Hello ive been wanting to know how to back up a tor relay the proper way. Ive had about 2 relays that ive lost (1 week of progress) because I didnt or didnt properly back the keys up. Can someone please tell me how I can back them up and restore them? Thanks

Hi pineapple, To backup and restore a Tor relay, you would need to extract the relay’s keys. Specifically the ed25519_master_id_secret_key and ed25519_signing_secret_key if I’m not mistaken. On FreeBSD they are stored in /var/db/tor/$tor-relay/keys. I suspect the Linux equivalent would be something…

Keeping relay identity When you upgrade or move your Tor relay to a new system, you can preserve its identity and reputation by copying its key files.

How do you backup and restore a relay?

Support Relay Operator

NoOp21 November 18, 2025, 8:29am 3

Backing up Tor Bridge