Your Data

Lino is local-first. Every change you make is written to a database on your own computer first; sync to your account is a copy of that, not the other way round. This page covers where your library is, what happens offline and across devices, and every way to get something back or get everything out.

Where your work is stored

Your library is one SQLite database on your computer, with one folder per account:

• macOS — ~/Library/Application Support/Lino/users/<account>/lino.db
• Windows — %APPDATA%\Lino\users\<account>\lino.db

<account> is your account's ID (a long string of letters and numbers), not your email. The same folder holds your images, link previews, recordings, version history and the daily backups.

If you use Lino without signing in, your work is kept in users/anonymous. When you sign in later, Lino asks Claim local anonymous work? — click Claim work to move it into your account, or Not now to leave it where it is.

The database is an ordinary file and is not separately encrypted. It is protected the way your other documents are, by your system's disk encryption. We recommend turning that on: FileVault on macOS, BitLocker on Windows.

Working offline

The network is never in the way of an edit. Dragging a Card, typing, drawing or editing a Table writes to the local database at once, with no round trip.

While you're signed in, each change is also put in a queue inside that same database, to be uploaded. If you're offline, the queue simply waits. Quitting Lino or restarting your computer does not empty it. The next time you're online, the changes go up in the order you made them.

Sync across devices

When you're signed in, your library syncs through your Lino account so all your devices agree. In the app's words (Settings → Data & Privacy → Data security): Everything you make in Lino is stored on this computer first. When you're signed in, it syncs to your Lino account over an encrypted connection, and no other account can read it.

Sync is not end-to-end encrypted: your work is stored readably on Lino's servers, as in most hosted apps.

When two devices edit the same thing

Say you edit the "Photosynthesis" Card on your laptop on a train with no signal, and edit the same Card on your desktop at home. When the laptop comes back online, Lino settles it per object — this one Card, not your whole library:

1. The later edit wins and becomes what you see on both devices.
2. The edit that lost is not thrown away. It is saved as a version in that Card's history.
3. Lino tells you once, for example: An edit from another device replaced yours; your version is in history, or Two devices edited the same item; the earlier version is in history.
4. Open the Card's version history (below), compare, and restore the one you meant.

This applies to Cards, Tables, Sketches and Sparks. Deleting something is not kept this way: if one device deletes an object while another edits it, the later change wins.

Check sync status

Settings → Data & Privacy → Data security → Cloud sync shows Last synced and when it happened. If the server refused some changes, it says N items couldn't sync. They're safe on this device., lists them by reason, and offers Retry.

Version history

Cards, Tables, Sketches, Decks and Sparks keep their own history, so you can go back to an earlier version of one object without touching anything else.

Open it

Right-click the object → View history. It's in the same menu on the Canvas, in the Artifacts Gallery and on the object's tab in the Right Panel. The Version History window opens.

When a version is saved

• Cards — when you stop editing (click away from the Card), every 10 minutes while you keep editing, before Lino AI changes the Card, after you restore a version, and when a sync conflict needs to keep the losing edit.
• Tables, Sketches and Decks — when you start editing again after 10 minutes or more, Lino saves how it looked before. Also before Lino AI changes one, and when a sync conflict needs to keep the losing edit.
• Sparks — when it's made, and each time its program changes: how it was before and how it is after. What a Spark saves while you use it (a board's cards, a game's score) is not part of its history.

Each object keeps up to 50 versions. Versions made before an AI change or by a sync conflict are protected from being trimmed first. Versions sync with your account, so a Card's history is there on your other computer too. Changes made by Lino AI are marked AI edited in the list.

Who made each version

Each version in the list shows the faces of who made the changes that led to it; hover for their names. A change Lino AI made says who asked for it, for example Lino AI, asked by Chris. Versions saved before Lino kept this show no faces.

Switch on Who wrote what at the top of the window to see the object as it is now, one part per row — a paragraph, a cell, a slide, a Spark's program — with who last wrote each. A part whose writer isn't known says Not known.

Restore a version

1. Pick a version in the list. The window shows what restoring it would change.
2. Click Restore. You'll see Restored — ⌘Z to undo.

Restoring is an ordinary edit: ⌘Z undoes it, and the version you replaced is kept in the history. Restoring a Spark brings back its program; what it has saved while you used it stays as it is.

Get back something you deleted

Deleting an Artifact does not destroy it right away. For 30 days it stays in the Artifacts Gallery under the Deleted filter ("Deleted things stay here for 30 days").

1. Open the Artifacts Gallery and choose the Deleted filter.
2. Hover a tile to see how long it has left (Removed forever in N days).
3. Drag it onto a Canvas to put it back.

It comes back with its Connections to things that still exist. Its old places on other Canvases do not come back — it goes where you drop it. Right after a delete, ⌘Z also brings it back. After 30 days it is removed for good.

This covers Cards, Images, Links, Sketches, Tables and Sparks. See Artifacts Gallery.

Backups

Daily backups on your computer

Lino saves a copy of your library once a day, and keeps the last 7 (A copy of everything on this device is saved once a day; the last 7 are kept.). The first one of the day is made when Lino is idle.

You'll find them in Settings → Data & Privacy → Data security → Backups, each listed by date and size.

To restore one:

1. Click the restore button on its row (Restore to this day).
2. Read the confirmation, Restore everything to how it was on …? It explains that things you changed since then go back to how they were that day, and things you made since then move to Deleted. Everything as it is now will be saved first.
3. Click Restore.

Nothing made after that day is destroyed — it moves to Deleted for 30 days — and Lino saves the current state before restoring, so a restore you didn't mean can be undone.

The daily backup holds your library's database: your Cards, Canvases, Connections and other objects. The image and link files themselves stay in your library folder and are not copied again each day. To keep a copy of those too, use Export all.

Export all

In the same Backups row, Export all saves one zip file, lino-export-<date>.zip. It holds a library.json with everything in your library, plus the images and link_assets folders it refers to. Do this before moving to a new computer, or whenever you want a copy that doesn't depend on Lino.

To export single Cards, Images, Sketches or Tables, see Export.

Your account and devices

Settings → Account shows:

• Profile — your avatar, name and how you sign in.
• Devices — every computer signed in to your account, with its system and the date it was added (for example Desktop app · macOS 15.1 · Added Aug 30). The one you're on is marked This device. To sign another device out, click its Log out button; it is logged out within the hour.
• Account — Log out on this device, or Log out of all devices.

Logging out does not delete anything: your library stays on this computer and in your account.

Plans and your data

Your plan affects how much you can make, not whether your work is kept. The Free plan includes one Space and up to 100 Artifacts; Settings → Subscription shows your usage. If you move from a paid plan to Free, everything you made stays — you just can't add more beyond the Free limits. Sync, version history, Deleted and backups work on every plan.

Lino AI and your data

When you ask Lino AI for something, only what that request needs is sent to the AI model, and only to answer it (Settings → Data & Privacy → Privacy). Requests go through Lino's server to the AI model provider.

To keep a Card or any other Artifact out of Lino AI's sight completely, right-click it → Hide from AI. For the full details — what is read, what is sent, and every way to keep something out — see Privacy & What Is Sent.

Settings → Data & Privacy → Privacy also has Share usage statistics, which you can turn off.

If something goes wrong