# Guided tour

This page follows the same path as first-run onboarding and then explains the
rest of the app. If you already skipped onboarding, you can use this page
without resetting VaultSync.

## The eight main pages

| Page | Use it for |
| --- | --- |
| Dashboard | Check restore readiness, required action, next run, newest known-good point, activity, and storage. |
| Projects | Discover projects; optionally place them in folders; edit, pause, remove, and snapshot them. |
| Schedule | Understand whether protection can run, what will participate, and the next timer opportunities or delays. |
| Backups | Run backups, tune each project, inspect restore points, compare snapshots, and restore. |
| History | Search all recorded activity and maintain labels, notes, tags, and protected points. |
| Recovery | Measure restore readiness, run read-only drills, review 3-2-1 coverage, and export a report. |
| Settings | Configure automation, destinations, encryption, storage safety, appearance, alerts, updates, and diagnostics. |
| Guide | Review workflows and the shared backup and recovery terminology. |

## First-run onboarding

![The onboarding card stays open while Settings remains clickable](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ATAC-Helicopter/VaultSync/Stable/docs/images/tour/onboarding-click-through.png)

The onboarding card tracks actual setup state. You can click the app behind it
and complete each action without skipping the tour.

1. Read the introduction and select **Next**.
2. Select **Open Settings**, then set **Projects root**.
3. Set a **Fallback backup location**, or enable advanced destinations and add
   one active destination.
4. Open **Projects** and register one project.
5. Open **Schedule** and review or choose the protection timing.
6. Open **Backups** and create the first restore point.
7. Review that restore point in **Backups**.
8. Open **Recovery** and run a drill. **Finish** becomes available only after
   the drill passes.

**Back** revisits the previous instruction. **Skip** closes the guide; it does
not change or delete any configuration.

## Dashboard

![VaultSync dashboard](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ATAC-Helicopter/VaultSync/Stable/docs/images/Dashboard.png)

- **Restore readiness**, **Required action**, **Next run**, and **Known good**
  put the most useful decisions first.
- Each overview card opens the page that can explain or resolve its state.
- **Backups this week** separates automatic, manual, and imported activity.
- **Recent activity** shows the newest backup events.
- **Storage usage** shows the largest consumers and can be sorted.

## Projects

![VaultSync projects page](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ATAC-Helicopter/VaultSync/Stable/docs/images/Projects_Page.png)

- Register a discovered folder before VaultSync starts tracking it.
- Choose a preset to apply suitable `.vaultsyncignore` rules.
- Create snapshots independently of copying them to a destination.
- Use project tags and avatars to keep larger libraries readable.
- Edit destination, preset, exclusions, tags, encryption, and automatic-backup
  state without leaving Projects.
- Optional folders keep assigned projects out of the top-level list, summarize
  member health, and provide folder-wide snapshot, backup, pause, and resume
  actions. Collapse a folder to hide its members without changing membership.
- Remove shows an exact preview: local registration and indexed history are
  removed, while source files and stored backup payloads remain untouched.

## Schedule

![VaultSync schedule page](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ATAC-Helicopter/VaultSync/Stable/docs/images/Schedule_Page.png)

- Choose manual protection or an automatic interval.
- Read the live readiness verdict for missing destinations, paused projects,
  battery power, and active quiet hours.
- Preview the next four timer opportunities after quiet-hours deferrals and
  review each project's inclusion and last-backup state.
- Use quick mode, interval, and quiet-hours edits here; they update the same
  saved values exposed in Settings.
- Remember that an opportunity is a check, not a promise to write data:
  unchanged projects are skipped.

## Backups

![VaultSync backups page](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ATAC-Helicopter/VaultSync/Stable/docs/images/Backup_Page.png)

- **Backup all** runs eligible registered projects.
- A project can enable automatic backups, choose a preferred destination,
  override encryption, set its restore mode, and set its verification policy.
- **Keep** protects an important restore point from normal retention cleanup.
- **Explore** browses a reachable folder or archive.
- **View diff** and **Compare** explain what changed between restore points.
- **Restore** copies selected backup content to a safe target chosen by you.
- A verification failure offers an explicit choice to keep or delete the
  affected backup; VaultSync does not silently discard it.

