Backing up your data

Three ways to take your saves, scripts, and screenshots off the device.

Pixl8 keeps a few different kinds of user data — cart save data, save states, input scripts, screenshots — and exposes three separate ways to back them up depending on how much you want to move at once. None of these include the carts themselves, since those live in the shared storage location you picked during set-up and are easy to copy with any file manager.

Option 1 — full backup (everything in one go)

Use this when you want a single ZIP that covers everything Pixl8 wrote on your behalf — handy before reinstalling, when migrating to a new phone, or as a periodic safety copy.

What's included

• cdata — per-cart persistent data written via PICO-8's dset / dget (high scores, unlocks, settings).
• cstore — cart-stored data written via PICO-8's cstore.
• saves — every save state for every cart, including the auto slot.
• screenshots — anything captured by a screenshot event during script playback.
• scripts — your .p8.script recordings.

Exporting

1. Open Settings → Backup & Restore.
2. Tap Export. Pixl8 packs the five folders into a single ZIP and asks Android where to put it — Downloads, Drive, a file manager, anywhere with a share target.
3. Confirm. You'll see a brief message naming the file count and total size when it lands.

Restoring

1. From the same Settings → Backup & Restore screen, tap Import.
2. Pick the ZIP you exported earlier from anywhere Android can reach.
3. Pixl8 unpacks the five known folders back into place and reports how many files were restored.

Anything in the ZIP outside the five recognised folders is ignored — Pixl8 won't import unfamiliar content, so it's safe to drop the file into a folder of mixed stuff and let the importer pick only what it knows.

Option 2 — save states for a single cart

Sometimes you just want to share the save states for one cart — handing a speedrun mid-point to a friend, or syncing one game's progress to a second device without dragging everything along. PRO

Exporting

1. Start the cart you want the save states for (or pick it in your library).
2. Open the in-game pause menu and pick Manage save states.
3. Tap Export. Pixl8 writes a ZIP named <cartname>_savestates.zip containing every numbered slot plus the auto slot for that cart only.
4. Save or share it through Android's normal file picker.

Importing

1. Start the same cart and open Manage save states.
2. Tap Import and pick the ZIP.
3. If any incoming slots clash with save states you already have, Pixl8 asks you to confirm before overwriting them.

The ZIP is tied to the cart it was exported from. Importing into a different cart fails with a "zip doesn't match this cart's save format" message — save states embed the cart's memory layout, so they can't be reused across games.

Option 3 — screenshots for a single cart

If you've collected screenshots from script playback — or just want to pull a cart's screenshot folder out — Pixl8 offers a per-cart screenshot export.

1. Open Settings → Manage screenshots.
2. Pick the cart whose screenshots you want.
3. Tap Export. The ZIP is named <cartname>_screenshots.zip and contains every PNG captured for that cart.

There's no per-cart screenshot import — restoring screenshots is what the full backup is for.

Which option to use when

• Switching phones or reinstalling Pixl8 — full backup. One ZIP, one Import, you're back where you were.
• Sharing a save state with someone else — per-cart save state export. Much smaller than a full backup and won't accidentally leak anything else.
• Periodic safety copy — full backup, kept somewhere off the device (cloud drive, computer). The whole ZIP is plain content; no special tooling needed to read it.
• Just want some screenshots — per-cart screenshot export, or copy them straight out of the screenshots/ folder if you've already enabled file-system access.

A backup or restore went wrong? Open an issue on GitHub with the exact message you saw and what you were trying to do.