Personal work stays in the browser or app you made it in, on that device, unless you turn on Sync. An organisation using optional lolly.work also has server-held Team projects, covered below. Saved work is in Projects. A downloaded file is wherever your browser or system put it, and a copy usually waits in Assets. In most tools, work you never saved is kept as well. This page covers each of these, plus a closed tab, cleared browser data, earlier versions, deleted items and moving to another device.
| What you did | Where to look |
|---|---|
| Pressed Save as or Save | Projects |
| Pressed Download | Your browser's downloads, and a copy in Assets |
| Neither, in a tool that saves as you work | Projects and History |
| Neither, in a tool that does not | Only the tab you worked in, until you close the tab |
| Deleted it in the app | Trash, in Projects, Assets or Settings → Storage, for 30 days |
Find something you saved
- Press Home at the top left of the tool.
- Open the Projects tab at the top of the home screen (the folder icon on a phone).
- Look on the first screen. Work saved to My library is there, and each project is a folder. To search every folder at once, type in Search all projects… at the foot of the screen.
An item is named after the file name you typed in the export panel, or after its tool, such as QR Code, if you typed none. Open the item and every setting is back, ready to change and export again. To keep new work this way, see Saving and continuing.
- It may be in Trash: see Get back something you deleted.
- Another browser, a private window or another device starts empty, unless you use Sync or move your work.
- If you only pressed Download, see Find a file you downloaded.
Working with Projects
You can also open Projects from Settings → Storage → Saved sessions → Organise in Projects. It works like a file manager:
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- Folders that nest. Group saved sessions into folders, and folders inside folders, as deep as you like. Create a folder, rename it or drag a tile onto another folder to move it; a breadcrumb walks you back up. Sessions saved without a folder appear directly at the Projects root.
- Sort your own way. View options, the sliders button at the top right, offers Grid or List and sorts by Name, Date added, Last modified (the default), Size and, inside a folder, By tool. Folders always come first regardless of which sort is active - the sort only orders the sessions and folders within their own group.
- File new work straight in. New asset opens the shared picker. Choose Templates to start from a saved template: open it to edit, or use + Add to save a new creation immediately.
- Multi-select (desktop). Tick a tile's checkbox, drag a selection box across empty space or Shift/Cmd-click; right-click a tile for its context menu. The selection bar then offers Render selection, Move to…, New folder, Delete (which moves to Trash), Edit together for two to eight single-tool sessions, side by side under one sidebar, and Edit as sheet, which opens a selection of any size or mix as rows in the batch grid.
- Render a whole folder or selection. Render folder exports every saved session in a folder - including its sub-folders - as one nested
.zip. Render selection does the same for any multi-selection, and a single session renders straight to its own file. No Batch/Pro needed. - Jump straight to a tool's saved work. Tick one or more tools on the Tools gallery and choose View sessions from the selection bar - Projects opens showing only the sessions made with those tools, with a Clear to get back to the full view.
- Share a saved session. Right-click a session (on a phone, press the ••• on its tile) → Share link to copy a link that reopens it with the same settings; pictures from your device do not travel with a link (the full Share dialog: see Sharing your work).
- Rename or copy one. Right-click a session (on a phone, press the ••• on its tile) for Rename, Duplicate (a copy in the same folder) and Move to….
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If you closed the tab or left the tool
What comes back depends on how you left and which tool you used:
- You closed the tab, or came back another time. Unsaved work is gone, except in the tools that save as you work: open that work from Projects.
- You reloaded the page in the same tab. Your settings come back from the page address. In tools that do not save as you work, pictures and files you added from your device, and single-line text longer than 150 characters, do not come back, because the address does not hold them.
- You pressed Home, or the back button at the top left. If you changed something since you last saved, downloaded or copied, an Unsaved changes dialog asks whether to save first. Save & leave saves the work and takes you to Projects, or back to the project folder you opened the work from. Leave without saving discards your changes: a saved item goes back to how you last saved it, and a creation you never saved leaves Projects. Cancel keeps you in the tool.
Lolly asks only when you press Home or the back button in a tool. Closing the tab, reloading and your browser's own Back button never ask. To be sure, press Save as, or Save in the export panel, before you leave a tool.
When automatic recovery is unavailable, a note beside the editing controls explains what to keep. In an imported-file tool, save your settings and keep the original files too. In a recording tool or a utility with no Save action, save or download the result before leaving. The native apps identify when you need to save manually. A private collaboration's history is temporary; save a separate copy before the session ends.
In tools that save as you work, History keeps a copy of the discarded edits. Open the History page, find them under Changes and press Open as a copy. In other tools the changes are gone.
Which tools save as you work
In the web app, every tool that makes a document saves as you work: Design, Chart, QR Code, Text, Sandbox and the rest. These tools do not:
- tools that work on a file you bring, such as Redact, Sign or Convert Image, because Lolly never keeps a copy of that file;
- tools that record from your camera, microphone or screen, such as Record, Screen Capture and Voice Recorder;
- 3D and Darkroom, which take a file of their own;
- a tool with nothing to change, such as Countdown.
