Editing The Database

Can I edit an auction's price or owner directly in the database?

You can change the readable columns, but it will not do what you are after. Those columns are decoys. The real values are encrypted separately and cross-checked on every read, so a hand-edited row is caught and set aside rather than trusted. See Database Encryption.

Will editing the database corrupt or break anything?

No. A row that does not match itself is simply not shown. It is not deleted, and nothing around it is affected. Put the value back and the row behaves normally again. There is no damage, only no effect.

Is the plugin hiding anything in my database?

No. It stores your auctions, bids and sales, and nothing else. The real values are encrypted and the plain columns are decoys used for sorting, but it is all your own auction data, which the plugin decrypts and shows you in game whenever you look.

Can I back up or migrate the database normally?

Yes. Ordinary backups, dumps and migrations all work, as long as proton.lock travels with the data so the encrypted values can still be read afterwards. See proton.lock.

Can I clear out old auctions by deleting rows?

Deleting whole rows is safe, it just removes those auctions. It is editing values inside a row that has no effect. To wipe auction data properly, the admin tools are the clean way to do it.