Dingoonity.org

SaveSync
Savesync is a little utility for backing up, restoring, and syncing saves on OpenDingux devices with a secondary SD card. You can get it here and the source is available here.


Prerequisites

SaveSync will transfer save data between the internal storage and the secondary SD card, make sure there is one inserted before running the app. This utility will not work on devices with a faulty slot-2 reader. SaveSync also needs all associated devices to have the correct time and date set, as it compares timestamps when deciding whether or not to overwrite files.

Features

From the main menu, there are three options:

Backup - Copies save data from the internal storage to a folder called "backup" on the external storage. If there is no backup folder present, the app will automatically create one. Saves exported to the external storage can then be transferred to other devices or even used in other emulators. The app will only overwrite files in the backup folder if a newer version is found on the internal storage, if the version in the backup folder has been changed and is newer than the one in the internal storage, it will be skipped.

Restore - Transfers backed up save data from the external storage to the internal storage. This is useful if saves were exported for external editing or use on other devices and will allow the device to then use the edited or updated save data. The app will only overwrite files in the internal storage if a newer version is found in the backup folder, if the version in the internal storage has been changed and is newer than the one in the backup folder, it will be skipped.

Sync - The app will attempt to merge the contents of both the internal storage and the backup folder, if certain files are newer on the internal storage then it will overwrite the version in the backup folder and vice-versa. Useful if you want to unify save data between multiple devices. The idea is that you can sync saves to the secondary card, insert it into another device to continue playing with your saves, then sync any new progress back to your OpenDingux device. It can also be used to clone save data between multiple OpenDingux devices.

Data backed up

SaveSync will only access data from specific apps and emulators, they are:

- GMenu2x settings (backup only, will not be overwritten during syncing)
- Screenshots (backup only, will not be overwritten during syncing)
- Custom ScriptRunner scripts (backup only, will not be overwritten during syncing)
- FCEUX (NES emulator)
- Gambatte (GameBoy emulator)
- ReGBA (GameBoy Advance Emulator)
- PCSX4all (PlayStation 1 emulator)
- PicoDrive (Sega Master System/Genesis/Game Gear emulator)
- PocketSNES (Super NES emulator)

Known issues/quirks

- The first time this app is run, it may take longer than usual as it needs to generate the initial backup folder structure and files. Subsequent runs will be much faster as it only accesses files that have changed since the last backup.
- After running backup/restore/sync for the first time, some emulators might take a little longer than usual to start up. This only happens once.
- SaveSync will only check timestamps when deciding whether or not to overwrite save data. This means if you backup your saves and then start a fresh save on one of the games and replace the backed up file with the fresh save, it will replace the save on the internal partition on the next sync.

Just a quick disclaimer: I'm still very much new to developing on Linux devices. Even though I've tested this rigorously on multiple devices without any issues, I still strongly recommend you copy your first backup to a separate storage archive just in case something unexpected happens.