# What is the most important file/data folder in the discourse?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-most-important-file-data-folder-in-the-discourse/299710>\
**Category:** Self-hosting\
**Created:** [March 17, 2024, 4:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-most-important-file-data-folder-in-the-discourse/299710 "2024-03-17T16:33:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 4

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**Author:** ![merefield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/merefield/32/176214_2.png) [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 8:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-most-important-file-data-folder-in-the-discourse/299710/4 "2024-03-17T20:15:13Z")

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In ~6 years of running one site I’ve not had a _single_ event of data loss due to the software - that’s how stable and reliable the Discourse tech stack is (inc. the _incredible_ Linux).

You can take a snapshot of a VPS usually at any time, but the daily backups are more than good enough imho.

the data folder is `/var/discourse/shared`

you should keep a copy of `app.yml` somewhere safe too.

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-most-important-file-data-folder-in-the-discourse/299710)._