Settings → Portable cartridge

A portable cartridge is your memory written to a drive, to open and use on another machine. A backup is a copy you restore from. A cartridge is a memory you carry. For the backup archive, see Settings → Backup & Restore.

The rail entry is Portable cartridge. The page title is Portable cartridge, marked Beta, and its subtitle reads Write the memory to a drive and read it back on another machine. In beta: report problems.

While the page reads your vaults it shows Reading what would travel…. When the vault list does not answer, it shows Could not read what would travel. The vault list did not answer.

What travels

Copied: the memory databases and the settings. Stay here: the documents, the model weights, the cartridges, the keys and API secrets.

The cartridge carries the vault databases and the configuration files that hold no secret. It never carries an encrypted key file: the cloud API keys, the wallet and the vault key stay on this machine. The other machine needs its own keys.

Write to a drive

The card Write to a drive starts with one line about encryption. Read it before you write.

Line	When
The vaults are encrypted, so the databases on the drive are too. The other machine will ask for the recovery phrase.	Encryption at rest is on and every vault is encrypted.
Encryption is armed, but these vaults are still in the clear on disk and would travel that way. Finish the migration first: followed by the vault names	Encryption is on, but some vaults are not encrypted yet.
The vaults are not encrypted, so this memory travels in the clear. Anyone who finds the drive can read it. To protect it, turn on encryption (Backup & Restore › Security).	Encryption at rest is off.

Encryption at rest is set on Settings → Backup & Restore.

Below the line, each vault that can travel has a checkbox, its name and its size. All of them are ticked when the page opens. A vault that cannot travel is listed under them with its reason:

• stays home: its database is not on disk.
• stays home: its database is still named after this machine.
• stays home: its database could not be read.

A vault needs a stable database name to travel. When no vault has one, the card says No vault can travel yet. A vault needs a stable name first (Vaults › Maintenance › database names).

1. Choose the vaults

   Untick the vaults that should stay home. The button stays greyed while no vault is ticked. The line About {size} next to the button gives the size of every vault that can travel, ticked or not.

2. Choose a drive and write

   Click Choose a drive and write and pick a folder, usually the root of a USB drive. The app writes a folder named Mnemosyne there, with a manifest mnemosyne.json, the databases in memory/ and the settings in config/. Cancelling the folder picker does nothing.

3. Read the result

   On success the page says Written. {n} vault(s) are on the drive. On failure it says The cartridge could not be written. When no chosen vault can travel, it says Nothing would travel: no vault has a stable name yet.

Open a cartridge

Pick the drive, or the Mnemosyne folder on it. The import asks for a confirmation.

Opening is two steps. Choose a cartridge only reads the drive and checks it. Nothing on this machine changes until you click the import button.

The verdict

After Choose a cartridge, the card shows one verdict:

Verdict	Meaning
This cartridge is intact.	Every file matches the manifest.
This cartridge is intact and signed.	Every file matches, and the signature was checked. This version cannot check signatures, so it shows the line above.
No cartridge here, or an unfinished export.	The folder holds no readable manifest.
This cartridge comes from a newer version of Mnemosyne OS. Update the app before reading it.	The format is newer than this app.
A file the cartridge promises is not on the drive.	A file is missing.
A file on the drive is not the one that was exported.	A file changed after the export.
The manifest does not describe these files. It was edited after the export.	The manifest itself changed.
The signature does not belong to the wallet it names.	The signature does not match. Only a version that checks signatures shows it.
The state of this cartridge is undetermined.	Any other case.

When the drive cannot be read at all, the page says That drive could not be read.

When the manifest carries a signature, a line names the signer, shortened: Signature recorded for {wallet}. This version does not verify it. This version of the app records signatures and does not check them.

When the cartridge was not closed properly, a line warns: This cartridge was last opened on {host} and never closed. It may have been removed while writing.

Import

When the verdict is good, each vault on the drive has a checkbox, its name and its size. All are ticked at first. The warning under them reads A vault of the same name on this machine will be replaced at the next start, without merging.

1. Choose the vaults to bring in

   Untick the vaults you do not want. A vault you keep ticked replaces the vault of the same name on this machine. The two are never merged.

2. Import and restart later

   Click Import and restart later. The app stages the chosen vaults. The page says {n} vault(s) staged. They are applied the next time Mnemosyne OS starts. The app does not restart by itself.

3. Restart Mnemosyne OS

   At the next start, the staged vaults replace the old ones before any vault opens.

When the import fails, the page says The import did not go through.

The settings files on the drive are handled differently from the vaults. The import copies them into ~/.mnemosyne right away, and each one replaces the file of the same name on this machine. They do not wait for the next start.

Some settings files on a drive can be turned away. The import still succeeds, and the result turns amber with one sentence per reason:

• That drive also carried a sealed key file. It was skipped: the keys on this machine stay intact.
• One entry on that drive named a path outside the settings folder. It was refused.
• The drive's passphrase record was skipped. This machine keeps its own, which opens the secrets already sealed here.