# Backup & restore

> Every switch on the Backup & restore screen: locations, automatic backup, sync between devices, what goes in an export, and what an import merges or replaces.

URL: https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/reference/settings/backup/
Section: Reference

The Backup & restore screen is where you choose where backups go, how often they run, how your devices sync, and where you write your keyboard to a file or read one back in. This page is the field reference for every switch, button, and message on it. For the reasoning behind the merge-vs-replace split and a walkthrough of moving to a new phone, see [Backup & restore](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/privacy/backup/) instead.

  reference/settings/backup-screen — The Backup & restore screen: what to include, plus the export and import buttons.

## Options

Data / Backup & restore

Reach it from the **Data** group on the settings home screen, or by searching "Backup & restore" in settings search. From the top, the screen has:

| Part | What it is |
| --- | --- |
| Status card | Whether automatic backup is on or paused, how often and to how many locations, when the last backup was, and when this device last synced, or that sync is paused. **Back up now** runs a backup straight away, paused or not. **Sync now** appears while sync is on |
| **Locations** | One card per place backups can go, and **Add a location** |
| **Automatic backup** | Opens the schedule, the passphrase, where backups go, and what goes in |
| **Sync devices** | Opens sync between your devices |
| **Files** | **Export to a file**, **What goes in an export**, and **Import a file** |

The status card turns red when the last backup or the last sync failed, and says why.

### Locations

A location is one place backups can go: a folder, a server, or a cloud account. You can add any number, of any kind, for example two WebDAV servers and a Dropbox. **Add a location** opens a list of the kinds this build can reach:

