Hello, Transifex Community! I’m Sandy from the Customer Success Team 
. Today, I’m excited to kick off our new “Did You Know?” series, your guide for insider tips and tricks to maximize your experience on our platform.
For our first installment, we’re diving into something crucial yet often overlooked: backup strategies for your localization projects.
Imagine this: you’re close to completing a massive localization effort when, suddenly, a mishap wipes out your hard work. What’s next?
Having seen situations where localization content needs to be recovered, I can’t stress enough the importance of having a solid backup strategy to safeguard your translation progress.
Why is a backup strategy so crucial? Your translations aren’t just text; they’re valuable assets that represent significant time, effort, and expertise. Here’s how you can protect them:
1. Backup your Translation Memory file
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What to do: Download a copy of your Translation Memory file (.tmx). This way, if your translations are lost, you’ll have the opportunity to upload the TMX file again and enable Translation Memory Fill-up, available with the Growth subscription and above, to restore matching translations.
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Why it matters: Your Translation Memory may contain translations that are no longer present in your current project but that you may want to recover later, such as translations from removed target languages or previously removed content.
Keeping a TMX backup provides an additional recovery mechanism and can help automatically repopulate translations, especially if you use Translation Memory Fill-up.
2. Backup your translation files
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What to do: Download your translation files periodically using any of the available methods, including the UI, CLI, or API.
This way, if your uploaded resources are accidentally deleted, corrupted, or replaced with incorrect content, you can restore translations from a downloaded version.
You can also download translations using the available download modes, such as translated, reviewed, or proofread, depending on the content you want to include in your backup.
Important: A translation file is not a complete backup of your resource
Downloading and re-uploading your source and translation files can help you recover the content, but most metadata associated with your resources is not automatically transferred simply by downloading and re-uploading the files.
If you need a more complete backup, migration, or disaster recovery strategy, additional scripting and Transifex API calls may be necessary.
Here are some important examples:
String history
The history of your strings is not preserved when you recreate a resource by uploading the files again.
If you upload the content into a new resource, the strings will have a clean history. Previous changes, actions, and historical information associated with those strings will not be recreated through a normal file upload.
Because of this, downloaded source and translation files should be considered a backup of your content, but not a full backup of your resource history.
Developer comments and instructions
Depending on the file format, developer comments or instructions may already be included directly inside the source file.
If your file format stores this information within the file itself, keeping a backup of the original source file can preserve it.
For formats where this information is managed separately, you may need to retrieve the relevant metadata using the Transifex API.
Resource string comments
Comments added to resource strings are not part of a standard translation file download.
If these comments are important to your localization workflow, you can retrieve them separately through the API using the Resource String Comments endpoint.
This allows you to include string comments in a more comprehensive backup strategy.
Screenshot mappings
If your project uses context screenshots to help translators understand where strings appear in your product, you may also want to back up the mappings between screenshots and strings.
Screenshot mappings can be retrieved using the Context Screenshot Maps API.
This can be especially useful if screenshots provide important context for translators and reviewers.
Translation statuses
Translation statuses are another important piece of metadata that is not restored automatically just by downloading and re-uploading translation files.
For example, you may want to preserve whether each translation was:
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Translated
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Reviewed
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Proofread
You can retrieve information about your translations and their statuses using the Resource Translations API.
With some scripting, you could:
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Retrieve the translation content and status information using the Resource Translations API.
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Store that information as part of your backup.
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Re-upload or recreate your resources if necessary.
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Use the Transifex API to update the translations and restore the corresponding workflow statuses where applicable.
So, while downloading files using the reviewed, proofread, or translated modes is useful for controlling which translations are included in your backup, those downloaded files alone should not be considered a complete backup of the workflow status associated with every translation.
Think of content and metadata as two parts of your backup
For simple recovery scenarios, backing up your source and translation files may be enough.
For projects where you need to recreate the resource as closely as possible, consider protecting both:
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Content
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Metadata
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Developer comments and instructions
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Some metadata can be retrieved and restored programmatically using the Transifex API, while other information, such as the original string history, will not be carried over when a resource is recreated.
- Why it matters: If your uploaded resources get corrupted or are accidentally removed, your downloaded files can help you recover your translations quickly. However, understanding what is and is not included in those files allows you to create a backup strategy that matches the level of recovery your organization actually needs.
3. Backup your glossary
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What to do: As your localization project evolves, you will likely add, update, or remove terminology to keep your glossary aligned with your localization requirements.
Avoid losing this progress by periodically downloading your glossary.
If necessary, you can later upload your glossary again.
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Why it matters: Your glossary evolves together with your project. Protecting it means preserving the terminology decisions that help maintain consistency and accuracy across your translations.
Wrapping Up
A smart backup strategy ensures that the work invested in your localization projects remains protected.
For many projects, regularly backing up your Translation Memory, translation files, and glossary provides a strong foundation.
For workflows where metadata such as comments, screenshot context, developer instructions, or translation statuses is especially important, consider complementing your file backups with API-based backups.
The key is to identify what you would need to recover if something went wrong and make sure your backup strategy covers both the content and the metadata that matter to your localization workflow.
Ready to bulletproof your localization efforts?
Start implementing these strategies today to protect your work and maintain project integrity. Set a regular backup schedule for additional peace of mind.
Get involved and share your experience!
Share your own backup strategies and tips with the Transifex Community. Your experience may help other teams improve their localization processes and prepare for unexpected situations.
Thank you for reading! Join us next week for another Did You Know? tip!