1.10.3 and below

• Recovery Phrase

• Channel backup

  1. Automatic Backups (part of ✨ Alby Subscription)

  2. Manual Backups (self-hosting)

• Backup checklist

Types of Backups

1. Recovery Phrase

• What It Does Restores any funds in your On-chain Balance.

• Limitations It does not restore your Spending Balance. That's the amount in your lightning channels, unless you also have a backup of your channels. (see below)

2. Channel backups

Channel backups can only be restored if you have the Recovery Phrase.

2.1 Automatic Backups (part of ✨ Alby Subscription)

• What It Does Asks your channel partners to force-close the channel to your node. Backups are being made after each channel opening / closure automatically and are encrypted before they are stored along with your Alby Account.

• Limitations Funds from channels may take up to 14 days to return. You will need to open new channels to continue sending and receiving transactions.

2.2 Manual backups (self-hosting)

You need to make this backup each time you have a new channel. If new channels were made after the backup, you could risk losing funds.

• What It Does Asks your channel partners to force-close the channel to your node.

• Limitations Funds from channels may take up to 14 days to return. You will need to open new channels to continue sending and receiving transactions.

• How to backup the self-hosted version of Alby Hub:

  1. Go to the working directory of your Alby Hub

  2. Back up the newest file in .data/ldk/static_channel_backups/

Backup Checklist

✨ Alby Subscription

• Recovery phrase

• Access to your Alby account: Immediate recovery of your funds

Self-hosted (no subscription)

• Recovery Phrase (Recovery process will force close your lightning channels)

Self-hosted (no Alby account)

• Recovery Phrase

• Latest static channel backup file (Recovery process will force close your lightning channels)

Where are Alby Hub self-hosted internal files on Windows?

Please note that the data files for Alby Hub on Windows can be found here: C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Local\albyhub. ⚠️ Be very careful with these files, as they contain crucial information about your lightning network channels and cannot be recovered if deleted. If you wish to migrate your hub to another computer, it's recommended to use the proper migration flow instead of simply copying and pasting this folder to ensure all data is safely transferred. 😊

Where are Alby Hub self-hosted internal files on Unix or macOS?

For other operating systems, we use the XDG implementation, specifically the XDG_DATA_HOME folder type.

On Unix, Alby Hub stores important data in ~/.local/share, while on macOS, it’s located in ~/Library/albyhub. 😊 For more details about XDG folder implementation, you can check this link: XDG Implementation Guide 📂👍

Thanks for your understanding!

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Congratulations! 🎉 You've successfully learned how to back up your Alby Hub, ensuring the safety of your funds and channels. Remember to always keep your Recovery Phrase and latest channel backup handy. With your backups in place, your hub is now well-protected and ready for any situation! 🔐

Get a subscription to Alby Cloud! ☁️ Unlock 24/7 availability for your self-hosted wallet by subscribing to Alby Cloud. Never worry about downtime again!

Learn More About Savings Balance! 💰 Discover the on-chain side of your self-custodial wallet. Click here to learn more about managing your Savings Balance securely.

Migrate Your Hub! 🔄 Planning to move your Alby Hub? The migration process is similar to a backup in many ways. Click here to explore more on how to migrate your hub seamlessly!

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Thank you for stopping by! This section was created with contributions from René, Roland & Jean-Paul