| Location | What it needs | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Folder | **Choose a folder**, a folder picker | Anywhere a files app can reach: the device, an SD card, or a cloud app's synced folder |
| Google Drive | **Where in Drive** (**Hidden app folder**, the default, or **A folder you can see**), **Folder in My Drive** for the second, and **Allow access to Drive**, plus a line saying whether it's allowed | The hidden folder is visible to no other app, the Drive app included. A folder you can see is an ordinary folder in My Drive, made on first use; the app can open only the files it made itself. Each choice asks Google for its own permission |
| Dropbox | **Sign in** / **Sign out**, plus "Signed in." or "Not signed in yet." | You get a folder of your own under Apps |
| OneDrive | Same sign-in row as Dropbox | Same folder-under-Apps arrangement |
| Box | Same sign-in row as Dropbox, and **Folder** (default "WM Keyboard backups") | Box has no app folder, so the permission covers your whole Box; the app only writes to the folder, made on first use. A sign-in left unused for 60 days expires, because Box's tokens do, and the card then asks you to sign in again |
| iCloud Drive | **Apple Account**, **Password**, **Sign in**, then **Verification code**, and **Folder** | The code goes to your Apple devices, or by text message when the account has none. The app keeps the password, because iCloud asks for it again about once a day, and the trust that the code gives lasts about a month; the card shows the date to sign in again by. With Advanced Data Protection, turn on **Access iCloud Data on the Web** on your Apple device and approve the request there. This is iCloud.com's own interface, not a published one, so Apple can change it without notice |
| Proton Drive | **Proton account**, **Password**, **Sign in**, then **Verification code** or **Mailbox password** when the account has one, and **Folder** | Every file, name and key is encrypted on the phone as Proton's apps do it. The app keeps the session and the salted key password, never your password. If Proton asks for a CAPTCHA, sign in once on proton.me in a browser on the same network. Proton has no public interface for apps like this yet, so a change on Proton's side can stop backups until the app is updated |
| MEGA | **Email**, **Password**, **Sign in**, **Verification code** when the account has two-factor sign-in, and **Folder** | Every file is encrypted on the phone under its own key, as MEGA's apps do. The app keeps the session, not the password; closing the session in MEGA's security settings signs it out. Old backups are deleted outright rather than moved to the rubbish bin, which MEGA counts against your quota |
| pCloud | **Data region** (United States or Europe), **Email**, **Password**, **Sign in**, **Verification code** when asked, and **Folder** | pCloud's own interface, which also works with two-step verification, unlike its WebDAV door (still under WebDAV). The app keeps the sign-in token, not the password. An account in the other region is detected and the region switched |
| WebDAV | **Service**, then **Server**, **User name**, **Password** and **Folder**; or, for **Other WebDAV server**, **Server address**, **User name**, **Password** | **Service** knows the address shape of Nextcloud, ownCloud, Seafile, Koofr, pCloud (US and EU), Yandex Disk, kDrive, Hetzner Storage Box and 4shared, and shows the address it builds. Nextcloud adds **Sign in with Nextcloud**, which opens your server's login page and fills in an app password. **Tailscale Taildrive** asks only for the **Share** (your tailnet, the computer and the share name, as Tailscale shows them) and a **Folder**, with no sign-in. The folder is made on first use. **User name** can stay empty for a server that doesn't ask for one. A plain `http` address gets a warning and is refused at upload time, because the password rides along on every request. The exception is an address on your Tailscale network (Taildrive's `100.100.100.100`, a `100.64.0.0/10` tailnet address or a `ts.net` name), where Tailscale encrypts the traffic. A backup is uploaded under a temporary name ending in `.upload` and then moved into place, so a half-finished upload never looks like a backup. Not `.part`, because Nextcloud 30 and later refuse any file name ending in `.part` |
| S3 | **Service**, **Endpoint** (for **Other S3 service**), the service's account field where it has one, **Bucket**, **Region**, **Folder in the bucket**, **Access key ID**, **Secret access key**, **Put the bucket in the path** (toggle, default off, only for **Other S3 service**) | **Service** fills in the endpoint and the addressing for Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, Google Cloud Storage, DigitalOcean Spaces, Hetzner, Scaleway, OVHcloud, Akamai (Linode), Storj, IDrive e2, MinIO and Garage, and lists example regions. R2 asks for the **Account ID**, IDrive e2 for the **Endpoint**, MinIO and Garage for **Server and port**. A plain `http` endpoint gets a warning |
| SFTP | **Server**, **Port** (default 22), **User name**, **Password**, **Private key**, **Key passphrase**, **Directory**, **Server key**, **Allow old algorithms** (toggle, default off) | A password, a key, or both; the key is tried first. Ed25519, ECDSA and RSA keys in OpenSSH or PEM form work, encrypted or not. The first connection saves the server's key, and after that the app connects only to a server with the same key: **Forget the server key** is for when you really did change the server. The folder is made on first use. Old algorithms add SHA-1 for old NAS firmware |
| Synology | **Address**, **User name**, **Password**, **Folder** (for example `/home/Drive/WM Keyboard`, your Synology Drive), **Accept the certificate of the NAS** (toggle, default off), and **Sign in with the code** for two-step verification | DSM's File Station interface, over HTTPS on port 5001 unless you type another; QuickConnect addresses don't work. With the toggle on, the first connection remembers the NAS's own certificate and a different one is refused later; **Forget the certificate** is for when you replaced it. Signing in once with a code makes the NAS trust this phone, so backups need no code. A plain `http` address is refused, except on your Tailscale network |
| QNAP | Same fields as Synology, with a folder under a shared folder, for example `/Public/WM Keyboard` | QTS's File Station interface, over HTTPS on port 443 unless you type another; myQNAPcloud links don't work. The certificate and two-step rules are the same as Synology's |
| NFS | **Server**, **Export**, **Folder**, **User ID** and **Group ID** (default 1000), **NFS port** and **Mount port** (0 asks the server) | NFS version 3 over TCP. The export must allow connections from ports above 1024 (`insecure` on Linux, "Allow connections from non-privileged ports" on a Synology), because Android apps can't use the others; a server that refuses says so on the card. Files are written as the user and group ids you type. NFS sends files without encryption, so a passphrase is worth turning on |
| Windows share (SMB) | **Server**, **Share**, **Folder**, **User name**, **Password**, **Domain**, **Port** (default 445), **Encrypt the connection** (toggle, default **on**) | SMB 2 and 3, signed after the sign-in. Encryption needs SMB 3, and with the toggle on, a server that can't encrypt is refused. Turning it off puts a warning under the toggle. A server that answers a wrong password with a guest session is refused as a wrong password. The folder is made on first use |
| Git repository | **Host** (GitHub, GitLab, or Gitea / Forgejo), **Server**, **Repository**, **Access token**, **Branch**, **Folder**, **Commit message**, **Commit author name**, **Commit author email**, **Add [skip ci]** (toggle, default **on**), **Allow a public repository** (toggle, default off) | Leave **Server** empty for github.com, gitlab.com or codeberg.org; type an address for your own server or GitHub Enterprise. You can paste the whole repository address into **Repository**. Empty **Branch** is the default branch. The commit message takes `{action}`, `{file}`, `{device}` and `{date}`. Each backup, and each deleted old backup, is a commit, and the history keeps all of them, so a public repository is refused unless you allow it. Sync through a Git location commits its sync file each time it changes |
| Email (IMAP) | **Server**, **Security** (TLS, STARTTLS or None; default TLS), **Port** (993, or 143), **User name**, **Password**, **Mail folder** (default "WM Keyboard backups") | Each backup is one email in its own folder, made on first use. Most services want an app password. Some, such as Gmail, keep a deleted email in another folder, so old backups can still count against your quota |
| Nearby device | **Name** | Not added by hand: pairing a computer that runs WM Keyboard over KDE Connect makes it, when **Sync with paired devices** is on. It only syncs; backups never go there. Remove it to stop syncing with that computer, and unpair it under KDE Connect |
| Other profile | **Name**, **Pairing code**, **Copy the code**, **Paste a code** | WM Keyboard in your private space or work profile, on the same phone. Add it in both copies with the same code: a new one starts with a fresh 20-character code to copy across. Android shares the clipboard between profiles unless a work policy forbids it; otherwise type the code. Adding it ticks it under **Sync through** and turns sync on. It only syncs; backups never go there. The two copies hand each other their sync files over 127.0.0.1 while both are running. The first time, the copy in the private space or work profile takes the main profile's settings and adds only what the main one doesn't have, whichever copy was set up first. The sheet reads "Linked to the other profile now." while they are; **Test the connection** asks the other copy to answer. A work profile and a private space can both use the same code. On Android 17 and later, Android keeps the profiles apart until each copy is allowed through with adb: the sheet shows the `adb shell pm grant` command for its own profile, and the phone needs a restart after both have run |

