Backup and restore exports your channel settings to a file you keep yourself, and puts them back later — into your own channel as a safety net, or shared with another streamer so they can adopt a setup you already tuned.
What it solves
Channel settings accumulate: wheel prizes, alert automation rules, overlay styling, point payout rules. None of it arrives fully formed and none of it is fun to rebuild. A backup lets you save a known-good state before a big change, and turns "move this whole setup to another channel" or "start from someone else's configuration" into one action instead of an afternoon.
Getting started
- Go to Backup & restore → Export and tick the sections you want to take with you.
- Decide whether images and sounds should be packed in.
- Hit export; the backup file downloads to your computer.
- To restore, pick that file on the Restore tab, then preview and tick what should be written.
🔴 Restoring overwrites
This is the one sentence that matters on this page. Restore does not merge with what you have; it writes the backup's contents over it. Read what the preview marks on each item before ticking it:
- Single-instance settings (per-module settings, leaderboard settings — anything a channel has exactly one of) are replaced wholesale. The preview marks them "will overwrite current settings", and nothing happens unless you tick them. There is no "restore only these few fields" option.
- List items (wheels, alert automation rules, shop rewards, overlay styles, throwable items, goals…) are matched against your existing items by name, and you choose what happens on a name clash.
| On name clash | What happens |
|---|---|
| Skip | Leave the existing item alone. The conservative default. |
| Merge | Keep what the existing item has and add the backup's entries to it; re-running adds nothing new. |
| Overwrite | Update the existing item with the backup's contents. Restoring into your own channel is idempotent. |
| Duplicate | Keep the existing item and add a renamed copy. Every re-run adds another one. |
What never goes into a backup
A backup captures the effective values you can see in the dashboard, and only what you can already read on those pages. So none of the following is ever in the file:
- Payment settings and any key, credential or token.
- Members, roles and grants of any kind.
- Viewer point balances, check-in history and other operational data — a backup holds settings, not data.
Two things are included and worth knowing about before you hand the file to someone: your ignore / exclusion lists (which contain viewer names), and the VTube Studio connection address used by the throwing module.
Also note that exporting while your plan is downgraded records the downgraded effective values for Pro fields — a backup always equals what you currently see in the dashboard.
Images and sounds
Assets referenced by your settings can be packed into the file and added to the receiving channel's media library on restore. Three choices:
- Referenced only (default) — pack just the files the ticked settings actually use.
- Whole media library — including assets nothing currently references. Use this (with no settings ticked) to back up the library on its own.
- Do not pack — keep URLs only; smallest file. Anyone you share it with will not see those assets.
On restore, images and sounds are uploaded before any setting. That order is deliberate: if the receiving channel is short on media quota, the restore stops before a single setting has been written, so you can free up space or upgrade and simply run the whole thing again without a half-applied state.
Restore runs item by item
Each item is written independently and marked succeeded, failed or skipped as it goes, with a summary at the end; failed items can be retried on their own. The trade-off is that it is not a transaction:
- Leaving the page mid-restore keeps what was already written, stops the rest, and leaves the channel half-restored.
- The page warns you once when you try to leave — but it cannot stop a closed laptop or a dropped connection.
Common misconceptions
-
A backup file is not encrypted.
It is an archive with a different extension; rename it to
.zipand it opens. The extension only discourages hand-editing — it is not a protection mechanism, so do not expect it to hide anything. (Conversely, even an edited file still goes through normal API validation and quota checks on every single write.) - A backup is not a channel snapshot. It stores configuration, not viewer data. Restoring one does not move point balances, check-in streaks or giveaway entries.
- "Duplicate" keeps growing on re-runs. That is expected, not a bug. If you want a re-run to be a no-op, choose "Overwrite".
- Images in someone else's backup may not show up. If they exported with "do not pack", the file holds URLs only; those assets are not in your library and the overlay will be missing them. The preview marks this as "assets may be missing".
Settings
The text below is taken from the in-app help, so it stays in sync with the actual interface.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Also restore media not referenced by any setting | Turn this off to keep these files out of this restore's upload plan and skip your asset quota entirely. |
| Media library quota exceeded - restore stopped | Images and sounds upload before any settings, so no settings were written. Free up media library space or upgrade your plan, then restore the whole file again. |
| Images or sounds used by your settings failed to upload - restore stopped | Writing the settings anyway would leave them pointing at a file that does not exist, which can later break other channels' overlays too. No settings were written yet - retry in a moment, or uncheck the sections that use those files and restore again. |
Other notes
- Images and sounds referenced by your settings are packed into the backup and added to the receiving channel’s media library on restore.
- Drop a backup file here, or
- Every item is independent - you can re-run the restore for just the failed ones.
- You can still proceed, but files over quota will fail to upload and the restore stops before writing any settings.
- No backup file selected yet.
