Exporting and Backing Up Your LocalPM Project Data

TLDR: LocalPM's Backup button exports all your projects to a JSON file you can import later to restore your work or move it to another browser. Back up every sprint.

LocalPM stores all your project data in your browser's localStorage. That gives you instant access, no sign-up, and complete privacy, because nothing is sent to a server. It also means your data lives in one place. If you clear your browser data, switch browsers, or move to a new machine, your projects do not follow you on their own. The Backup button is how you keep a second copy and take your data with you.

Understanding Where Your Data Lives

Every modern browser gives each website a small storage area that persists between sessions. When you create a project in LocalPM, all of your projects, stories, sprints, epics, team members, standups, and retrospectives are saved there automatically.

That storage is specific to one browser on one machine. Chrome on your laptop has different storage than Firefox on the same laptop, and different from Chrome on your desktop. This keeps your data private and self-contained, but it means nothing moves between environments unless you export it. There is no automatic sync and no account.

How to Export All Your Data

Select Backup in the LocalPM toolbar to open Backup & restore, then select Export all data (JSON). Your browser downloads a file named like localpm-backup-2026-11-03.json that contains every project in this browser: project details, stories with their descriptions and acceptance criteria, sprints, team members, epics, standup history, and retrospectives.

LocalPM shows the date of your last backup. If you make many changes without backing up, the dashboard shows a reminder, which is a good prompt to export before you forget.

Exporting a Single Project

Sometimes you only need one project. Open it and go to its Overview page, where you will find:

• Export (JSON), which downloads a backup of just that project.
• Stories (CSV), which downloads that project's stories as a CSV file you can open in a spreadsheet or bring into another tool.

The CSV covers stories only. Report charts can't be downloaded as images, so take a screenshot if you need to share one.

Restoring From a Backup

To bring data back, select Backup and choose a LocalPM backup .json file. LocalPM shows you what the file contains before anything changes. Then you pick one of two options:

Merge into current data adds records that aren't already in this browser and never overwrites existing ones. If an imported project uses a key that is already taken, it gets a new key, such as ALPHA2. Merge is the safe choice when you want to bring in a project without touching your current work.

Replace current data replaces everything in this browser with the contents of the file. LocalPM asks you to confirm first. Use it when you want to restore a backup exactly as it was.

Creating a Backup Strategy

A regular backup habit protects against the most common ways to lose data.

Scenario one: Accidental browser data clearing. Most browsers let you clear browsing data in a few clicks. If you include "cookies and site data," your LocalPM projects are wiped from that browser. With a recent backup file, you import it and carry on.

Scenario two: Browser problems. A reset browser profile, a cleanup extension, or a private window that you forgot was private can all leave you without your data. A backup means you are never more than a few days behind.

Scenario three: Machine failure. If your laptop dies, the data in its browser dies with it. A backup stored somewhere else survives.

A simple schedule works best. Export at the end of every sprint, or every Friday afternoon as part of your end-of-week routine. The date in the file name makes it easy to find a specific version later, so keep a few older files rather than only the latest.

Where you keep the file matters as much as making it. A backup left only in the Downloads folder of the same laptop does not help if that laptop fails. Copy it to a cloud storage folder, a USB drive, or another location you already back up.

Moving to Another Browser or Machine

Moving is export on the old browser, import on the new one. Export all data from the old browser, copy the file across, open LocalPM in the new browser, select Backup, and import the file. If the new browser is empty, either option works. If it already has projects, choose Merge to keep them.

After the move, the two browsers are independent again. Changes in one do not appear in the other unless you export and import again. LocalPM has no multi-user collaboration, so a backup file is not a way to share a live board with teammates. If several people need to follow the same board, have one person own it and share their screen.

If Something Goes Wrong

If LocalPM ever finds its saved data unreadable, it keeps a copy instead of overwriting it. You can download that copy from Backup & restore, under Recovery, so the data is not silently lost.

For advanced users: all LocalPM data is stored under a single localStorage key, localpm-data. You can look at it in your browser's developer tools, but you no longer need to copy it by hand. The Backup button is the supported way to export and restore.

Long-Term Data Safety

Think of your backup files as project archives. Even after a project ends, the data has value. Sprint velocity trends inform future estimates. Retrospective notes contain lessons learned. Story descriptions document decisions that might be questioned months later.

Export each completed project and keep the file in a dedicated folder with a clear naming convention. When a new project starts and someone asks "How long did the last similar project take?" you can import the file, review the sprint history, and give a data-backed answer instead of guessing.

Your data is valuable. Back it up regularly and keep the files somewhere safe. To understand why local data ownership matters, read the case for local-first project management. And if your project eventually needs more than LocalPM can offer, learn when your project outgrows LocalPM and what to do about it.

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Learn More

Ready to back up and export your project data safely? Check out the complete training series:

Watch the Project Management AI Playlist on YouTube

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