###Backup without password If you run the script as **OS user `postgres`** it should not request a password in a standard setup, because password-less `peer` access (or `ident` on older versions) is enabled in [**`pg_hba.conf`**][1] for the postgres user. So make it a cronjob of postgres if you can. Or enable password-less access for the OS user running the job. You can do that in `pg_hba.conf` but, as @Richard already pointed out, the [password file `.pgpass`][2] file may be a more elegant solution. ###Restore in pgAdmin I quote the [pgAdmin3 FAQ][3]: > pgAdmin III uses PostgreSQL's pg_restore tool, which supports only the > COMRESS and TAR options of pg_dump which is used for backup creation. > The PLAIN format can't be interpreted by pgAdmin III and pg_restore > (it can be edited manually, and executed with psql and pgAdmin III's > query tool in many cases), and thus isn't accepted as valid file. > > We recommend using the COMPRESS format for daily backup tasks. The > PLAIN format is for advanced manual processing before executing as SQL > script, and has some restrictions (no blobs) which makes it less > usable for standard backup tasks. To restore a plain SQL backup execute it with [psql][4] similar to this: psql mydb -p 5432 -U myuser -f backup.sql For a single database backup you have to connect to the right database. For a cluster-backup with `pg_dumpall`, you might as well connect to the maintenance db "postgres". You could also load and run such a backup with the pgAdmin query tool. It's plain SQL. [1]: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/interactive/auth-pg-hba-conf.html [2]: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/interactive/libpq-pgpass.html [3]: http://www.pgadmin.org/pgadmin3/faq/ [4]: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/interactive/app-psql.html