# Working with local storage for Context, Flow and Global Variables

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/working-with-local-storage-for-context-flow-and-global-variables/36320>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [22 November 2020 10:51 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/working-with-local-storage-for-context-flow-and-global-variables/36320 "2020-11-22T10:51:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 6

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**Author:** ![alex88](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/alex88/32/55523_2.png) [@alex88](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/alex88)\
**Post date:** [22 November 2020 22:51 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/working-with-local-storage-for-context-flow-and-global-variables/36320/6 "2020-11-22T22:51:04Z")

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Copying from the other chat, to keep it in one place...

> [@Node-red won't start](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/node-red-wont-start/33762/61):
>
> don't think that is true of file system variables is it?

@Colin  
Just to answer that last question here, yes it is true of context with a file system backing. The data is still accessed from RAM just like the normal context, but it is flushed to disc occasionally, and picked up from disc on startup. However, if one does not call flow.set() then it does not know that the data in the cache has changed so it will not be flushed, so a node-red restart, for example, would lose the recent changes.

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