Four of these only appear when the build can reach them, and all four conditions are decided when the APK is built. Google Drive needs the Google Play services library, which the F-Droid build leaves out. Dropbox and OneDrive each need a client id compiled in, and Box a client id and secret. A kind with nothing behind it is left off the list rather than shown and then refused. The offline build has no internet access at all, so its list holds **Folder** alone. A location of another kind that came across in a restore stays on the screen with a line saying the build can't reach it, instead of a sign-in button that can't work.

With [WM Pass](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/tools/wm-pass/#places-for-copies) installed, the list starts with **Use a place from WM Pass**. It opens WM Pass, which asks you to unlock it and shows the places for copies set up there. Tap one and it comes back here as a new location, filled in, with its passwords, keys and tokens. Nothing is saved until you press **Save**. A cloud account comes without its sign-in, so press **Sign in** before saving, and a Folder comes without its folder, so choose it again. A kind this build can't reach is refused with a message saying so. WM Pass can borrow a location from here the same way, from its own place chooser.

The location opens in a sheet. Every kind has an optional **Name**, with an example that suits the kind, for the day you have two of them. Typed details save when you tap **Add** or **Save**, so a half-typed address is never tried by a backup that happens to run meanwhile. **Test the connection** makes the same first call a backup makes, with what's on screen now, and says "It works. Backups can go here." or what went wrong.

Dropbox, OneDrive and Box sign in through your browser. Box only returns to an `https` address, so its sign-in passes through a page on this site, `wmkeyboard.pages.dev/oauth/`, which hands the code straight back to the app and keeps nothing. When you approve, the browser hands you straight back to this screen. The row reads "Signing in…" over a progress bar for the second or two it takes to finish with the service, then "Signed in." The sign-in finishes even if Android closed the app while you were typing your password. For Google Drive, Google shows its own account picker and consent screen. If you come back from it without access, a message says the app couldn't finish signing in, instead of the button quietly staying as it was.

Each card shows the location's name, what tells it apart (the folder, the server, the bucket), and how its last backup went: "Last backup: `<relative time>`", "No backup here yet", "Automatic backups do not go here", or what went wrong. A location that sync uses adds "Syncs here." The menu on each card has **Restore from `<name>`** and **Remove**; a **Nearby device** or **Other profile** card holds sync files only, so it has nothing to restore. Removing a location leaves the backups already there where they are, and forgets how to sign in to it.

**Restore from `<name>`** lists every automatic backup at that location, newest first. Each row shows the device that made it ("This device" for this phone), its [sync group](#sync-groups) after a dot when it had one, when, and the size. When the backups there come from more than one group, chips above the list (**All**, then each group, and **No group**) narrow it to one group; the list starts on your own group when it has backups there. A lock marks one that has a passphrase. Tap a row to download that backup and open the ordinary import confirmation, which lists what's inside before anything changes. For an encrypted backup the app tries your stored passphrase first, and asks only when that doesn't open it. This is the only way back for a Google Drive backup, because the app's Drive folder is hidden from every other app, the Drive app included.

