# BACKUP FILES FOLDER SETTING

This setting controls where AyaNova stores backup and restore files used by the backup and restore features built into AyaNova.
In addition this folder is used when importing from an AyaNova 7 export file.

Warning: this folder MUST NOT be the same location set for [AYANOVA_FOLDER_USER_FILES](ops-config-folder-user-files.md) or AyaNova will not start.

## Default

If no override is specified AyaNova will store backup files in a `backupfiles` folder in the AyaNova root folder where AyaNova is started from.

## Overriding

AyaNova expects the backup files folder path to be provided by an environment variable or command line parameter named

`AYANOVA_FOLDER_BACKUP_FILES`

The value specified should be a string containing a fully qualified file path for the platform, for example:
`c:\data\ayanova\backupfiles`

Example command line parameter

`dotnet run --AYANOVA_FOLDER_BACKUP_FILES="/var/lib/ayanova/backupfiles"`

Example environment variable

Windows

`set "AYANOVA_FOLDER_BACKUP_FILES=c:\data\ayanova\backupfiles"`

Linux / MAC

`export AYANOVA_FOLDER_BACKUP_FILES="/var/lib/ayanova/backupfiles"`

If both a command line parameter and an environment variable are set the command line parameter takes precedence.