# Safe to perform AiiDA backup with unfinished processes?

**URL:** <https://aiida.discourse.group/t/safe-to-perform-aiida-backup-with-unfinished-processes/692>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [November 14, 2025, 11:17am UTC](https://aiida.discourse.group/t/safe-to-perform-aiida-backup-with-unfinished-processes/692 "2025-11-14T11:17:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ahkole](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/aiida.discourse.group/ahkole/32/256_2.png) [@ahkole](https://aiida.discourse.group/u/ahkole)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2025, 11:17am UTC](https://aiida.discourse.group/t/safe-to-perform-aiida-backup-with-unfinished-processes/692/1 "2025-11-14T11:17:20Z")

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I regularly backup my AiiDA profiles with the `verdi storage backup` command. My approach has always been to make sure all the processes have finished before performing a backup. However, I have been running longer and longer workflows lately and it’s becoming more and more difficult to find a moment where no process is running. To avoid the interval between backups becoming too long, I was wondering if it’s safe to perform a backup if there are still unfinished processes. The documentation says that to be safe you should ensure that the profile is not in use during a backup ([How to manage your installation — AiiDA 2.7.1 documentation](https://aiida.readthedocs.io/projects/aiida-core/en/stable/howto/installation.html#backing-up-your-data)). Is it sufficient to stop all the daemons, even if there are still unfinished/pending processes? Or do you really need to make sure that all processes are completed whenever you do a backup?

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**Author:** ![eimrek](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/aiida.discourse.group/eimrek/32/8_2.png) [@eimrek](https://aiida.discourse.group/u/eimrek)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2025, 1:08pm UTC](https://aiida.discourse.group/t/safe-to-perform-aiida-backup-with-unfinished-processes/692/2 "2025-11-14T13:08:17Z")

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Hi!  
For the `psql_dos` backend, the `verdi storage backup` is fine to be used even while running workflows. It’s good to stop the daemon, but even without stopping, it should work well.

Note that for optimal backups (fastest speed, best compression, etc), one should first run `verdi storage maintain`, and the `--full` version can’t be run at the same time as workflows are running. But this is optional.

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/aiida/original/1X/c417197d3750949351575d03ed03f5e2ad32e649.png) [@system](https://aiida.discourse.group/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2026, 3:00pm UTC](https://aiida.discourse.group/t/safe-to-perform-aiida-backup-with-unfinished-processes/692/3 "2026-05-21T15:00:46Z")

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