### Automatic backup

Data / Backup & restore / Automatic backup

This page writes a backup on a timer to the locations you tick. It stays inert until at least one ticked location has everything it needs.

| Setting | Type | Default | Shown when |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Back up automatically | Toggle | Off | always (off until a ticked location is usable) |
| Pause backups | Row: 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, or Until I resume | Not paused | Back up automatically on |
| How often | Slider over 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 72, 96, 120 and 168 hours | 24 hours (1 day) | Back up automatically on |
| Backups to keep | Slider, 1–100 | 5 | Back up automatically on |
| Keep older backups spread out | Toggle | Off | Back up automatically on |
| Only while charging | Toggle | On | Back up automatically on |
| Only on Wi-Fi | Toggle | On | Same, and only while a ticked location needs a connection (anything but a Folder) |
| **Back up to** | A tick box per location | On for every location | always |
| Protect with a passphrase | Toggle | Off | always |
| Passphrase | Password field | empty | Protect with a passphrase on |
| **What goes in a backup** | The same switches as the export list, with their own settings | Same defaults as the export list | always |

**Pause backups** stops the scheduled backups without turning the feature off. While paused the row reads "Backups are paused" with "Until `<date and time>`" or "Until you resume", and tapping it or **Resume** ends the pause. A timed pause ends by itself. Locations, schedule, passphrase and the backups already kept don't change, and the scheduled job stays where it is, so resuming doesn't restart the interval: a backup that came due during the pause runs at the next check. **Back up now** ignores a pause.

**Backups to keep** counts the newest backups, and the oldest one past that number is deleted after each run. Turn on **Keep older backups spread out** to keep a longer history without keeping every copy: past the newest ones, the app also keeps the newest backup of each of the last 7 days, each of the last 5 weeks and each of the last 12 months. That adds at most 24 files. The ages count back from the newest backup, not from today, so a phone that stopped backing up for a month still has its spread-out copies when it starts again.

**Frequent backup** adds a second automatic backup beside this one, for what changes often and is small. Turn on **Also back up often** and it gets its own **How often, frequent backup** (the same 1 hour to 7 days, 1 hour to start with), **Frequent backups to keep** (5), **Encrypt frequent backups** and **What goes in a frequent backup** (Settings, Themes and Snippets to start with). So the hourly copy can be your settings in plain text while the daily one carries the clipboard and the stickers under a passphrase. It goes to the same ticked locations, waits for the same charging and Wi-Fi conditions, needs **Back up automatically** on, and stops while backups are paused. Its files start `wmkeyboard-quick-` rather than `wmkeyboard-auto-`, so each schedule deletes only its own old copies, and **Restore from a location** lists both. It never carries API keys. **Encrypt frequent backups** uses the passphrase under **Protect with a passphrase**, and stays off until there is one. **Back up now** takes a main backup.

Each backup goes to every ticked location. A location you untick keeps its settings and gets no backups until you tick it again. One passphrase covers the automatic backups and the sync files, so use the same one on every device that syncs.

**Include API keys** under **What goes in a backup** is yours to turn on. Without a passphrase, its subtitle strongly suggests turning one on first, and turning it on asks you to confirm, because anyone who can open the location could then read your keys. It doesn't refuse.

### Sync devices

Data / Backup & restore / Sync devices

Sync keeps your devices the same. Each device keeps one sync file at the locations you tick. Every device reads the files of the others, and the newest change to each setting wins.

| Setting | Type | Default | Shown when |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Sync this device | Toggle | Off | always (needs a location) |
| Pause sync | Row: 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, or Until I resume | Not paused | Sync on |
| When to sync | Choice: Soon after a change / On a schedule / Only when I ask | Soon after a change | Sync on |
| How often | Slider, the same stops as the backup interval | 6 hours | Sync on, On a schedule |
| Sync API keys and passwords | Toggle | Off | Sync on |
| **Sync through** | A tick box per location | the first location, when you turn sync on | always |
| **Sync through**: Sync group | Row: a name, or none | None | always |
| **Sync through**: Sync with paired devices | Toggle | On | always |
| **Sync through**: Sync only on Wi-Fi | Toggle | Off | always |
| **What syncs** | The section switches, with their own settings, all but AI memory, which never syncs | Settings, Themes, Snippets, Notes, To-do list | always |
| **Keep on this device**: Toolbar and toolbox | Toggle | Off | Settings ticked in What syncs |
| **Keep on this device**: Languages and layouts | Toggle | Off | Settings ticked in What syncs |
| **Keep on this device**: Theme | Toggle | Off | Settings ticked in What syncs |
| **Sync now** | Button | | always |

**Soon after a change** pushes about a minute after you stop changing things, and pulls every hour and each time the app starts. **On a schedule** runs at the interval you set. **Only when I ask** runs only when you tap **Sync now**. Turning sync on runs the first sync straight away, and on that first sync the settings of your other devices win. Anything only this device has goes to the others.

