If your Tails becomes broken, for example, if it no longer starts, follow these instructions to recover data from your Persistent Storage.

We are presenting here 3 recovery techniques that work in different cases. We recommend that you try the 3 techniques one after the other.

1. Doing a manual upgrade

   Doing a manual upgrade of your broken Tails might allow you to start your USB stick again and use your Persistent Storage like before.

2. Unlocking from another Tails and copying using rsync

   If doing a manual upgrade doesn't work, you might be able to unlock your Persistent Storage from another Tails USB stick and copy its content using rsync on the command line.

3. Recovering from a partition image using forensics tools

   If unlocking your Persistent Storage from another Tails USB stick fails, you might be able to recover some or most of your data from a partition image using advanced forensics tools.

Doing a manual upgrade

Doing a manual upgrade of your broken Tails might allow you to start your USB stick again and use your Persistent Storage like before.

Refer to our instructions on how to do a manual upgrade, either:

• Downloading and upgrading from Windows

• Downloading and upgrading from macOS

• Downloading and upgrading from Linux

• Upgrading by cloning from another Tails

Unlocking from another Tails and copying using rsync

If doing a manual upgrade doesn't work, you might be able to unlock your Persistent Storage from another Tails USB stick and copy its content using rsync on the command line.

1. Install Tails on a new USB stick onto which you want to recover your Persistent Storage. Make sure that this new USB stick is at least as large as the USB stick that has your broken Tails on it.

2. When starting Tails, set up an administration password.

3. Create a Persistent Storage.

4. Close the Persistent Storage settings after creation, when the list of features is displayed.

   The process described below overwrites the contents and configuration of the new Persistent Storage. So, it does not matter which features you turn on after creating the Persistent Storage.

   Make sure that all applications are closed before continuing with these instructions. Otherwise, the Persistent Storage might not be properly recovered from your broken Tails.

5. Choose Applications ▸ Accessories ▸ Files to open the Files browser.

6. Plug in the USB stick that has your broken Tails on it.

   If the Persistent Storage of your broken Tails is recognized, a new encrypted volume appears in the sidebar of the Files browser. Click on it and enter the passphrase of your broken Tails to unlock the volume.

   The Persistent Storage of your broken Tails shows up as TailsData.

   If no encrypted volume appears, try recovering from a partition image using forensics tools.

7. Choose Applications ▸ System Tools ▸ Root Terminal to open a terminal with administration rights.

8. Execute the following command to recover the Persistent Storage of your broken Tails to your new Tails:

   rsync -PaSHAXv --del /media/amnesia/TailsData/ /live/persistence/TailsData_unlocked

9. When the command finishes, it displays a summary of the data that was copied. For example:

   sent 32.32M bytes  received 1.69K bytes  21.55M bytes/sec
   total size is 32.30M  speedup is 1.00
   

   You can now eject the TailsData volume in the Files browser and unplug the USB stick that has your broken Tails on it.

You can also explore the content of the Persistent Storage on your broken Tails from the Files browser. To do so, execute the following command from the Root Terminal:

nautilus

Recovering from a partition image using forensics tools

If unlocking your Persistent Storage from another Tails USB stick fails, you might be able to recover some or most of your data from a partition image using advanced forensics tools.

We are not providing step-by-step instructions, but you can adapt our instructions on recovering data from the Persistent Storage when it has file system errors:

1. Start on your new Tails and save a partition image of the Persistent Storage of your broken Tails to an external hard disk.

   Try the technique using the Disks utility first, then the technique using ddrescue if needed.

2. After you create the partition image, try to recover your data.

   Try the technique to copy the partition image to a new USB stick first, then the technique using Autopsy.