How to Configure File Storage and Database Backup in CrmLeaf

Overview

CrmLeaf stores the files your team uploads on local storage or in a cloud object store. Alongside storage, the platform settings area holds the database backup function and the in-app updater — but these two are platform-level tools, handled by the provider of your CrmLeaf instance, not something a company Administrator can reach. Together these decide where your data lives and how it is protected.

Decide on storage before your team starts uploading in volume, because storage is also where your plan's limit applies.

How It Works

You choose the storage destination for the account, and CrmLeaf writes uploaded files there. Database backups and the in-app updater are configured and run by the provider of your CrmLeaf instance at the platform level, not by a company Administrator.

Choose storage → Enter credentials → Test an upload → (Platform) Backups scheduled → (Platform) Updates applied

• Five storage destinations are supported: local storage, Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, Wasabi and MinIO.
• Your plan sets a storage limit. The package attached to your Company defines the maximum storage size as well as the seat limit.
• Storage applies to everything users upload — File Manager folders, per-entity attachments, document files, receipts, proof images and survey media.
• The Storage Settings screen is not scoped to your Company. The storage destination and its credentials are stored as a single, instance-wide record — there is no separate storage configuration per Company. On a shared CrmLeaf instance this screen is intended to be configured by the provider of your CrmLeaf instance; if a company Administrator's role has been granted the manage_storage_setting permission, changing the destination here changes it for the whole instance, not only their own Company.
• Database backup and the in-app updater are platform-level only. Both are gated at the platform level in the application code, with no path found for a company Administrator to reach either screen.
• Google Drive and OneDrive are a different thing. The Drive Integration add-on module lets users attach files held in those services; it is not a replacement for the account's storage destination.

Who Can Use This Feature?

Administrator

• Choose the storage destination and enter its credentials, if your role has been granted the storage-settings permission — see the note above about its instance-wide scope before you do this on a shared instance.
• Monitor usage against the plan's storage limit.

Platform Level (Not a Company Administrator)

• Take and schedule database backups, download or delete backup files.
• Apply platform updates with the in-app updater.

Storage destination is available to a company Administrator only if their role has been granted that specific permission. Database backup and the in-app updater are not available to a company Administrator at all — they belong to whoever operates your CrmLeaf instance at the platform level.

Prerequisites

• A decision on where files should live, taken with whoever is responsible for your data policy.
• S3 credentials and a bucket, if you are using S3.
• Knowledge of your plan's storage limit.
• A quiet period, if you are applying a platform update.

Storage Options

Each of the four cloud options (S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, Wasabi, MinIO) is S3-compatible and asks for its own access key, secret, region and bucket name; MinIO additionally asks for its endpoint URL. Only one destination is active at a time — selecting a new one deactivates the previous one.

For Administrators

Step 1: Decide where files should live

What to do: Choose local storage or one of the four supported cloud destinations. Consider your expected volume — vertical editions that capture survey photographs, videos and delivery proof images accumulate files quickly.

What to verify: The decision is consistent with your plan's storage limit and your data policy.

Step 2: Configure the storage destination

Go to: Settings → Storage Settings

What to do: Select a destination, enter its key, secret, region and bucket (plus endpoint for MinIO), and Save. This screen is not scoped to your Company — see the note in How It Works before changing it on an instance that hosts more than one Company.

What to verify: No validation messages remain.

Step 3: Test with a real upload

What to do: Upload a file — for example into the File Manager or as an attachment on a record — and then Download it again.

What to verify: The upload succeeds and the file downloads intact.

Step 4: Watch your storage usage

What to do: Keep an eye on how much storage the account has used against the limit set by its package. Failing uploads are usually a limit problem, not a configuration problem.

What to verify: You have headroom for the coming period.

Database Backup and Platform Updates (Platform Level)

These two tools live in the same platform settings area as Storage Settings, but they are gated at the platform level in the application code — a company Administrator has no access to either screen, regardless of role or permissions. If your team needs a backup taken or a platform update applied, ask the provider of your CrmLeaf instance.

• Database backup can be scheduled: the provider of your CrmLeaf instance sets an hour of day, an interval in days between backups, and a retention period in days after which older backups are deleted. Backups are stored on the instance's own local backup disk as downloadable zip files; there is no per-Company scoping — one schedule covers the whole instance's database.
• No restore action was found in the application for database backups — a backup file can be downloaded, but restoring the database from within CrmLeaf is not available; a restore would be a server-side operation outside the application.
• The in-app updater lets the provider of your CrmLeaf instance upload and install a platform update package. It has no company-level equivalent.