Back up your logbook to Dropbox or Google Drive
Keep an off-site copy of your logbook and documents. Download a one-off .zip, or connect Dropbox or Google Drive for an automatic weekly backup. This is a Pro feature.
Cloud backup keeps a copy of your logbook and documents outside Pilot Lab, in your own cloud storage. This is a Pro feature. On the Free plan the Cloud backup page explains what it does and offers the upgrade, but the controls are not available.
Open Settings and choose Cloud backup under your workspace settings. Workspace admins and members can use it.
Download a one-off backup
At the top of the page, Download a one-off backup builds a .zip of your logbook and documents right now. You do not need to connect anything. Press Download backup (.zip) and your browser saves it.
The file is named PL-BACKUP-<workspace>-<date>.zip.
Automatic weekly backup
Connect a provider and Pilot Lab backs up your logbook and documents once a week, overnight. Pilot Lab picks the time so uploads are spread out.
Two providers are supported:
- Dropbox
- Google Drive
OneDrive and iCloud are not supported.
Connecting
- Press Connect on Dropbox or Google Drive.
- Sign in to the provider and allow access. Pilot Lab only asks for access to its own folder, not the rest of your files.
- You come back to the Cloud backup page, now showing the account you connected.
The first backup runs within the week. The line under the provider name tells you where things stand, for example "last backed up 2 days ago".
If a provider says Not available on this deployment yet, it cannot be connected right now. You can still download a one-off backup.
Managing a connection
Each connected provider has:
- Weekly: a switch to turn the schedule on or off without disconnecting.
- Back up now: start a backup straight away. It runs in the background, and the page updates when it finishes.
- Disconnect: stop backing up to that provider. Backups already in your storage stay there.
- A run history showing when each backup ran, whether it was Scheduled, Manual or a Download, its result, size and number of files.
If the provider's permission expires, the connection shows Needs re-auth. Press Reconnect to sign in again and weekly backups resume.
Where backups go, and how many are kept
Backups are saved in a backups folder that Pilot Lab creates in your storage, with one dated folder per backup. Pilot Lab keeps the newest 14 and deletes older ones it created. It never touches anything else in your Dropbox or Drive.
What is in the backup
| In the zip | What it is |
|---|---|
logbook/entries.csv | Every entry that is not deleted, all statuses including drafts |
logbook/logbook.pdf | Your logbook as a readable document (sometimes logbook.html) |
logbook/pilot.json | Your name and licence details, as data |
notes/ | Your notes |
documents/ | The documents you uploaded, such as licences and medicals |
messages/ | Your conversations with Pilot Lab from your inbox, one file each |
integrity-certificate.pdf | A certificate for checking the logbook has not been altered |
manifest.json | A list of everything in the backup and a fingerprint of its contents |
If a document file is missing from storage, the backup fails rather than quietly leaving it out, so a backup that completes has everything.
Cloud backup and exports
A backup is for safekeeping. To hand a logbook to someone, such as the CAA or an employer, use Export your logbook, which offers the regulatory layouts and shareable links, and is available on every plan.
There is no restore button in Pilot Lab. A backup is a portable copy you can open yourself: the CSV opens in any spreadsheet, and the PDF and documents open as they are.