Backup & Restore

I lost a bunch of samples once when experimenting with firmware. Never again. This was one of the first features I built. Full device backup in about 2 minutes.

Back up individual projects or your entire device, samples and project data included. Restore to the same device or a different one. Everything is preserved exactly as it was. A progress bar shows you exactly where things are at during the backup.

SmartRestore automatically skips samples that already exist on the device, so partial restores are faster and avoid unnecessary writes.

Step-by-step backup process:

1. Connect your device

   Ensure your EP device is connected via USB and detected by EP-PatchStudio

2. Navigate to Backup & Restore

   Click the Backup & Restore section in the sidebar

3. Select backup type

   Choose between Single Project, All Projects or Full Device using the tabs

   • For Single Project: select which project to back up from the dropdown
4. Wait for sample cache sync

   EP-PatchStudio will cache all samples from the device. A progress bar shows the caching status.

   Important: Wait for caching to complete before creating a backup. The app shows "Caching samples: X / Y" with a progress bar.

5. Click the backup button

   Click "Backup Project" (or "Backup All Projects" / "Backup Full Device" depending on your selection)

6. Choose save location

   Select where to save the backup file on your computer

7. Wait for backup to complete

   The backup process will create a compressed archive containing all samples

Restoring saved backups to your device:

1. Connect your device

   Ensure your EP device is connected and detected

2. Navigate to the Restore tab

   Switch to the "Device Restore" section

3. Select backup file

   Click "Choose Backup File" and select your .pak or .ppak file

4. Preview backup contents

   The app will show details about the backup (sample count, date created, device type)

5. Choose restore scope
   • Full restore: Replaces all device samples with backup
   • Project restore: Restores to a specific project slot
   • SmartRestore: Skips samples that already exist on the device, making restores faster and avoiding unnecessary writes
6. Confirm and restore

   Click "Restore" and confirm the operation

7. Wait for transfer

   Samples will be transferred to your device via USB MIDI. This may take several minutes for large backups.

Every backup you take is kept in an in-app library, so you're not hunting through folders for the right file. Under Your Backups you get a list, newest first, ten to a page. Each row shows the date, which device it came from, whether it's a full device backup (.pak) or a single project (.ppak), and its size. From the row you can restore, export a copy to disk, or delete it.

This device vs all backups

Toggle between This device and All backups to narrow the list to the connected device or see everything you've got. When you're viewing all backups, each row uses the nickname you gave the device, so a backup reads as "gig 40" rather than a serial number.

Tags

Any backup can take tags. Tag the one you made before a firmware update, or the clean starting point you keep coming back to, and you can pick it out of a long list in a second. Tags are just labels, so use whatever wording makes sense to you.

Pinning and auto-prune

To stop the library growing forever, EP-PatchStudio auto-prunes: it keeps the five most recent backups per device and clears out older ones as new ones come in. To protect a backup from that, pin it. Pinned backups show a Kept badge and are never auto-removed, so your known-good baseline stays put no matter how many everyday backups pile up on top. The backup you've just taken is always safe too, even if it tips you over the limit.

The library shows its total size and warns you if it grows past a couple of gigabytes, so a stack of full-device backups doesn't quietly eat your disk.

EP-PatchStudio uses a sample cache system to speed up backup operations:

• Auto-sync on connect: The sample cache starts syncing automatically in the background when your device connects
• Cache status: Shows "Caching samples: X / Y" with progress bar during sync
• Cache storage: Cached samples are stored in the app's local database (IndexedDB)
• Rebuilding cache: If samples change on device, the cache automatically rebuilds

The cache system means subsequent backups are much faster, as samples don't need to be re-downloaded from the device.

Before Live Performance

Create a full device backup of your live set. If anything goes wrong during soundcheck or performance, you can quickly restore to a known-good state.

Sharing Projects

Back up a single project as a .ppak file. The .ppak bundles the project and its samples together, so you can send it to someone else and they can restore it to a slot on their device, exactly as you made it.

Switching Devices

Back up your current EP and restore to a new or different device. All your samples transfer with the backup.

Firmware Updates

Create a full device backup before updating your EP's firmware. If the update causes issues, you can restore your samples.

Experimentation

Back up your current setup before trying new sample libraries or making major changes. You can always restore if you don't like the results.