In the other tools, your first change files the work in Projects as if you had saved, and later changes are kept as you work, once the tool has finished drawing. So an unsaved creation is still in Projects after you close the tab and reopens with its changes marked unsaved. Leave without saving still discards them, and History keeps a copy of the discarded edits for 30 days. Opening the tool again from the home screen starts a new creation; open the earlier one from Projects.
With Sync on, a creation filed this way goes to your other devices like anything else in Projects. Its versions stay on the device where they were made.
If a creation is open in two tabs and you save in both, the last save is kept. The work it replaced is not lost: it is under Protected drafts in the creation's History, with Open draft as a copy.
This works in the web app only, not in the desktop or mobile apps, and not while you work live with someone else.
Find a file you downloaded
In a browser, Download hands the file to your browser, which saves it in its downloads folder (usually Downloads) or asks you where. Lolly is not told where the file went, so look in your browser's list of downloads.
If no file appeared, look in the export panel while you are still in the tool. Under Download, a line gives the file name and the time, with Retry download, and in Chrome, Edge and other Chromium browsers Save file… to choose a folder yourself. The line and its file last until you leave the tool, reload or export again.
Lolly also keeps two things after each download:
- A copy of the file, in Assets under Your uploads, while Save my renders to my library is on under Settings → Your renders (Settings is at the foot of the home screen). The setting starts on. A video, or a file over 50 MB, asks first, and a zip is not copied.
- The settings you used, for your last 24 downloads. Recent exports, below your saved work in Projects, reopens the tool with those settings so you can make the file again, though pictures and files you added from your device are not included. The same list is under Settings → Activity & stats → Latest exports and on the Changes tab of History. This list keeps settings, not the files.
In the desktop and mobile apps
- Desktop app: Download saves straight into a Lolly folder inside your Downloads folder, without a dialog. The line under Download says where it went, such as "Saved to Downloads/Lolly", with Show in folder. Open Exports Folder, in the Window or Exports menu, opens the folder at any time. A file with the same name as an earlier one is saved as "name (1)".
- iPhone and iPad: the file is saved in the Files app, under Lolly, and the share sheet opens so you can send it on. The line under Download reads "Saved to Files → Lolly".
- Android: the share menu opens so you can choose where the file goes.
On iPhone, iPad and Android, a new file replaces an earlier one with the same name.
Go back to an earlier version
- During this visit: Undo steps back through your last 100 changes, until you leave the tool or reload. See Undo and redo.
- In tools that save as you work: earlier versions of each creation are kept. Follow the steps below.
- Everything on the device: with Sync on, Restore an earlier copy, under Settings → Connected services, brings back one of the last seven daily copies, or the copy from before your last apply. Everything on this device then matches that copy, not just one design.
To open an earlier version:
- Press History, the clock button beside Undo and Redo. In Design, History is in the top bar; on a phone, press ••• and then History. In tools without Undo, such as Text and Sandbox, History is beside Home at the top left.
- Find the version by its date and time. Automatic checkpoint rows are taken as you work; Saved version rows are the times you saved.
- Press Open as a copy. The version opens as a new creation, and the one you had open stays as it was. The copy is in Projects, with "(copy)" after its name.
To keep a version by name, press Name version, type a name and press Keep milestone. Named versions are listed on the History page, under Milestones.
The History panel and the History page
The History panel also lists Recovered work rows, and Protected drafts holds your latest edits between checkpoints, with Open draft as a copy. Compare and Check assets help you choose before you open a copy. Switch This creation to All history on this device to see every creation.
Automatic checkpoints thin out with age: one a minute for the last hour, one an hour for the last day, one a day for 30 days, then one a week. Saved versions and named versions are all kept. Deleting a creation moves its versions to Trash too, and Delete forever removes them.
When History storage fills up, the oldest automatic checkpoints of creations you have not opened for 30 days are removed first. A save is always kept, even then: it is written as the current work, and History says that this save is not kept as a version. Settings → Storage shows how much History uses.
The History page (#/history, or Open app history in the panel) covers every creation in this browser. On a computer, open the page from the clock button at the top right of the home screen or of Projects. On a phone, go to the tools gallery on the home screen, press the round logo button at the top right and choose Saved sessions, which opens History. From Projects that item does nothing yet.
- Recent lists your creations, newest first, with Resume.
- Changes puts checkpoints, downloads and Convert results on one timeline. A download has Reopen settings.
- Milestones lists named versions.
Filter by project, tool and date (behind Filters on a phone). The History page has no delete button; to remove an item, use Projects.
Move your work to another device
| To | Use |
|---|---|
| Keep your devices in step | Sync across devices, under Settings → Connected services: see Sync your devices |
| Move everything once | Export my data and Import data…, below |
| Hand over one design or one project | A .lolly file: Export, then Share, then Download .lolly; for a whole project, Download project (.lolly) in the folder's menu. Press Open on the other device. See The .lolly file |
A share link carries your settings, but not pictures or files you added from your device.
