📦 Telegram Backup Tool

A modern open-source desktop app for backing up and restoring Telegram channels.

Export messages, media files, avatars and channel info — then restore them to any channel with one click.

Features • Installation • Usage • FAQ • Support

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📖 About

Telegram Backup Tool is a free, open-source desktop application that lets you create complete backups of your Telegram channels and restore them later. Perfect for:

• Archiving — protecting your channel content from accidental deletion or blocking
• Migration — moving channels between accounts
• Content preservation — saving rare or valuable media before it disappears
• Testing — quickly replicating a channel to experiment with content

The app uses the official Telegram API through Telethon, so no third-party servers see your data. Everything runs locally on your machine.

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✨ Features

• 🔐 Two login methods — phone number + SMS code, or QR-code scan
• 📤 Full channel export — name, description, avatar, messages, media files
• 📥 One-click import — restore a backed-up channel to a new one
• 💬 Media preservation — photos, videos, documents, audio
• 🔢 Message limit — export only the last N messages if you want
• 🌍 9 languages — English, Русский, Español, Português, Deutsch, Français, Türkçe, فارسی, 中文
• 🎨 Modern UI — built with CustomTkinter, dark/light themes
• ⚡ Async core — the UI never freezes during long operations
• 📜 Built-in event log — see exactly what's happening
• 🔒 100% local — no data ever leaves your computer
• 🆓 Free & open source — no license keys, no subscriptions

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📸 Screenshots

Login	Export

Import	Settings

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🚀 Installation

Option 1: Download prebuilt executable (recommended)

Grab the latest release for your OS from the Releases page:

• Windows — TGBackupTool-Windows.exe
• Linux — TGBackupTool-Linux (make it executable with chmod +x)
• macOS — TGBackupTool-macOS.zip (unzip and drag TGBackupTool.app into Applications)

⚠️ macOS: The app is not code-signed. On first launch macOS may block it. To allow it, open Terminal and run:

xattr -cr /Applications/TGBackupTool.app

Alternatively: right-click the app → Open → Open in the dialog.

No Python installation required. Just run it.

Option 2: Run from source

Requirements: Python 3.10 or newer.

git clone https://github.com/Igor-Shelloff/tg-backup-tool.git
cd tg-backup-tool
python -m venv venv

# Windows
venv\Scripts\activate

# Linux / macOS
source venv/bin/activate

pip install -r requirements.txt
python main.py

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📚 Usage

1. Get your Telegram API credentials

1. Go to my.telegram.org
2. Log in with your phone number
3. Open API Development Tools and create a new app
4. Copy your API ID and API Hash

2. Authorize

Open the Login tab, paste your API ID, API Hash and phone number, then click:

• Login via phone → enter the code Telegram sends you (and your 2FA password if enabled)
• Login via QR code → open Telegram → Settings → Devices → Scan QR

3. Export a channel

1. Go to the Export tab
2. Click Refresh list to load your channels
3. Pick a channel from the dropdown
4. Choose what to export (name, description, avatar, messages, media)
5. Optionally set a message limit (0 = all messages)
6. Select an export folder and click Start export

The result is a folder containing channel_data.json + a media/ directory.

4. Import (restore) a channel

1. Go to the Import tab
2. Select the backup folder
3. Choose what to restore
4. Set the name for the new channel and a delay between messages (1–3 sec recommended)
5. Click Start import

⚠️ Note: Telegram limits how many messages you can send in a short period. Large channels may take hours or days to fully restore. The recommended delay is 1–3 seconds per message.

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🌍 Supported Languages

Code	Language	Native
en	English	English
ru	Russian	Русский
es	Spanish	Español
pt	Portuguese	Português
de	German	Deutsch
fr	French	Français
tr	Turkish	Türkçe
fa	Persian	فارسی
zh	Chinese	中文

Want to add a new language? Just drop a new xx.json file into app/locales/ following the structure of en.json — it will appear in Settings automatically.

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❓ FAQ

Q: Is this safe to use? Yes. All data is stored locally on your computer. The app communicates only with Telegram's official API and never sends your messages to third-party servers.

Q: How many channels can I export? As many as you want. No limits.

Q: Windows SmartScreen blocks the launch — what do I do? Click More info → Run anyway. This happens because the executable is not code-signed. The source code is fully open — you can build it yourself if you prefer.

Q: macOS says the app is damaged — what to do? Open Terminal and run xattr -cr /Applications/TGBackupTool.app. This clears the quarantine flag that macOS adds to unsigned apps. Then launch the app normally.

Q: Can I restore to the same channel? No — Telegram doesn't allow bulk message deletion or re-upload into an existing channel. The import creates a new channel from your backup.

Q: Does it work with group chats? Currently only broadcast channels (not megagroups). Support for megagroups is on the roadmap.

Q: Where are my sessions stored? In ~/.tg_backup_tool/sessions/. Delete that folder to fully log out.

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🛠 Tech Stack

• Python 3.10+ — core language
• CustomTkinter — modern UI toolkit
• Telethon — Telegram API client
• qrcode + Pillow — QR code generation
• cryptg — fast crypto backend for Telethon

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💖 Support the Project

If this tool saved you time and you'd like to say thanks:

• ⭐ Star the repo — it helps other people find it
• 🐛 Report bugs or suggest features in Issues
• 💰 Donate — Lava.top or Boosty
• 📩 Contact — @igor_shelloff

Every star and issue helps make the project better.

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.

You're free to use, modify and distribute it, including commercially. Attribution is appreciated but not required.

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👤 Author

Igor Shilov — Full-Stack Developer

• GitHub: @Igor-Shelloff
• Telegram: @igor_shelloff
• Email: igor.shilov93@mail.ru