How to Backup Your FlutterFlow Database (Firestore)

Log into Firebase Console at console.firebase.google.com. Select your project. In the left sidebar, click Firestore Database. Click the Import/Export button in the top-right area of the Firestore panel. Click Export. Choose a Cloud Storage destination: select your default Firebase Storage bucket (it is displayed as gs://your-project.appspot.com). Add a folder path like backups/manual/2026-03-29. Leave Collection IDs blank to export the entire database. Click Export. The export runs as an asynchronous operation — you can monitor progress in the Firebase Console Operations panel. A full export of a typical FlutterFlow app (under 100,000 documents) takes 1-5 minutes. The exported files appear in your Cloud Storage bucket as a folder with metadata and data files.

Using your default Firebase Storage bucket for backups mixes user-uploaded files with database exports, complicating lifecycle management. Create a separate bucket: go to Google Cloud Console at console.cloud.google.com → Cloud Storage → Buckets → Create. Name it your-project-id-firestore-backups. Set location type to the same region as your Firestore database (check Firestore → Data → your database location). Set default storage class to Nearline (designed for infrequently accessed data, lower storage cost). Enable Versioning is optional. Set a lifecycle rule: delete objects older than 30 days. This lifecycle rule automatically prunes old backups without manual cleanup. Click Create. Grant the Firebase Admin SDK service account (firebase-adminsdk@your-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com) the Storage Admin role on this bucket via IAM & Admin.

Create a Firebase Cloud Function named firestoreDailyBackup using the Cloud Scheduler trigger. Set the schedule to '0 2 * * *' (runs at 2:00 AM UTC daily, during low-traffic hours). In the function, build the destination URI using today's date for organized folder structure: gs://your-project-id-firestore-backups/daily/YYYY-MM-DD. Call admin.firestore().exportDocuments({ outputUriPrefix: destinationUri, collectionIds: [] }) where empty collectionIds means all collections. After the export call, write a backup_log document to Firestore with status, timestamp, destinationUri, and any error message. Set up a Firebase Alert: if the backup_log document shows status 'error', send an email notification via Firebase Extensions or a Cloud Function trigger.

1const { onSchedule } = require('firebase-functions/v2/scheduler');
2const admin = require('firebase-admin');
3
4if (!admin.apps.length) admin.initializeApp();
5
6exports.firestoreDailyBackup = onSchedule(
7  {
8    schedule: '0 2 * * *',
9    timeZone: 'UTC',
10    retryCount: 3
11  },
12  async () => {
13    const db = admin.firestore();
14    const now = new Date();
15    const dateStr = now.toISOString().split('T')[0]; // YYYY-MM-DD
16
17    const projectId = process.env.GCLOUD_PROJECT;
18    const bucket = `${projectId}-firestore-backups`;
19    const outputUri = `gs://${bucket}/daily/${dateStr}`;
20
21    let status = 'success';
22    let errorMessage = null;
23
24    try {
25      const client = new admin.firestore.v1.FirestoreAdminClient();
26      const databaseName = client.databasePath(projectId, '(default)');
27      const [operation] = await client.exportDocuments({
28        name: databaseName,
29        outputUriPrefix: outputUri,
30        collectionIds: [] // empty = export all collections
31      });
32      console.log(`Backup started: operation ${operation.name}`);
33    } catch (err) {
34      status = 'error';
35      errorMessage = err.message;
36      console.error('Backup failed:', err);
37    }
38
39    // Log backup result to Firestore for monitoring
40    await db.collection('backup_logs').add({
41      date: dateStr,
42      destinationUri: outputUri,
43      status,
44      errorMessage,
45      createdAt: admin.firestore.FieldValue.serverTimestamp()
46    });
47  }
48);

Firestore PITR is a built-in feature on the Blaze plan that lets you restore data to any point within the last 7 days, without maintaining separate export files. To enable: go to Firebase Console → Firestore → Data → your database. Click Settings (gear icon) near the database name. Toggle Enable Point-in-Time Recovery to on. PITR costs approximately $0.10 per GB per month additional. Once enabled, you can restore a single document, a collection, or the entire database to any timestamp within the retention window using the Firebase CLI or the Firestore API. PITR is not a replacement for daily exports — it only covers 7 days, and a ransomware attack or gradual data corruption discovered 8 days later is not recoverable. Use PITR + daily exports together.

A backup is only valuable if it restores successfully. At least once per quarter, test the restore process. Create a new Firebase project (free) named your-app-restore-test. In Firebase Console on the test project, go to Firestore → Import/Export → Import. Enter the source path: gs://your-project-id-firestore-backups/daily/[most recent date]. Click Import. After the import completes, verify in the test project's Firestore Console that key collections (users, orders, etc.) contain the expected data with reasonable document counts. This confirms your backup files are valid and the restore process works. Delete the test project after verification to avoid ongoing costs. Document the restore procedure in a runbook so that in a real incident, the team can restore quickly under pressure.