How to save your data from a universal app and transfer it to a different computer?

[Ethan Alvaree]

Hey all, I'm officially getting the new Surface Book on Monday. Very excited!

All of my personal files & folders (Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, etc.) are stored in OneDrive, so there's no problem there. However, there's one pesky app whose data I don't know how to save. The popular universal app for Windows 10, Sonic Dash, doesn't make use of cloud sync in Windows 10 (this feature is actually turned on in the iOS and Android versions of the game). This means every time you reinstall the app on any one of your Windows devices, you lose all your progress and have to restart all over again on that device. This means anyone who is getting a new device Monday will have to forfeit all their game progress, missions completed, characters unlocked, rings collected, upgrades purchased, etc. when they get their new device.

(I recently asked Windows Central users to tweet the developers Sonic Dash and ask them to enable cloud backup in Windows 10, either through OneDrive or Facebook, so that your game progress would sync across your devices. I think this is still a great idea, and ask you to tweet @HLGames if you haven't yet. However, it technically won't help me in time for my switch to the Surface Book on Monday).

So, I'm wondering how I can manually save my game data and transfer it to my new Surface Book manually. Conceivably, all of the app data should be saved to my current computer somewhere, able to be transferred to a different device somehow. Do you guys know of any "hacks" or ways to preserve my game data and transfer it to my new Surface Book?

Thanks,
Ethan

 

[Bruno Blanes]

That's a tough one... Don't think it's possible, but in any case, try coping all game files from the "Program Files (x86)" folder and the "roaming" folder to your new device and install the game there... See if it works.

 

[etc6849]

Depends on the app, as it must use roaming settings for this to automatically work.

 

[Ethan Alvaree]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

@Bruno Blanes
Any idea what specific folder I should be looking for in "Program Files (x86)" or "Roaming"? I don't see anything with Sonic Dash in the name. Or should I just copy the entire "Program Files (x86)" and "Roaming" directories from the Surface Pro 3 to the Surface Book?

@etc6849
I'm not sure what roaming settings are. Any way of knowing if Sonic Dash does this?

 

[_Emi_]

the apps settings and stuff is on
%localappdata%\Packages

I am sure if you copy one folder to another computer or account it should work. and if it doesn't, by reinstalling the app on powershell it should also work. there are some settings on plain "txt" files, like Perfecttube history and stuff. but more complicated apps should work by copy and pasting full folders.

you can try it. and see how it goes. it should technically work, but maybe an app reinstall is requiered.

 

[Ethan Alvaree]

Hi Emi, thanks for your reply!

Good news - with your help, I was able to manually transfer my game data from my Surface Pro 3 to my new Surface Book. How did I do it? First, I navigated to the following location:

%localappdata%\Packages

There I found a folder called "SegaNetworksInc.56538047DFC80_as33fap47kd3c". I copied this folder from this location, and pasted it into the same location in my new Surface Book. Then I installed the app Sonic Dash, and lo and behold, all of my characters, rings, upgrades, etc. were there! Hurray!

Nonetheless, hopefully the developers enable cross-platform cloud backup soon, either through OneDrive or Facebook, so that your progress automatically syncs across all your devices. If you have a moment, please consider sending a tweet to @HLGames. Every tweet counts. Thanks again for your help!