Other settings
These settings have no additional help text in the dashboard; only their names are listed here.
- Export your channel settings to a file, or restore one - your own or another streamer’s
- Backup not finished
- Leaving this page aborts the backup - what has been read so far will not be saved to a file. Leave anyway?
- Restore not finished
- Leaving this page aborts the restore. Settings already written stay, the rest will not be applied - the channel is left half-restored. Leave anyway?
- Leave and abort
- Settings
- Select all
- Clear all
- (unnamed)
- When a name already exists
- Skip
- Merge
- Overwrite
- Create a copy
- Leave the existing item untouched (safe default).
- Keeps what the existing item already has and adds the backup’s on top; re-running adds nothing new.
- Update the existing item from the backup. Restoring to your own channel stays idempotent.
- Keep the existing item and add a renamed copy. Every re-run adds another copy.
- Pick the settings to export and download them as a single backup file.
- The backup stores the values currently in effect for you. Pro fields are stored as their downgraded values while your plan is downgraded.
- Payment settings, members and authorizations, and any keys or credentials are never included.
- Your ignore/exclude lists (viewer names) and the throwing module’s VTS connection address are written to the file too — keep this in mind before sharing a backup.
- Images and sounds you reference are packed into the backup file and added to the receiving channel’s media library on restore.
- Export and download
- Export complete
- Media library
- Referenced only
- Whole library
- Don’t pack
- Pack only the images and sounds actually referenced by the settings selected above (default).
- Pack the whole media library, including files no setting currently references. To back up just the media library, select no settings above and pick this.
- Pack nothing, keep URLs only (smallest file). People you share it with will not see these files.
- Reading settings…
- Downloading images and sounds…
- Packing…
- Backup exceeds the restore limit and cannot be restored
- Some sections could not be read - the backup is incomplete
- Abort backup
- Aborted - no backup file was created
- Choose a backup file, then review and pick what to restore.
- Choose file
- Choose another file
- Reading this channel’s current settings…
- This backup comes from another channel. The images and sounds it references are not in your media library and may not load.
- Merged in
- Overwrites current settings
- References media
- Media may be missing
- Over the limit
- New
- Show details
- Hide details
- Updated in place by command name; commands absent from the backup are left untouched
- Videos deduped by ID; tracks already in the library keep their existing info
- Merge keeps yours and adds the backup’s; overwriting only removes tags — the songs stay in the library
- Restore in progress - please stay on this page. Leaving now leaves your settings half-restored.
- Stop restore
- Stopped. Everything already restored is kept
- Restore complete
- Restore finished with failures
- Succeeded
- Failed
- Skipped
- Failed items
- Entire section
- Restore another backup
- Images and sounds
- No files need to be added.
- This file could not be read. It may not be a backup file, or it is damaged.
- The backup file contents are not in a valid format.
- The backup file has no version information and cannot be identified.
- The backup file is missing its source channel information.
- The backup file has nothing to restore.
- This backup contains no settings that this version recognizes.
- Earning rules, gambling, custom messages, ignore list
- Bets, animation timing, symbols
- Rewards, milestones, re-check-in, exempt roles, custom messages
- Mode, size limit, custom messages, OBS widget appearance
- Request limits, exempt roles, blocklists
- Languages, auto-translate, ignore list, cooldown
- Time rules, OBS widget appearance
- Criteria, settlement day, custom messages
- Bet limits, custom messages
- Physics, throwing, hit zone, calibration, audio, VTS link
- Public settings, board types and order, ignore list
- Persona, task, reply conditions, mention settings
- Cooldowns, viewer permissions, aliases, enabled state
- Titles and outcomes for quick prediction start
- Every track in the library, with title and duration — no YouTube lookup needed on restore
- Named playlists and their members; members are recorded by video ID
- Your custom persona and task templates (official built-in templates aren't backed up)
- Titles, entry methods, per-tier ticket values, schedule, winner confirmation, custom messages (tickets and winners are not backed up)
- Prevent banning real people
- Auto-ban known bots, new account threshold and name pattern
- How known attack bots are handled when they chat
- Banner image, channel intro, social links
- Images and sounds
- Alert Box styles
- Items
- Lucky Wheels
- Rewards
- Progress Goals
- Automation rules
- Giveaways
- Command settings
- Prediction templates
- Song library
- Song playlists
- AI custom templates
- Channel Points settings
- Slots settings
- Daily Check-in settings
- Queue System settings
- Song Request settings
- Song OBS widget appearance
- Chat Translate settings
- Marathon rules
- Auto VIP settings
- Rewards messages
- Predictions settings
- Predictions OBS widget appearance
- Throwing settings
- Model profiles
- Wheel palettes
- Leaderboard settings
- Blocked words
- AI Bot settings
- Follower management
- Follow bot guard
- Chat guard
- Public page