How To: Manage your PS Vita saves
Note from Wololo: This tutorial was initially published by /Talk member KronosXLI, as part of our monthly tutorial contest. KronosXLI won the “mods award” in June (a $10 PSN Code) for his entry. You can find the original post here.
This tutorial is intended for use with downloaded games but can be used with physical titles as well.
You know where on the PSP, PS3 and PS4, you can delete a game and not worry about losing your progress or vice versa. Well that is not the case on the Vita and that’s a problem. This problem exists because someone at Sony thought it was a good idea to combine game data and save data without any form of save management functions on the Vita.
Since there are no save management options available unless explicitly made available in game, we are forced to keep backup of entire games on our systems if we want to free up space on our Vita while keeping our saves. Worse yet, depending on the game we might need to re-download the game in its entirety if we need a fresh start and we all know how superfast PSN downloads are right?
Without any more ranting here is what you’ll need:
- Your PS Vita
- A PC (Windows 8.1 OS in my case)
- CMA, OCMA or QCMA installed (is there a Mac/Linux version of QCMA? If not then you must use Windows)
- Your game downloaded/installed on your Vita
Now the instructions:
1. Backup your game to your PC via CMA
2. Locate where the game is backed up, it’s usually located in ”C:\Users\[User]\Documents\PS Vita\APP\[appfiles]\” in Windows where [User] is your user profile and [appfiles] is a 16-character folder unique to your PSN ID or check CMA options for the Applications/Backup location.
3. Copy your game backup somewhere you can easily find it. In my case the game is in a folder named “PCSE00465”, which is Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment [US]. You can also check a folder inside called “sce_sys” for the “icon0.png” to see which game folder you are in. This step is optional and mostly to identify where the game is and in case something goes wrong you can copy it back.
4. Make sure CMA or QCMA is closed.
5. *In the game’s folder, copy the “savedata” folder somewhere you can find it. This is, as the name states, your game’s save files.
Now, if you are trying to start fresh without re-downloading the game (deleting your save):
- Delete the game from your Vita (if you done the save will still be there)
- Delete the “savedata” folder from the game’s folder e.g. from my “PCSE00465” folder.
- Start CMA and copy the game from the PC to the Vita
The game should now start with all your DLC and updates without any save file.
To backup your save (minus the 3GB+ game), hold on to the “savedata” folder you copied in step 5 above and label it appropriately. You can then delete the game from your Vita and/or PC.
To restore your save, repeat steps 1 and 2 then copy your save from step 5 to the game’s folder(overwrite if necessary) then copy the game back to your Vita. Be careful as some games may need you to update the game to use your save like SAO so remember to re-download and install the updates and DLC.
*Note for step 5: The save files in the “savedata” folder are encrypted. As such we cannot manage the individual saves (in the case of multiple save slots) for games like Gravity Rush.
Those with a PS+ subscription won’t really need this since they can upload/download their saves.
Want a chance to win a $10 PSN Code and be featured on the blog with your own guide? Join our monthly tutorial contest here!
Ehhh Hi mom
Am I the only one finding this useful ? ._.
Excluding myself I think quite a few people use this. I was being lazy helping out a friend but we only had crappy WiFi at our location. I thought to myself that maybe I could mess with the saves via CMA and what do you know, it actually works (without completely corrupting the game/memory card). Plus second place out of four in the contest, pretty useful IMO. Might even be able to write a program to automate the process or better yet add it into QCMA.
hahahaha, first
Loser.
Hahahaha, no. XD
Hey, I was wondering. Does anyone know what happens if you use QCMA to backup a .psvimg file that you didn’t purchase on your PSN ID (i.e. a game bought on an account not linked to your Vita or something downloaded from the internet)? Of course, it wouldn’t work, but what sort of error message comes up (if any)?
I tried that once and it just said that its from another account or something.
Haven’t used QCMA much, but normally CMA/OCMA would store the files in a folder for each account and if you move the files it would say it’s from another account. Going to mess with it a bit. Depending on how the game data is encrypted I think it may be possible to share saves or downloaded data but I doubt Sony would have left out such simple tricks based on what I have in mind.
Hacker,you Super puper,i love you!!
wut?
I think he’s saying Hacker is a super sh1tter. o_O
He’s Russian, give his English some slack. :p
Hmm, think there might be potential for any save editing for lets say ‘an exploit’.
Is it me or is the /talk section down?
Yeah, it’s down
Seems to be back now.
cumbersome, i don’t get why sony don’t allow us to backup savedata only.
what a crappy tutorial
there are really lazy people here..does it really take too long to open qcma/cma and explore their options?
omfg, if I knew such crappy tutorials can win this contest, I would have written one
Is it work when restoring backup from another account
i doubt it since they didnt let u use other ppl’s savedata on ps3 i dont see why they will let u on vita.Beside i have GE2’s savedata from my JP psn account and i cant use it when i switch to HK psn account.The backup for GE2 didnt show when i went to vita app in PC-> Vita