Your devices must share at least one ticked location. Tick more than one and the sync file goes to each, so sync keeps working while one service is down.

**Sync only on Wi-Fi** holds every scheduled and automatic sync back while the phone is on mobile data (any network Android counts as metered), and runs it once it's on Wi-Fi again. **Sync now** still runs at once, wherever you are. A sync whose locations are all on this phone needs no network and is never held back.

With **Sync with paired devices** on, a computer running WM Keyboard that you pair over [KDE Connect](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/tools/kde-connect/#pairing-with-wm-keyboard-on-a-computer) is added as a **Nearby device** location, ticked here, and sync is turned on. Backups never go to it. The files cross directly over the local network, while both devices are on it and the keyboard is open.

An **Other profile** location (see [Locations](#locations)) syncs this keyboard with its copy in your private space or work profile, on the same phone. It needs no network: the files go between the two copies over 127.0.0.1, while both are running.

Some settings never sync, because they only fit one device: the keyboard size and position on each screen, one-handed mode, the floating keyboard, the hardware keyboard, paired KDE Connect computers, the app lock, what's installed or downloaded on the device, and this screen's own settings. Everything else in a ticked section syncs, including settings added in later versions.

**Keep on this device** holds back three more groups when you want them different here, a phone and a tablet with different toolbars for example. **Toolbar and toolbox** covers which tools there are, their order and how they look. **Languages and layouts** covers the layouts you switch between, the extra languages and the layout picked for each app. **Theme** covers the theme in use, the light and dark pair and when the keyboard switches between them; your own themes still sync through the **Themes** section. A ticked group isn't sent, and changes from your other devices don't touch it. Untick it and this device takes what your other devices have, as it did when it first joined.

**Pause sync** holds the scheduled and automatic syncs back, as **Pause backups** does for backups, and reads "Sync is paused" while it lasts. **Sync now** still runs. Resuming syncs straight away.

#### Sync groups

**Sync group** keeps several people apart at one shared location. Devices read and merge only the sync files of their own group; devices with no group sync with each other, as before groups existed. The row reads "None. Syncs with the devices here that have no group" or "`<group>`. Syncs only with devices in this group". Tapping it opens a box to type the name, with chips for the groups other devices already use at your sync locations (**No group** among them) and "Saved as `<name>`" when what you typed changes on saving: letters, digits and single hyphens, up to 12, lowercase. Saving a new group makes this device sync as if for the first time, so the group's settings win, and runs a sync straight away while sync is on.

Ticking a location under **Sync through** checks it for other groups. When other devices sync there in groups this device isn't in, the same box opens, saying so, to pick one to join. A **Nearby device** or **Other profile** location ignores the group.

**Sync API keys and passwords** is off by default. It works with or without a passphrase. Without one, the subtitle strongly suggests turning one on first, and turning it on asks you to confirm.

### Export

Data / Backup & restore / What goes in an export

**What goes in an export** is nineteen toggles, top to bottom. Eighteen are independent; **Include API keys** only exists while **Settings** or **Notes** is on, since it also decides whether locked notes travel:

| Setting | Subtitle | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Settings | Every keyboard setting | On |
| Include API keys *(shown only while Settings is on)* | The keys for translate, GIF, search and AI | Off |
| Themes | Your custom themes | On |
| Dictionary | The words the keyboard learned from you | Off |
| Clipboard | The saved clipboard history | Off |
| Snippets | Your saved text snippets | On |
| Sticker packs | Your own sticker packs, with the images | Off |
| Icon packs | Your own icon packs, with the images | Off |
| Custom word lists | The word lists you imported for any language | On |
| Add-on repositories | The add-on sources you added, so you can install from them again | On |
| Emoji history | Your recent emoji, your favourites and the skin tone of each one | On |
| Typing statistics | Your daily typing counts and your all-time speed | On |
| Vocabulary | Your word lists, imported packs and learning progress. Downloaded packs are left out; they can be downloaded again. | On |
| Swipe style | How you swipe: where your finger lands, the readings you corrected, and the shape you draw each word in | Off |
| Notes | Your notes, their tags, and what is in the trash. Locked notes stay out of the file unless Include API keys is on. | On |
| Clock | Alarms, timer presets, countdowns and the [Clock](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/tools/clock/) settings, including the world clocks. Running timers, the stopwatch and the history stay on the phone. | On |
| Kaomoji | Your kaomoji library: the faces you added, their tags, the order and your favourites | On |
| AI memory | What the AI remembers about you, from Settings › AI › Memory. See [AI memory](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/tools/ai-memory/) | Off |
| To-do list | Your tasks and their steps, done or not | On |

The export, the automatic backup and sync each have their own list, because they're three different decisions: a file to hand to someone, a copy for yourself, and what your devices share. The export list starts from whatever you had ticked before the lists were split.

