> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://second.tech/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Back up your wallet

Before accepting any payments, make sure you back up your store's wallet.

1. **[Write down the recovery phrase](#write-down-the-recovery-phrase):** This is enough to recover the wallet's balance in the event of a system failure. Recovery from the phrase alone requires the Ark server's cooperation, and it doesn't restore the payment history or the state of any in-progress exits.
2. **[Set up continuous backups](#set-up-continuous-backups)** (optional): A backup that you fully control, with the entire payment history included.

The [Backups](/docs/backups) page explains the mechanics behind both in more depth.

## Write down the recovery phrase

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the Bark settings">
    Go to **Bark** > **Settings**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Reveal the phrase">
    Select **View Seed** in the **Backup** section.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Write down the words">
    Copy them in order, somewhere safe and offline. The phrase never changes, so this is a one-time step.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Set up continuous backups

Each store's wallet lives in BTCPay Server's data directory, under `bark/stores/<store ID>`, with its recovery phrase alongside. On a standard Docker deployment, that directory sits inside the BTCPay data volume on your server's disk.

<Warning>
  Your backups contain the wallet's keys. The recovery phrase is stored in plain text, and anyone who can read the wallet directory or its backups can spend the wallet's bitcoin, so restrict access to both.
</Warning>

We don't have a mature continuous backup solution for the Bark plugin yet. For adventurous users, some options to consider:

* **[bark-backupd](https://gitlab.com/ark-bitcoin/labs/bark-backupd):** Second's experimental backup daemon. It watches a wallet directory, snapshots the database on every change, encrypts each snapshot with a key derived from the recovery phrase, and ships it to a cloud drive or any S3-compatible target. Test `bark-backupd restore` before you rely on it.
* **[Litestream](https://litestream.io/):** A streaming replicator that keeps a live, off-machine copy of the wallet database. The wallet database isn't formally tested in the WAL journal mode Litestream requires, so treat the approach as experimental.

Regular [BTCPay backups](https://docs.btcpayserver.org/Docker/backup-restore/) are a baseline whole-server backup, but they typically aren't frequent enough for a reliable Bark wallet backup.

<Warning>
  If a backup misses your latest wallet changes, recovering the whole balance will require restoring from the recovery phrase, which relies on the Ark server's cooperation.
</Warning>