How to Back Up and Restore Tally Data, Step by Step (Without Losing Today's Work)

November 2026

Before you start

TallyPrime has its own backup and restore, and it works well, as long as you know two things: where the copies go, and what Restore does when a company is already there. Most data lost during a "restore" is lost because someone restored over the live company and wiped the work entered since the backup.

This guide follows the menus in recent TallyPrime releases, as described in Tally's own help pages. Older releases and Tally.ERP 9 use different menus, so if your screen does not match, check the help for your release.

Taking a backup

  1. Press Alt+Y (Data) > Backup & Restore > Backup.
  2. Check the Backup Data Path. This is the folder the backup is written to. Press Backspace to change it. Do not leave it inside the Tally data folder: a backup on the same disk as the data is lost with it.
  3. Select the companies, one by one, or choose All Items to back up every company in the list. If you have more than one company, or a split financial year, back up all of them.
  4. Choose End of List and press Enter.

Tally writes one file per company, named after the company number, for example TDBK1800_100000. If a backup with the same name is already in the folder, Tally asks whether to overwrite it. If you say no, the new file gets a number added, such as TDBK1800_100000_1, then _2, and so on.

Tip: write the company numbers down with the company names. On the day you need to restore, you will be choosing between files named only by number.

Scheduled backup

From Release 7.0, TallyPrime can also run backups on a schedule (Alt+Y > Backup & Restore > Schedule Backup), keep a number of past versions (7 by default), and save to a local drive or to TallyDrive, Tally's own cloud storage. Check the current options and what needs a Tally subscription on Tally's backup page.

Restoring a backup

  1. Press Alt+Y (Data) > Backup & Restore > Restore.
  2. Check the Restore Data Path. This is where the company will be restored. Read it carefully before going further (see the warning below).
  3. Under the list of companies, pick the drive or folder that holds your backup, then select the company.
  4. If there are several versions, pick one from the List of Versions. The newest is at the top.
  5. Press Ctrl+A to restore.

The warning: Skip or Replace

If the company already exists in the Restore Data Path, Tally offers two choices:

  • Skip cancels the restore for that company. Nothing changes.
  • Replace overwrites the existing company with the backup. Tally's own help says this permanently deletes the existing data and cannot be undone.

So if your live company is in that path, Replace throws away everything entered since the backup was taken: today's bills, this week's receipts, perhaps months of work if the backup was old. When in doubt, choose Skip.

The safe way: restore beside, not over

To check a backup, or to pull back one old voucher, never restore into your live data folder. Instead:

  1. Make a new, empty folder, for example D:\TallyRestoreTest.
  2. In Restore, change the Restore Data Path to that folder and restore the company there.
  3. Open the restored company from that folder, choosing the option to select a company from a different path or drive.
  4. Check it: the last voucher date, a bank balance you know, and a report such as last month's GST summary.
  5. Close it and delete the test folder when you are done, so nobody keeps working in the old copy by mistake.

Your live company is never touched. If the backup is good, you have proved it. If it is not, you have found out on a calm day instead of a bad one. Our guide to checking a backup really restores has a simple monthly checklist.

Where to keep the backups

A Tally backup is only as safe as the place it is kept:

  • Not on the same disk as the data. A failed disk or a stolen PC takes both.
  • Not on a pen drive that stays plugged in. Ransomware locks every drive the PC can reach. See Google Drive, pen drive or online backup?
  • More than one copy, kept for weeks. If a mistake or damaged data is found late, last night's copy holds the same problem.

How JS1 Vault helps

JS1 Vault backs up your Tally data folder every evening, along with your other folders and files. Installed on the PC that holds the data, it takes the copy even if Tally was left open. Only the files that changed are sent, and earlier versions are kept. Copies are encrypted on your PC, kept in India, and cannot be changed or deleted from your PC. When you need data back, the PC's Windows administrator brings the folder back from the JS1 Vault icon, or our technician does it with you, always into a new folder beside your live data, never over it.

More reading: back up Tally data automatically and Tally data corrupted? How to repair it.

See how JS1 Vault backs up your Tally data, or start a free trial.

TallyPrime and TallyDrive are trademarks of Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd. JS1 Software is not affiliated with Tally Solutions. Menu names are from Tally's public help pages and may change between releases.

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