Sticker packs and icon packs default off because their images make the file larger, not out of any privacy concern. Dictionary, Clipboard and Swipe style default off because they're your personal typing history rather than configuration; the swipe shapes are filed under the words you drew them for. Emoji history is personal too, but it defaults on: it's a few hundred bytes, and unlike a word list or a model there's nowhere to download it back from. Add-on repositories carries only the repository addresses you've added, not the addons installed from them.

**Export to a file** stays disabled until at least one toggle is on. Tap it to open Android's save dialog. The name takes the form `wmkeyboard-backup-<date>-<time>.wmconfig.json`, timestamped down to the second so repeated exports don't overwrite each other. The file goes wherever you choose, and nothing is uploaded anywhere. The save dialog opens in the folder your last export went to, and **Import a file** opens in the folder you last imported from, each remembering its own, so the two never pull each other's way (Android 8 and later). Afterward you see one of:

| Result | Message |
|---|---|
| Wrote successfully, Settings on with Include API keys on | "The app exported the backup with your API keys in it. Keep that file as safe as a password." |
| Wrote successfully, otherwise | "The app exported the backup." |
| Wrote, but sticker packs, icon packs, word lists or vocabulary were too large to include | "The app wrote `<file>`. It left out `<parts>`, because the backup was too large." |
| Couldn't write the file | "The app could not write that file." |

The size limit scales with how much memory Android gives the app, at twice the room the automatic backup gets. When the image and word-list parts together would go over it, the export leaves out the largest of them first, one at a time, until the rest fits, and names what it left out. The rest of the file is complete. A failed export writes its reason to the app log under About › Diagnostics, tagged `WMBackup`.

### Import

**Import a file** opens a document picker for any file type. It reads the file and tries to decode it before changing anything. Nothing is written until you confirm a dialog.

| Outcome | What happens |
|---|---|
| File is a current `.wmconfig.json` bundle | An "Import backup?" dialog lists each section found (for example "Themes: 3 custom themes"), states that settings merge while dictionary, clipboard, and snippets replace, and adds a warning if the file contains API keys |
| File is a legacy `.wmsettings.json` file | An "Import settings?" dialog states how many settings will be overwritten, warns about included API keys, and notes any entries that couldn't be read and will be skipped |
| File can't be read from disk | "The app could not read that file." |
| File doesn't decode as either format | "That file is not a WM Keyboard backup." |

  reference/settings/backup-import-confirm — The import confirmation dialog, listing what a backup file contains before anything is applied.

Below the parts the file holds, the dialog names the parts it doesn't, which stay as they are on this phone. A file holds only what was picked when it was made, and **Export to a file**, the automatic backup and sync each keep their own list: the automatic backup leaves the clipboard and your typed words out unless you tick them, whatever the export list says.

Confirming a current-format import applies each section independently and merges or replaces depending on which one it is:

| Section | On import |
|---|---|
| Settings | **Merges**. Only the preferences present in the file are overwritten, and everything else on the device is left as-is |
| Themes | **Replaces**. The entire custom-theme list is swapped for what's in the file |
| Dictionary | **Replaces** |
| Clipboard | **Replaces** |
| Snippets | **Replaces** |
| Sticker packs | **Replaces**. The local collection is cleared and rebuilt from the file |
| Icon packs | **Replaces**, with the same clear-and-rebuild |
| Custom word lists | **Replaces**, with the same clear-and-rebuild |
| Add-on repositories | **Merges**. Incoming repository addresses join your existing list, and a duplicate address is skipped rather than overwritten |
| Emoji history | **Replaces**. Recents, use counts, favourites and per-emoji skin tones all come from the file |
| Typing statistics | **Replaces**. The day-by-day counts and the all-time totals both come from the file |
| Vocabulary | **Replaces**, but only your own word lists and packs. A downloaded catalogue pack stays put, since the bundle never carried it, and the learning-progress record is written whole |
| Swipe style | **Replaces**. The finger-position model, the corrected readings and the learned shapes all come from the file |
| Notes | **Replaces**, except that locked notes already on the phone are kept when the file was made without them. A keyboard already running reloads rather than saving its own list back |
| Clock | **Replaces** the alarms, presets, countdowns and clock settings, and sets the restored alarms at once. Timers running and the stopwatch on this phone are kept |
| AI memory | **Replaces** the saved facts, and the chats pick them up at once |
| To-do list | **Replaces** the tasks and steps. A keyboard already running reloads rather than saving its own list back |

