Persistent Storage

Persistent Storage allows Apprise to cache data locally. This greatly reduces the number of API transactions between you and the service(s) you are using.

Why use Persistent Storage?

Some services require complex authentication handshakes or resource lookups that are “expensive” to perform every time you send a notification.

• Matrix: Login information is cached locally to avoid re-authenticating with the homeserver on every request.
• Telegram: User account details are cached to save extra fetches to the service.

Storage Locations

Apprise stores all of its persistent data in a directory unique to the Apprise URL you create.

• File Extension: .psdata
• Directory Name: A generated 8-character alphanumeric string (UID).

By default, files are written to:

• Windows: %APPDATA%/Apprise/cache
• Linux: ~/.local/share/apprise/cache

Managing Storage via CLI

Viewing Cache IDs (UIDs)

Every Apprise URL you define has a unique URL ID (uid) generated against it. To see which UIDs have been assigned to your configuration, use the --dry-run flag combined with --tag=all:

apprise --dry-run --tag=all

Example Output:

Note how some plugins (like dbus://) display - n/a -, indicating they do not use persistent storage.

Listing Active Storage

You can inspect the current state of your persistent storage using the storage command:

apprise storage

Example Output:

The output shows:

1. Grouping: Multiple URLs sharing the same credentials share the same storage endpoint.
2. Disk Usage: The amount of space currently occupied.
3. Status:
   • active: The plugin has data cached on disk.
   • unused: The plugin is not currently occupying space.
   • stale: A plugin previously wrote data here, but it is no longer referenced by your current configuration.

Cleaning Up

To remove all accumulated persistent storage generated through the CLI tool:

apprise storage clean

You can be more specific by targeting a specific UID or tag:

# Clean a specific UID (e.g. found via 'apprise storage')
apprise storage clean abc123xy

# Clean all URLs associated with the 'family' tag
apprise storage clean --tag family

Storage Modes

The CLI tool enables Persistent Storage by default using the auto mode. You can change this behavior using the --storage-mode switch.

Mode	Description
auto	(Default) Persistent storage is used when applicable. Only plugins that require it will write to the local cache.
flush	Similar to auto, but changes are immediately flushed to disk. This ensures data is always current but increases I/O operations.
memory	Disables persistent storage. No data is written to disk. This mimics the behavior of older Apprise versions.