RECOVERY

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VDBackup - recover a backup on a PC (Windows / macOS / Linux)

Your VDBackup backups use standard formats, so you can open them anywhere, without this module. A backup folder contains a manifest.json, the APKs (*.apk.zst) and the data archives (<item>.tar.zst, .tar.gz or .tar.lz4), optionally encrypted with a trailing .age.

Tools you may need

• zstd: https://github.com/facebook/zstd/releases (macOS: brew install zstd; Linux: apt install zstd)
• age (only for .age files): https://github.com/FiloSottile/age/releases
• tar is built into macOS, Linux and modern Windows 10/11.
• gzip is built in everywhere; for .tar.gz you need nothing extra.

1. Decrypt (only if the file ends with .age)

Keyfile (recommended):

age -d -i age.key -o data.tar.zst  data.tar.zst.age

Passphrase:

age -d -o data.tar.zst  data.tar.zst.age      # age will prompt for the passphrase

Do the same for each *.age file (APKs and data archives).

2. Decompress + extract

.tar.zst:

zstd -d data.tar.zst            # -> data.tar
tar  -xf data.tar               # extracts the files

.tar.gz:

tar -xzf data.tar.gz

.tar.lz4 (zstd reads lz4):

zstd -d --format=lz4 data.tar.lz4 -o data.tar
tar  -xf data.tar

APKs are just zstd-compressed APK (ZIP) files:

zstd -d base.apk.zst            # -> base.apk  (a normal installable APK)

Notes

• Extracted files keep their relative paths; the SELinux context, uid/gid and modes are inside the tar (and are reapplied properly only when you restore on Android).
• manifest.json describes exactly what each file is, the app version and the original owner/context. It is the source of truth.
• Nothing here is tied to a specific device: the same passphrase/keyfile works on any machine.