How to Back Up a Shelf Scan Library Before Changing Phones

A Shelf Scan Library is easy to underestimate because it does not look like a traditional database. It is just a set of shelf photographs, descriptions, and the information the app needs to make those images searchable.

That simplicity is exactly why it is worth backing up before changing phones. Rebuilding the library would mean re-photographing the physical collection.

Shelf Scan can export the Library as one ZIP file and restore it later. A phone migration is the moment to use that deliberately rather than assuming the old device will remain available if something goes wrong.

Make the backup while the old phone still works

Do not wait until the new phone is fully configured and the old one is already reset, traded in, or sitting in a shipping box.

On the old phone:

1. open Shelf Scan
2. make sure the Library contains the shelf images and descriptions you expect
3. use the Library backup/export function to create the ZIP
4. save or copy that ZIP somewhere that is not dependent on the old phone

The fourth step is the one people skip.

A backup file stored only on the device you are about to erase is not a migration plan. Move it to another computer, removable storage, a cloud drive you already use, or another location you control and can access from the new phone.

Shelf Scan itself does not require a cloud account. Where you temporarily store the exported ZIP is your choice.

Check the file before you trust it

The fact that an export finished without an error is encouraging, not conclusive.

Confirm that the ZIP exists in the destination you intended and has a plausible file size. A large shelf library containing many photographs should not produce a suspiciously tiny file.

Do not unzip and start rearranging the contents unless you have a reason to inspect them. The exported ZIP is intended as a Shelf Scan backup package. The important check is that the file was actually copied somewhere safe and is available to the new device.

If the old phone contains especially valuable or difficult-to-recreate shelf images, keeping a second copy of the ZIP until the migration is complete is cheap insurance.

Restore before erasing the old device

On the new phone, install Shelf Scan and use the restore function with the exported backup.

Then inspect the restored Library rather than assuming success from the presence of thumbnails.

Check several kinds of entries:

• an older shelf image
• a recently added one
• an image with a custom description
• a shelf from a different room or case

Run a few searches as well. The purpose of the library is retrieval, so a migration should be tested by retrieving something.

Only after the restored library behaves as expected should you treat the old phone as disposable.

A backup is more important when the physical collection is inconvenient to rescan

If every shelf is in the room beside you, losing the Library would be annoying.

If some photographs represent books in storage, a second home, an office, a classroom, or boxes that are no longer easy to open, losing them can remove the only convenient search layer you currently have.

The replacement cost of a Shelf Scan backup therefore depends less on the number of megabytes than on how difficult the physical scenes would be to reproduce.

A photograph of a stable shelf is replaceable. A photograph taken just before 30 boxes went into a storage unit is more valuable.

This is a useful way to decide how many backup copies to keep.

Update the backup after meaningful changes, not every minor move

You do not need to export a new ZIP because one paperback changed shelves.

Create a fresh backup when the saved Library changes enough that losing the changes would be irritating to reconstruct. Good moments include:

• after photographing a large new section of the collection
• after replacing many stale shelf images
• before changing or resetting a phone
• before a move
• after using Library Mode to index books that are about to go into storage

The backup cadence should follow the cost of redoing the work.

Do not confuse Android backup with a deliberate Shelf Scan export

Android devices may provide their own backup and device-transfer systems. Those can be useful, but they are controlled by Android, the device manufacturer, account settings, app eligibility, and the particular migration path.

Shelf Scan's ZIP export gives you something more explicit: a backup package you can see, copy, and restore yourself.

For a collection you care about, that is easier to reason about than I think the phone transfer probably carried the app data over.

You can use both. The deliberate export is the one you can verify before the old device disappears.

Keep the backup private if the shelf images are private

A Shelf Scan Library may reveal more than book titles. Photographs can show rooms, labels, documents, family names, or other objects near the shelves.

Treat the ZIP according to the sensitivity of the images inside it. If you would not publish the shelf photographs, do not casually leave the backup in a public share folder.

Shelf Scan's scanning and OCR work locally on the device. Exporting the Library is the point at which you choose where a copy goes.

The migration checklist

Before the old phone leaves your hands:

• current ZIP exported
• ZIP copied off the old device
• new phone can access the file
• Shelf Scan restored successfully
• several images and descriptions checked
• several keyword searches tested
• old device not erased until those checks pass

A visual shelf library is lightweight to maintain precisely because you did not spend hours typing a formal catalog. That does not make the photographs disposable. Back up the work you would otherwise have to stand in front of the shelves and do again.