Does Mac Time Machine keep a backup of my local Web storage?

June 19, 2015 12:59 AM

Trying to retrieve some local key-value storage info from Google Chrome from 3 hours ago, from before it got erased. Is this posisble?

Wondering whether there a file this stuff is kept in -- for example, in ~/Library -- where I could find a version of it, from back then, before it got erased? I see some Application Support files under IndexedDB with names relating to the domain, like http_twinery.org_0.indexeddb.leveldb but not sure what to do with them. Are they sqlite?

(If it helps the domain is twinery.org)

posted by johngoren to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Best answer: Those files are leveldb files, not sqlite. There is a command line tool that may be capable of reading them, which you could try installing through homebrew.

An easier approach might be the following:
1. Quit Chrome
2. Make a copy of your current Chrome proifle (~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome, or maybe just the Default/ directory inside of there)
3. Copy the old files back from your Time Machine backup
4. Launch Chrome
5. Use Chrome's web inspector tools to get the key-value data

I'm not sure if this will work if you have Chrome's syncing setup, but it should let you get at the data otherwise.
posted by zachlipton at 1:06 AM on June 19, 2015

Best answer: As far as the files themselves, there are a few types of local web storage. The IndexedDB files are for a SQL-like database. Websites might also store data in files in the "Local Storage/" directory, which is a simpler key-value store. And of course there are cookies, which are in their own file.
posted by zachlipton at 1:09 AM on June 19, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks.
posted by johngoren at 12:42 PM on June 19, 2015