RefractSurvey Backups
Backups are how you get survey data out of RefractSurvey (or bring it into a different project or install) as a single downloadable file.
Exporting
From Manage > Backups, choose which surveys in the current project to export, and whether to include their responses. RefractSurvey packages everything — the chosen surveys' structure, their images, optionally their responses, and your entire shared template library — into a single zip file you can download and store wherever you like.
Access codes are never included in an export. They're specific to one deployment, so every install generates its own rather than inheriting anyone else's.
Importing
From a project's Import page, upload a previously exported backup zip. If an imported template's name collides with one that already exists, RefractSurvey automatically renames it (adding " (2)," " (3)," and so on) rather than overwriting anything or failing outright.
Importing through the browser is capped at a 25 MB upload, which covers the overwhelming majority of backups. For anything larger, see the command-line option below.
Importing very large backups from the command line
If a backup is too large to comfortably push through a browser upload, the same import logic is available as a command-line script:
php scripts/import_backup.php <project_id> <zip_path> [--with-responses] [--user <username>]
Add -l or --list-projects to see a project's ID if you don't already know it, or -h/--help for the full usage. This is the same underlying import used by the web form, just without the upload-size ceiling — it's meant to be run directly on the server, from inside the application folder.
Why this matters beyond backups
Because export/import round-trips a survey's full structure, it's also a convenient way to copy a survey (or an entire set of surveys and templates) from one project to another, or from a staging install to a production one, without rebuilding anything by hand.