Saving & Recovery

Novaboard saves your work as you draw. There is no Save button to forget in the web app. This page explains where your files live, how to keep copies outside the browser, and what happens when storage fills up, a history grows long, or something goes wrong.

Automatic Saving

Every file, with its layers, frames, palette and full history, is stored in your browser's local storage (IndexedDB) on your device. Each change is written a moment after you make it. Pending writes are flushed when you switch away from the tab or close it, so closing the tab right after a stroke keeps that stroke.

After the first successful save in a session, Novaboard asks the browser to keep its storage persistent. Browsers may otherwise clear a site's storage on their own when the disk runs low. Some browsers grant this silently, others decide based on how often you use the site.

Browser storage belongs to one browser profile on one device. Your files are not in another browser, another profile, a private window after it closes, or on another device. Clearing your browsing data for novaboard.app deletes them. Keep a copy of important work with Save to Disk.

Pressing Ctrl+S in the web app does not save anything, because there is nothing left to save; it shows a reminder that your work saves automatically and points to Save to Disk.

Saving to Disk

File → Save to Disk… ( Ctrl+Shift+S ) writes the open file as a .nova project file. A small dialog lets you choose what the file carries:

  • Include edit history: the full version history (on by default).
  • Include replay anchors: speeds up history scrubbing when the file is reopened. Turn it off for a smaller file; the anchors are rebuilt as needed.
  • Include reference images.
  • Bundle referenced files: files used as external objects travel inside the project.
  • Embed imported fonts, with the size each font adds.

In Chrome, Edge and other Chromium browsers you pick the folder and name; other browsers download the file to your downloads folder. Open it again with File → Open… ( Ctrl+O ) or by dropping it onto the window.

In the desktop app, Save ( Ctrl+S ) writes straight to the file's place on disk, Save As… picks a new one, and Autosave to Disk keeps that file up to date.

The .nova format

A .nova file is a zip archive with readable parts: file.json for the size, color mode and settings, timeline.json for frames, timing and tags, palette.json, and a folder per layer holding one PNG per cel. The history is optional. Opening a .nova brings back everything it holds. To save the whole workspace at once, use Save Workspace… on the file grid, which writes a .novaspace file. See Import & Export.

The Same File in Two Tabs

Only one browser tab at a time can save a given file. If you open a file that another tab is already editing, this tab shows it read-only with the notice This file is open in another tab. You're viewing it read-only here. Edits there are refused, and on the file grid that file's Rename, Duplicate, Move and Delete items are disabled.

When the other tab closes the file, this tab reloads the file from storage and becomes the one that edits it. If that refresh fails, the notice offers Retry refresh and the file stays read-only until it succeeds. Other files open in both tabs are not affected.

Right after a file opens it is read-only for a moment, with the notice Checking write access, until Novaboard confirms no other tab holds it. A few browsers can't tell whether another tab has the file open. There every tab stays editable and the notice warns that if you open the file twice, the last save wins.

When Storage Is Full

If the browser refuses a write because storage is full, Novaboard says so: Storage is full, so your latest changes aren't saved yet. Your changes stay in the open tab and Novaboard keeps retrying in the background. While it does:

  1. Keep the tab open.
  2. Use the notice's Export button, or Save to Disk, to get a copy of the file out.
  3. Free space: delete files you no longer need from the file grid, shrink long histories (below), or free disk space on your device.

When a retry succeeds, the notice is replaced with There's room in storage again, and your changes are saved.

Other save errors show Couldn't save your work. with a Retry button. When the browser's storage itself has broken, retrying cannot help, so the button is Export instead. Opening or importing a file that would need more than 120 MB of browser storage is refused before anything is written.

In the desktop app, a failed write to a .nova file (for example a full disk) shows Autosave failed once. That file is skipped until your next edit, and your work stays in the app.

Long Histories

Every edit is kept as a version, so a file you work on for a long time builds a large history. Novaboard watches each file's history and offers to shrink it, at most once per file per session, when:

  • it holds more than 3,500 changes,
  • it keeps more than 512 MB of older drawing states, or
  • your device is running low on storage and the history holds more than 64 MB.

The prompt, This file's history is getting large, can be put off with Later, or silenced for that file with Don't ask for this file.

At 5,000 changes the history is too deep to stay fast: undo, the History panel and the background check slow down and can freeze the editor. At that point a dialog that cannot be put off asks you to make the history smaller before you keep drawing, and offers to save a .nova copy first.

Shrinking a history yourself

The More history actions menu (⋮) at the top of the History panel has four commands. Each opens a dialog that shows how much it frees before you confirm.

  • Trim history…: keeps the most recent changes, or changes newer than 1 hour, 24 hours or 7 days, and folds everything older into the file's starting point.
  • Compact history…: merges runs of consecutive changes into one, aiming for a number of versions or merging a set number of changes at a time. The newest 50 changes are never merged, and named versions, branches and structural changes are kept.
  • Clear history…: folds every version into the starting point and keeps the current picture.
  • Drop other branches…: deletes every branch except the one you are on.

Collapse Old History Automatically, in User Preferences under Editor Behavior, folds old versions into the starting point on its own once a file's history passes 64 MB. It is off by default.

If Your Work Seems Lost

Before assuming the worst, check these, in order:

  1. The filter field. The file grid's Filter files box hides every file whose name does not match. Clear it.
  2. Collapsed groups. A collapsed group hides its files. Right-click a group and choose Expand all groups.
  3. The workspace. Each workspace has its own files. Open the workspace selector at the top of the grid and look in the others.
  4. Recently deleted. Deleted files stay there for at least 30 days. Click Recently deleted at the top of the file grid and restore the file. See File Grid.
  5. The History panel. If the file is there but the drawing is not, open History (—). You may be on an older version or another branch: Back to latest, or the Graph button, takes you to the rest of your work.
  6. Another tab. If the file opens read-only, it is being edited in another tab or window. Switch to that one.
  7. The same browser, profile and address. Files live in the browser and profile you made them in, at novaboard.app. A different browser, profile or private window starts empty.
  8. Saved copies. Look in your downloads folder for .nova files from Save to Disk, and open them with File → Open….

If Novaboard cannot reach the browser's storage at all when it starts, it shows Couldn't open local storage and says your work is still there. Reload the page to try again. In the desktop app, files with changes that never reached disk are listed at the next launch with a Save now button.

Privacy

Your artwork and preferences are stored on your device and are not uploaded to Novaboard's servers. See the privacy policy for the details.