Folders, favourites and templates in the file are added beside the ones already on the other device. When a saved item is on both, the copy saved more recently is kept. Your details and settings on that device stay as they are; empty ones are filled in from the file. Bring it to this device, in Sync, works the same way.
To move everything once:
- On the old device, open Settings → Storage and, under Move to another device, press Export my data. Lolly downloads one
.zipfile whose name starts withLollyTools-. - Carry the file across by USB, email to yourself, AirDrop or a shared folder.
- On the new device, open Settings → Storage, press Import data…, choose the file and press Import.
Sign-ins, keys and the sync passphrase stay on each device. The list of recent downloads, offline downloads and AI models do not travel by any route. Version history travels only in an Export my data file, not through Sync or a .lolly. When the history is too large for one file, the oldest automatic checkpoints are left out and the export line says how many. A copy Sync keeps in your storage can be downloaded and opened, or picked in Import data…, like a backup file; an encrypted copy asks for your passphrase.
What the backup file holds
The file is named LollyTools-<First>-<Last>-<YYYY-MM-DD>-<n>.zip (the name parts come from your profile and are dropped if unset; <n> is a per-day counter so same-day exports don't collide). It contains your profile, with your folders, Trash, templates and favourites; every saved session with its thumbnail; your uploaded images, fonts, logos and the copies of your downloads; your design systems; your preferences (theme, sidebar width, local activity stats); saved versions and results from Convert; and, from the web app, the version history of your creations.
The catalogue cache isn't included - it re-downloads itself on the new device. Each part is checksummed, so a file damaged in transit is caught on import rather than restored half-broken. Saved sessions re-link to your imported images automatically. The web, desktop and mobile apps read the same file; the terminal app writes a simpler backup of its own, which this format does not read. 📦 Export my data & render everything makes the same file plus a second zip with every saved session rendered to its output. (Full format spec: Data Transfer.)
If you clear your browser data
In the web app, Lolly keeps everything in your browser's storage for this site: saved work, pictures, fonts, design systems, version history and offline downloads. Clearing this site's data in your browser removes all of that, and Lolly cannot bring any of it back. What remains is what already left the browser: files you downloaded, an Export my data file, a Sync copy and links you shared.
Press Export my data under Settings → Storage, and keep the file somewhere else.
When the app starts, Lolly asks the browser not to clear its storage when the device runs low on space. The browser decides. Under Settings → Available offline, a line starting Protected means the browser agreed; "The browser may clear downloads if the device runs low on space" means it did not, and Protect downloads asks again. If the browser did not agree, it may clear saved work as well as downloads when space runs low, so keep a recent Export my data file.
Settings → Storage shows how much space each kind of data uses. Its History row counts automatic checkpoints, their previews and recovery drafts; Remove automatic checkpoints older than 30 days frees that space and keeps saved and named versions. Clear cache drops downloaded catalogue files, which download again when needed. Clear all my data asks you to type a word, turns off Sync, then removes everything Lolly keeps in this browser: your profile and settings, saved sessions with their history and the Trash, uploads, fonts and design systems, the download log, Convert results, downloaded AI models and offline copies. Files you downloaded stay where you saved them. The app then starts as on a first visit.
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In the desktop and mobile apps, saved sessions are files in the app's own data folder and the rest is in the app's own storage, so clearing a web browser does not touch them.
Where the desktop and mobile apps keep saved sessions
One file per saved session, in a saved-state folder:
- macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/tools.lolly.Desktop/saved-state/ - Windows:
%APPDATA%\tools.lolly.Desktop\saved-state\ - Linux:
~/.local/share/tools.lolly.Desktop/saved-state/, or the same path under$XDG_DATA_HOME - iPhone, iPad and Android: inside the app's own storage, which the Files app does not show
Pictures, design systems and the list of recent downloads stay in the app's internal storage, not in these folders. The terminal app and the command line read the same saved-state folder: see Where saved sessions live.
Get back something you deleted
Deleting a saved session, a folder, one of your uploads or one of your fonts in the app moves it to Trash for 30 days, wherever you delete it: Projects, Assets, Settings → Storage or a tool's list of saved sessions. A folder goes with everything in it, as one entry, and a session keeps its version history while it is there. Straight after, a message offers Undo. Later:
- Open Trash: the Trash tile in Projects, the Trash button in Assets → Your uploads, or the Trash row in Settings → Storage. All three open the same list.
- Press Restore beside the item. It goes back to its folder, and a font gets back the roles it had in its design system.
Delete forever removes one item for good. Empty Trash asks first, then removes every item in Trash. Items older than 30 days are removed for good.
Deleting a design system, a logo or your profile photo does not go to Trash. The command line and the terminal app delete at once too.
With Sync on, Restore an earlier copy can bring back an earlier day's state of the whole device, and an Export my data file brings back what the file holds.