Settings import is rollback-safe. After writing, the keyboard re-reads its own settings to confirm they still parse, and it undoes the write if they don't. The other sections in the same file still apply even when settings roll back. After a confirmed import you see either "The app restored `<sections>`.", a lowercase comma-separated list of what changed, or "The file has nothing to restore." A rolled-back settings portion appends "The app could not apply the settings. Your settings did not change." A confirmed legacy import instead reports how many settings it restored, or says "The app could not apply that backup. Your settings did not change."

Opening a `.wmconfig.json` or `.wmsettings.json` file from a file manager routes through this same read-then-confirm flow rather than importing silently.

**Import from another keyboard**, the row under it, takes a whole backup from HeliBoard, LeanType, FUTO Keyboard, FlorisBoard, CleverKeys or AnySoftKeyboard. It reads the file and lists everything inside, grouped as Layouts, Themes, Languages, Dictionaries and words, and Settings, each item with its own check box and every box ticked to start. A section heading's box ticks or clears the whole section. **Import** writes only the ticked items and then says what landed, for example "The app imported 2 layouts, 1 theme, 12 settings." Settings get the same read-back and rollback as a restore of this app's own backup. What each keyboard's backup holds, and what never comes across, is on [Importing from other keyboards](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/reference/importing-other-keyboards/#whole-backups).

