Storage and backups
Understand where your boards live, keep the browser from clearing them, and check storage health.
Your boards and imported media live in your browser on this device. If the browser clears its data, those files can disappear.
Generated outputs are also kept on our servers for a limited time. See Generation history and errors.
When your data can be lost
Local files may be gone if you:
- clear browser data or site storage,
- use a private or incognito window,
- switch to a different browser or device,
- run low on disk space, so the browser cleans up on its own.
Ask the browser to keep your data
FlashBoards asks the browser to protect your boards. If it says no, you see Browser storage may not persist between sessions. Nothing is lost yet, but the browser may clear files later.
Open site data settings
Open browser Settings, then Privacy and security, Site settings, On-device site data.
Keep saving enabled
Keep Allow sites to save data on your device on.
Add FlashBoards
Under Allowed to save data on your device, click Add and enter flashboards.yaroflasher.com.
Chrome and Edge decide automatically, so the message may still appear, but the setting lowers the risk.
Storage warnings
When storage runs low, the triangle on the board-name button turns amber (Browser storage is getting full) or red (Browser storage is almost full). Open the Boards dropdown, click the banner, then Check Health. The question-mark icon opens the storage health guide.
Settings → Health uses its own rules, so it may not match this warning exactly.
Board Health
Board Health checks one board's media. It can rescue files that so far exist only in the open tab.
Open it
Click the archive icon in the Boards dropdown, then Check board health on the board's row. If a notice at the top says N media items can still be recovered before reload, click Review instead.
Review the groups
Items are grouped as recoverable before reload, saved copy unreadable, or not saved on this device.
Restore
Click Restore on a row, or Restore all, then Check again to confirm.
Local media looks healthy. means the board's local media passed the storage check. It does not verify a backup or remote media. A board with no local media shows No local files need recovery. Remote media and other board items are not stored here. If a restore fails, free some space or close heavy tabs and retry, or export the board. Board Health never deletes anything.
WarningReloading loses unsaved media
Media shown as recoverable exists only in this tab. Restore it or export the board before you reload the page.
Check storage health
Open Settings and select Health.
Storage Usage shows space used by boards and settings (localStorage, about 5 MB at most), by media (IndexedDB) and by caches, plus Per-board Media Usage. Click Refresh to update.
Analyze and clean the board library
Analyze
Under Board library diagnostics, click Analyze localStorage. It looks for empty or missing media and broken links.
Clean broken items
If it finds issues, click Clean Broken Library Items, then Clean Library. A backup is saved first, so you can undo it.
Remove unused media
Under Find unused media, click Analyze. If it finds unused media, click Clean Up, then Delete All. Media you started using in the meantime is kept.
You can't clean up while boards are loading or a generation is running.
In a browser, close other FlashBoards tabs first. While another tab is open, even in the background, the button reads Close other FlashBoards tabs to clean up storage and is disabled.
Clear Image Cache and Clear Thumbnails free memory straight away, with no confirmation.
WarningBack up before cleanup
Health can't recover media your browser has already removed. Export boards first, then clean up.
Export a debug file for support
In Health, click Export Storage Debug File on the Storage debug file card. Send the downloaded report to support.
Remote board storage
Published boards use server space, not your browser. Settings → Storage shows the Remote board storage meter with space used and available. See Publish a board for per-plan sizes.
Back up regularly
- Export important boards as
.refboardarchives. See Import and export. - Compress heavy videos before importing. See Media tools.
- Download generated outputs before they expire.
- If storage is full, export old boards, then delete unused boards or large media. In a browser, media from deleted boards is freed only when FlashBoards is open in a single tab; otherwise close the other tabs and run Clean Up.
- The Boards dropdown warns at 70% full for board data and 75% for overall browser storage, and turns red at 90%.
- If a restore fails, the message says whether the file can't be read or browser storage is unavailable.
- If a cleanup can't be saved because storage is full, it is undone in that tab. Export a debug file and contact support.
- Thumbnails can't be cleared while another FlashBoards tab is using them.
- Automatic space recovery when storage is full also runs only when FlashBoards is open in one tab.
- If browser board data is cleared or damaged while FlashBoards is open, the open tab restores your boards on the next change. Media the browser already removed can't be restored.
For agents
A connected agent can inspect a summary of storage use and health with execute_board_action (getStorageHealth) while your local board is open. This only reads the diagnostics; use Settings → Health yourself to recover files or clean up. See Archives and storage.