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Exporting and importing FLOW's settings
Exporting and importing FLOW's settings

Learn how to export and import the settings of the FLOW Block to make a backup or help our support team identify problems.

DataFromSky avatar
Written by DataFromSky
Updated over 3 years ago

In IT, you can never go wrong with making backups. Ideally, creating and using them should be fast, easy, and save you a lot of time and headaches. With this goal in mind, FLOW features an ability to export and import FLOW Block's settings. Let's see what it includes and how it works.

You can find the corresponding menu under Block settings, but only if you log in to the Block with and account that has the Admin role. Otherwise, it'll be hidden.

Exporting settings

When you export settings, FLOW creates a .zip archive on the hard drive of the machine that runs FLOW Insights. This archive can only be extracted through the import process by a FLOW Block or by FLOW's support team. It contains all the settings available in FLOW Insights, namely:

  • All existing analytics—their settings including the layout of the operator canvas and the dashboard,

  • All existing users—their information and credentials,

  • Block settings—its name,

  • All existing interfaces—their settings, and

  • Other helpful data like the Block's software version.

The following data will not be saved:

  • The current status of the analytics' analysis, trajectories, and cache,

  • Any other information not relevant to the Block, like the specifics of the user and machine running FLOW Insights.

To export the settings, select Browse, pick a name and location for the archive, and select Export.

Importing settings

Importing settings loads all settings mentioned in the previous section into the Block. While doing this, you need to be careful of several things:

  • All your previous settings will be lost.

  • No other user must be logged in to the Block, otherwise, some of their settings might try to override yours and the Block may end up with an invalid configuration.

  • The imported settings must originate from a FLOW Block version that is lower or the same as the Block's current version.

  • If a connection or other error occurs during the import process, the original settings will be restored.

  • As the new settings will also change user configuration, you'll have to log out after the import process and log in as a user that's valid within the new configuration.

  • The imported settings must originate from the same FLOW device type.

To import the settings, select Browse, find an archive created by the export function, and select Import.

Usefulness in troubleshooting

Whenever you run into a problem with which you need assistance from the FLOW's support team, don't forget to include your exported settings. They will be of great help to pinpoint the problem you're having and speed up its resolution.

If you need any help, click the button on the bottom right to chat with us or contact us here. We're happy to help!

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