# First Backup Walkthrough

## Introduction

Welcome to Cloudback! This guide will walk you through understanding your first backup process. Cloudback is designed to automatically protect your GitHub repositories, so you will find that most of the work is already done after the installation process is complete. This guide covers how to monitor these automated backups and make any customizations you might need.

## Cloudback Dashboard

Cloudback provides a user-friendly dashboard to manage your backups, whether you have a single repository or multiple repositories across different organizations.

## Automated Backups

Cloudback automatically backs up your repositories to the cloud. After installing Cloudback, backups start automatically with sensible defaults: daily schedule, Cloudback Managed Storage, and 30-day retention. You can customize these settings anytime in [Account Settings](https://github.com/cloudback/docs-internal/blob/docs/managing-backups/account-settings.md).

## Your First Automated Backup

Your first backup will occur within 24 hours of setup. Check the **Backup** and **Last Run** columns on your dashboard to monitor progress.

For details about the dashboard layout and columns, see [Dashboard Overview](https://github.com/cloudback/docs-internal/blob/docs/dashboard/dashboard-overview.md).

## Performing a Manual Backup

While automated backups cover most needs, you might want to run a manual backup before a major change. Here is how:

1. From your dashboard, find the repository you want to back up.
2. Check the checkbox in the first column next to the repository.
3. When items are selected, action buttons appear in the toolbar: **Trigger**, **Restore**, and **Edit**. Additional buttons like **Reset** (to clear selections and filters) and **Export CSV** are also available.
4. Click the **Trigger** button to start the backup immediately.
5. A confirmation dialog will show the backup progress.

You can also select multiple repositories and click **Trigger** to back them all up at once.

## Accessing Your Backed-Up Data

Cloudback stores your backups in a secure cloud storage. You can access your backups at any time and restore them to your GitHub repositories. You can learn more about downloading backups in the [Download Backups](https://github.com/cloudback/docs-internal/blob/docs/data-restoration/download-backups.md) page.

To restore a backup to your GitHub repository, follow the steps in the [Restoring a Backup](https://github.com/cloudback/docs-internal/blob/docs/data-restoration/restoring-a-backup.md) page.

## Learn More

* [GitHub Backup Contents](https://docs.cloudback.it/github/backup-contents)
* [Account Settings](https://github.com/cloudback/docs-internal/blob/docs/managing-backups/account-settings.md)
* [Restoring a Backup](https://github.com/cloudback/docs-internal/blob/docs/data-restoration/restoring-a-backup.md)

Need help? [Contact support](https://github.com/cloudback/docs-internal/blob/docs/troubleshooting-and-support/contact-us.md).