Save Management

Spark provides comprehensive save management tools.

Access the Save Browser by tapping the save icon on any game in your library, or through the game overlay while playing.

The Save Browser shows:

• All save slots with thumbnails and timestamps
• Quick save and auto save slots
• Page navigation for large numbers of saves

Adjust the number of columns displayed:

• iPhone: Default 3 columns
• iPad: Default 5 columns

Change in Settings > Save Manager Columns.

Spark automatically backs up your saves:

• Auto Backup: Enabled by default, creates backups before each game launch
• Backup Slots: Controls how many backup versions to keep (default: 2, max: 10)
• Backup Location: Spark Documents/backups/[gamename]/
• iCloud Backup Location: If iCloud backup is enabled, backups are also stored in your iCloud container and synced across devices

Each backup is timestamped and compressed into a ZIP file.

1. Open the Save Manager for the game
2. Use the restore option to choose a source:
   • From detected save backups — Select from Spark’s automatic backups
   • From the Files app — Browse and select a backup file manually
3. Choose how to handle existing saves:
   • Replace — Deletes all existing saves and imports the new ones with their original filenames. The persistent file is also replaced.
   • Stack — Keeps all existing saves and imports the new ones into the next available save slots, renaming them to avoid conflicts. The existing persistent file is preserved; it is only copied if one doesn’t already exist.
4. Confirm the restore operation

Ren’Py and individual games display saves in pages, with a limited number of save slots per page. The default layout varies by screen size — smaller screens (iPhone) typically show 4 saves per page, while larger screens (iPad) show 6. Games with custom save screen implementations may use entirely different layouts and slot counts.

Because of this, save files can become scattered or unevenly distributed across pages over time, especially if you’ve imported saves from another platform or deleted saves in the middle.

The Reorganize Saves tool restacks your saves into a clean, sequential layout with a configurable number of slots per page. Access it from the Save Manager toolbar menu.

1. Choose a max slots per page (2–6, default: 6 on iPad, 4 on iPhone)
2. Tap Reorganize
3. Spark renames save files to enforce the selected limit:
   • Auto saves are renumbered sequentially (auto-1, auto-2, etc.) up to the limit
   • Quick saves are renumbered the same way
   • Any overflow beyond the limit, plus all manual saves, are redistributed across clean sequential pages (1-1, 1-2, … 2-1, 2-2, etc.)

For more details on how Ren’Py structures save files and slots, see the official Ren’Py save system documentation.

If you want to hide save thumbnails (useful for privacy or NSFW content):

1. Enable Developer Mode in the Spark section of the Apple Settings app
2. In Spark, go to Settings
3. Enable Blur Save Thumbnails

This blurs all save thumbnails across all games. This option is only visible when Developer Mode is enabled.

When enabled, saves are synced via iCloud across your Apple devices:

• Real-time sync of save files
• Automatic conflict resolution
• Works across iPhone and iPad

See iCloud Sync for setup details.