![Snapshot comparison with a text-file preview](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ATAC-Helicopter/VaultSync/Stable/docs/images/Compare_View.png)

## History

![Searchable history and restore-point details](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ATAC-Helicopter/VaultSync/Stable/docs/images/tour/history.png)

- Search by project or recorded detail.
- Filter by project, event type, date range, and protected state.
- Edit a selected snapshot's label, tags, and note.
- Protect or unprotect a point, compare it, open its backup, or continue to
  Recovery.

## Recovery

![Recovery readiness, coverage, and project matrix](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ATAC-Helicopter/VaultSync/Stable/docs/images/tour/recovery.png)

- **Recovery score** summarizes whether current restore points can be used.
- **Recovery coverage** shows the newest backup available within 24-hour,
  7-day, 30-day, and 90-day windows.
- The **3-2-1 protection advisor** checks three copies, two storage media, and
  one destination that you explicitly marked as offsite.
- Run a drill to prove linkage, reachability, readable inventory, stored bytes,
  and a read-only restore plan. A drill never writes into the live project.
- **Export evidence package** creates a portable ZIP with a readable report,
  versioned JSON, a manifest, and checksums that can be inspected without
  VaultSync.

## Guide

![VaultSync in-app guide](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ATAC-Helicopter/VaultSync/Stable/docs/images/Guide_Page.png)

- Topic cards connect everyday actions to Projects, Schedule, Backups,
  History, and Recovery.
- The glossary keeps backup, snapshot, restore point, verification, known
  good, protected, and recovery drill distinct.

## Settings

![The top of Settings](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ATAC-Helicopter/VaultSync/Stable/docs/images/tour/settings.png)

Settings are intentionally presented as one scrollable page. The complete
control-by-control explanation is in [Settings reference](Settings-Reference).

### General, scheduling, and transfer

![General, scheduling, retention, and transfer settings](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ATAC-Helicopter/VaultSync/Stable/docs/images/Settings_General.png)

This area controls startup behavior, automatic-backup timing, retention
simulation, history synchronization, quiet hours, and bandwidth limits.

### Destinations

![Advanced local, external, and network destination settings](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ATAC-Helicopter/VaultSync/Stable/docs/images/Settings_Destinations.png)

Advanced destinations expose mount ownership, offsite classification, history
sync, retry and resume behavior, quota planning, and credential selection.

### Encryption and performance

![Encryption, backup format, and performance settings](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ATAC-Helicopter/VaultSync/Stable/docs/images/Settings_Encryption_Performance.png)

Encryption credentials, compression, delta transfer, incremental backups,
hashing, verification, and scan-cache tradeoffs are kept together so their
dependencies remain visible.

### Maintenance and updates

![Maintenance, repair planning, metadata conflicts, and update settings](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ATAC-Helicopter/VaultSync/Stable/docs/images/Settings_Maintenance.png)

Diagnostics and maintenance use reviewable scans and dry-run plans. Update
status, metadata-conflict choices, and repair actions remain explicit.
Reset, cache clearing, forgetting the local project index, credential removal,
and encryption-password removal each show their exact effect before execution.

### Themes

<p align="center">
  <img width="49%" alt="Dark theme gallery" src="../images/Theme_Gallery_Dark.png" />
  <img width="49%" alt="Light theme gallery" src="../images/Theme_Gallery_Light.png" />
</p>

## Tray, mini widget, and notifications

- The tray menu can open VaultSync, run Backup all or Snapshot all, open recent
  backups, and quit the background process.
- The optional mini widget follows tray-started backup progress without opening
  the main window.
- Notifications can report successes, failures, and low disk space
  independently.

## Safe next steps

After the first backup, run a Recovery drill, test every advanced destination,
and compare two restore points. Those three actions prove that VaultSync is not
only creating data, but that you can find, read, and understand it.