@anatoliy : I’m pretty sure there is a big difference between restoring from a Dropbox .backup (a full system restore with all files in 5 minutes or less) and dealing with OPML or JSON files. You can’t really do anything with those. As far as I know, WorkFlowy doesn’t allow importing 10,000+ nodes, so OPML and JSON files are kind of useless unless you use a special text editor and know how to trim them into sub-10k node files. I tried, and the web / mac app just froze (using an M4 / 24GB machine). Am I wrong ? What am I missing here ?
Your New: Desktop local backups is just cosmetic at the moment — it’s more the idea of a backup. Beyond that, your OPML export doesn’t fully import the format back properly : see here Bug Report : Complete Loss of Styling and Syntax Leakage During Workflowy Export / Import (MD & OPML) .
Besides all of these issues, importing a Dropbox backup directly into an active account (on top of existing data) broke all of my internal links and mirrors, forcing me to manually redo them. (This happened 1–2 years ago, and I haven’t had the guts to try it again since. Nowadays, I actually create a temporary account, import the backup there, retrieve the data I need, and then delete that account.)
Apologies for the rambling. Over time, I’ve learned to keep expectations modest regarding native app features, preferring to accept the software as it is and build my own workarounds. Ultimately, the current state of WorkFlowy’s backup and export ecosystem feels fragmented : exports to various file formats do not preserve data accurately, Dropbox restores risk breaking internal links and mirrors, and the new local backup files lack a straightforward way to utilize them effectively.