## Details & edge cases

- **An emoji-history import lands live.** The keyboard holds its emoji history in memory while it runs and writes it out when a field closes, so a restore could have been overwritten seconds later. Importing bumps a counter the running keyboard watches, which makes it drop its copy and re-read the file. The panel's Recent and Favourites tabs refresh on the spot, with nothing to restart.
- **Two file formats, one import path.** `.wmconfig.json` is the current, full-bundle format that **Export to a file** and the automatic backup write today. `.wmsettings.json` is an older, settings-only format the app still accepts on import, for files made by earlier versions. Nothing in the current app writes one anymore.
- **The Themes toggle's own in-app description undersells it.** Its info text says a theme's background image doesn't travel to another phone, and that only the theme itself does. In the current app the image does travel. It's embedded in the export and written back to local storage on import, so a restored theme keeps its picture. See [Backup & restore](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/privacy/backup/#exporting-a-config-file) for the accurate version.
- **The API-keys switches cover files this screen writes.** They have no effect on Android's own backup system, which is a separate opt-in covered on the [Privacy](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/reference/settings/privacy/) screen and copies saved API keys regardless of anything on this page.
- **Add-on repositories is a bookmark list, not the addons themselves.** What an installed addon leaves behind on this screen is in whichever section matches its type: a theme, icon pack, or sticker pack you installed from a repository is already covered by that section.
- **The automatic backup asks the system for two things, both yours to turn off.** A charger, from **Only while charging**, and an unmetered connection, from **Only on Wi-Fi**. It never asks for an idle device, because the work is a few seconds of copying rather than the kind of job that wants the phone asleep. The Wi-Fi requirement is dropped while only **Folder** locations are ticked, since they need no connection at all, and the toggle is hidden then for the same reason. With it off, a backup to any other location still waits for some connection, mobile data included, so a run never starts on a phone that is offline and then gets reported as a sign-in problem. An interval is a period, not an alarm clock, so a run lands somewhere inside the window rather than on the hour. **Back up now** ignores all of it and runs immediately.
- **Changing either condition reschedules the job on the spot.** Both toggles are part of what the app compares against the job already queued, so flipping one takes effect without waiting for the current period to end. That matters, because the interval restarts when the job is replaced. Keep changing the conditions and you keep pushing the next run back.
- **Turning the automatic switch on with nowhere usable to go does nothing.** The row says what's missing and stays off: "Add a location first." with no locations, and "Tick a location in Back up to." when none is ticked. A location card says what it lacks: "Choose a folder first." for a Folder, "Sign in first." for Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, pCloud, MEGA, iCloud Drive and Proton Drive, and "Fill in the connection details first." for WebDAV, S3, SFTP, SMB, NFS, Synology, QNAP, FTP, Git and IMAP. "Usable" is a cheap check, not proof the upload will work: a folder grant exists, a WebDAV address is filled in, an S3 bucket and key pair are present, an FTP server and user name are filled in, an SFTP server and user with a password or a key, an SMB server, share and user, a Git repository and token, an IMAP server, user and password, an NFS server and export, a Synology or QNAP address, user and password, or a Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, pCloud, MEGA, iCloud Drive or Proton Drive sign-in was stored. Google Drive counts as usable as soon as you add it, because the permission lives with your Google account rather than in a field here. **Test the connection** is how to find out for sure.
- **A failed backup says why in the app log.** The screen shows one sentence per failure, such as "The last backup did not finish.", but Settings → About → Diagnostics records which location failed, the reason, and for WebDAV the request and the status the server answered with. Include that log when you report a backup that won't go through.
- **"The keyboard ran out of memory" is about the phone, not the location.** The backup was never sent and your older backups are untouched. Try again, or leave out large sections such as stickers.
- **A backup is written, checked and restored one part at a time.** Each part (settings, sticker packs, the dictionary and so on) is written to the file and let go of before the next one is gathered, the encryption works through the file in 64 KiB pieces, and a restore reads the file again and applies each part as it reaches it. So the size of the whole backup no longer has to fit in the keyboard's memory, only its largest part. Before a restore writes anything, the file is read through once to check it's a whole backup, and an encrypted one has every piece checked, so a damaged file changes nothing.
- **Several locations, one run.** The file is built and checked once, then copied to each ticked location, and each one rotates its own old backups. The run counts as done when any location got the file, and a location that failed says so on its card. A notification names the kind of location that failed.
- **Locations are filed as secrets, alongside your API keys.** The list of locations holds the WebDAV, FTP, SFTP, SMB and IMAP passwords, SFTP private keys, Git tokens, the S3 secret, the Synology, QNAP and iCloud passwords, and the Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, pCloud, MEGA, iCloud and Proton sign-ins, so it's stripped from an export unless **Include API keys** is on, and kept out of pre-unlock storage either way. With it on, a phone restored from that file gets its locations and sign-ins back; a Folder location then asks for its folder again, because a folder permission means nothing on another phone. Sync never carries locations. Some things never travel at all, on or off: the **Back up automatically** switch itself, every sync setting, the per-install salt, and the last-run times and errors. A passphrase that arrives by import or sync gets a fresh salt on this phone, so it works without retyping it. That's deliberate. Restore a bundle on a new phone and you don't want its automatic backup or its sync coming back switched on by itself.
- **One location can hold several phones' backups.** Each automatic backup's name records the device and this installation, like `wmkeyboard-auto-20260923-033823_78c415cf_Pixel-8.wmconfig.json`. **Backups to keep** counts only this installation's backups, so two phones sharing a Dropbox each keep their own five and never delete each other's. Backups from before names carried a device count as this phone's and are rotated out as new ones arrive. The installation id is not a setting. It never goes into an export or Android's backup, so a phone restored from either one starts its own set of backups instead of taking over the old phone's. Clearing the app's storage or reinstalling makes a new one. Sync files are named the same way, `wmkeyboard-sync_<installation>_<device>.wmsync.json` (`.wmsync.enc` with a passphrase), one per device, rewritten in place, and never counted as backups. A device in a sync group writes `wmkeyboard-sync-<group>_<installation>_<device>.wmsync.json` instead, which versions from before groups don't read at all, and its backups carry the group before the device, as in `…_78c415cf_family--Pixel-8.wmconfig.json`. Moving to another group removes the device's sync file from the old one.
- **A pause and a sync group belong to this phone.** Neither goes into an export, a backup or a sync file, so a phone restored from a bundle never arrives paused, or in somebody else's group.
- **Every toggle and slider on this screen carries the usual restore button** once you move it off its default, in Automatic backup, Sync devices and What goes in an export alike. See [Putting one setting back](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/reference/settings/#putting-one-setting-back). The text fields are the exception, because an address or a password has no shipped value to go back to.

## Related pages

- [Backup & restore](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/privacy/backup/): the guide. Why each default is what it is, Android's own backup system, and a step-by-step for moving to a new phone.
- [Privacy](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/reference/settings/privacy/): the **Back up with Android** toggle that folds the keyboard into Android's own backup, separate from the export on this page.
- [What are addons?](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/addons/overview/): how installed addons relate to the repositories this screen's Add-on repositories toggle backs up.