Export and Import Your PumpStash Backup

PumpStash keeps your data on your phone. That’s good for privacy, and it means your history lives on exactly one device.

A backup file is your copy of it. One file holds your baby’s profile, your settings, every stash entry, and every pump session. Exporting and importing it is free. You don’t need Plus, and you don’t need an account.

Where to find it

Everything below lives in one place:

Profile (the last tab in the bottom bar) → scroll to More → Data & backup.

That screen has three rows: Export backup, Import backup, and Export spreadsheet.

Export a backup

1. Open Profile → Data & backup.
2. Tap Export backup.
3. Android asks where to save it, with the name stashlog-backup.json already filled in. Pick anywhere your phone can save to: your Downloads folder, Google Drive, wherever you keep things.
4. Tap Save. You’ll see “Backup exported.” at the bottom of the screen.

A file sitting in your Downloads folder is on the same phone you’re trying to protect against losing. Move it somewhere else: Drive, Dropbox, your laptop, or an email to yourself. It’s a small file.

If you’re keeping more than one, add the date to the name, like stashlog-backup-2026-08-12.json. Change the front part only and leave the ending exactly as it is, or the app won’t offer you the file when you come to import it.

Import a backup

1. Open Profile → Data & backup.
2. Tap Import backup.
3. Pick your backup file.
4. You’ll see “Backup restored.” and your stash and logs will be back.

Moving to a new phone

The order matters here, because of one thing that catches people out: you can’t reach the Data & backup screen until you’ve finished the app’s first-time setup.

1. On the old phone, export a backup and move the file somewhere the new phone can reach it.
2. On the new phone, install PumpStash and open it.
3. Tap through the setup questions. Don’t spend time re-entering your baby’s details or your current stash, because the import replaces all of it in a moment. Accept the defaults and get to the dashboard.
4. Go to Profile → Data & backup → Import backup and pick your file.

Once you see “Backup restored.”, check the dashboard. Your runway number and stash should look exactly as they did on the old phone.

Why “Export spreadsheet” isn’t a backup

The third row on that screen, Export spreadsheet, does something different. It saves stashlog-export.zip, a bundle holding two tables: one for your stash, one for your sessions. Open them in Google Sheets or Excel, or send them to a lactation consultant.

PumpStash can’t read those tables back in. They’re for looking at your data outside the app, not for restoring it. You can only import a file saved with Export backup.

If something goes wrong

“That file isn’t a valid PumpStash backup.” PumpStash can’t read the file you picked. Usually that’s one of:

• It’s the wrong file. Check the name starts stashlog-backup, not stashlog-export (that one’s the spreadsheet).
• Something changed it. Opening the backup and editing anything inside, even by accident, breaks it.
• It lost its .json ending when someone renamed it, or a cloud app changed it on the way through.
• It came from a newer version of PumpStash than the one you’re importing into. Update the app, then try again.

“Couldn’t export the backup.” This is usually a storage problem. Check you have free space, then try saving to a different folder.

You can’t see the file when you go to pick it. PumpStash only shows files it recognizes as backups. If yours is inside a zip, unzip it first, and check the name still ends in .json.

Backup file vs Plus cloud backup

These are two separate things, and it’s worth knowing which one you’re relying on.

The backup file is manual and free. It captures your data at the moment you tap Export, so it’s only as current as your last export.

Plus adds automatic cloud backup. Once you’re signed in with Google and subscribed, your sessions and stash sync in the background, and you restore by tapping Log in on the first setup screen of a new phone rather than by moving a file around.