Point in Time Recovery (PITR)

Overview

Point in Time Recovery (PITR) allows users to restore documents to a specific state at a given timestamp. This is useful for recovering accidental modifications or deletions, maintaining data integrity, and providing historical traceability.

Cloud Firestore PITR keeps versions of documents for up to 7 days. It does not impact performance for databases following best practices.

How It Works

PITR maintains historical snapshots of documents. You can pick a specific timestamp to view and restore data as it was at that moment.

PITR Window

Data is retained for 7 days after enabling PITR.
Earliest PITR availability:
PITR disabled: Data is available 1 hour before the read request.
Enabled within 7 days: Data is available 1 hour before enabling PITR.
Enabled over 7 days ago: Data is available 7 days before the read request.
One version per minute is kept. Only the latest version per minute is stored if multiple writes occur.
Non-minute granular reads (e.g., including milliseconds) return an error.
The earliestVersionTime field indicates the earliest recoverable timestamp.

Point in Time Recovery

This is the most direct way to restore a single document:

1. Accessing PITR

Navigate to the document list in the database viewer.
Locate the document to restore.
Right-click or open the contextual menu and select Point in Time Recovery.

2. Selecting a Version

A history panel appears showing available snapshots.
Select the timestamp to view that version.
Compare the current document with the historical version.

3. Restoring a Version

Click Restore version.
Confirm the action.
The document reverts to that state, and the audit log preserves the change.

Using PITR with Query Read-Time

Query with Read Time

This method is useful for bulk review and restoration of multiple documents:

1. Setting a Read-Time

Open the Firestore DB view.
Set the read-time for the query to the desired timestamp.
The interface will show documents as they existed at that point in time.

2. Comparing and Selecting Documents

You can review changes by comparing each document with its current version.
Select one or multiple documents that you want to restore.

3. Bulk Restoration

After selecting the documents, choose Restore Selected.
Confirm the restoration to revert all selected documents.

Common Features

Granular recovery: Restore documents to a precise timestamp.
Version comparison: Compare current and historical versions before restoring.
Data integrity: Previous versions remain available for audits.
Retention window: Data is stored at minute-level granularity for 7 days.

Best Practices

Enable PITR before relying on historical recovery.
Use read-time queries for auditing or batch recovery.
Compare versions to ensure no critical data is lost before restoring.
Use minute-granularity timestamps for past reads.

Moving a Collection in Firestore

Dashboard Overview