Save Issues

Sakura keeps each game’s saves in a dedicated save folder on this device or in iCloud. See Save Management and Global Saves for the full save-browser and linking workflows — this page covers common problems.

Every game is linked to a save folder that is either:

• Local — stored only on this device, under Documents/saves/<folder name>/.
• iCloud — synced across your devices. The game itself never reads or writes iCloud directly; it always plays against a local staging copy, which is synced to iCloud before, during (every 5 seconds while playing), and immediately after a session.

You choose Local or iCloud the first time you launch a game, in the Setup Saves screen — see Save Management for that flow and how to change it later.

Symptom: Turning on iCloud Saves in Settings > Save & Data doesn’t stick, or a game’s Setup Saves screen shows iCloud as disabled with “Enable iCloud Saves in Settings first.”

Cause: iCloud Saves requires iCloud Drive to actually be available — signed in and enabled for this device.

Solution: Check iOS Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Drive is turned on, then try enabling iCloud Saves in Sakura again.

Symptom: Launching a game shows a Save Folder Missing screen instead of starting the game, offering Create new folder or Link to existing folder.

Cause: The game is configured to use a specific save folder, but that folder no longer exists on disk — commonly because an iCloud folder hasn’t finished syncing to this device yet, or the folder was deleted manually.

Solutions:

• If you expect the folder to still exist (e.g. on iCloud), wait a moment for sync and relaunch — it may just need time to download.
• Otherwise, choose Link to existing folder if you know the saves live under a different folder name, or Create new folder to start fresh (this won’t recover the lost saves).

Symptom: You turned off iCloud Saves in Settings, and Sakura asked what to do with games still using iCloud storage.

What the options mean:

• Migrate Saves to Local — copies each affected game’s saves down to a local folder and switches the game over automatically.
• Disable Without Migrating — the games keep their iCloud link on paper but stop syncing (leaves their staged saves as the last-known copy).
• Cancel — leaves iCloud Saves turned on.

If migration reports “Migration Finished with Errors”, check that all affected games’ iCloud files have finished downloading, then try again.

Symptom: You need to roll back to an earlier save state (e.g. after a bad overwrite or a corrupted slot).

Solution: Open the game’s Save Browser (from its detail page) → gear menu → Restore from Backup, or use the Backup Browser (Settings > Save & Data > Save Backups) to restore from there. Both show a “Restore Backup?” confirmation ending in “Current saves will be replaced” — the Save Browser names the backup file, the Backup Browser names the backup’s date — before overwriting anything.

Sakura keeps backups automatically:

• Auto-backups are taken right before every launch (as long as Automatic Save Backups is on and the save folder isn’t empty), rotating through a small number of slots (default 2, configurable 1–10 in Settings > Save & Data).
• Manual backups can be made any time from the Save Browser’s More > Back Up This Save Folder, retained up to a configurable limit (default 15).

If you deleted a save by mistake, check first for the 5-second Undo toast in the Save Browser before assuming you need a full backup restore — deletes are soft and briefly reversible.

Symptom: You want two installs of the same game (or a game and its sequel) to share one set of saves, or you accidentally see “N games” sharing a folder you didn’t expect.

Cause: A save folder isn’t tied to one game — it’s just a folder, and any number of games can be linked to the same one (their saves are literally the same files). This is normal and intentional for series that share save data, but it also means unlinking or renaming a shared folder affects every game linked to it.

Solution: Open the Save Manager (per-game “Change Link”, or the Global Save Manager for an overview of every folder and which games use it) to see, relink, or rename save folders. Renaming cascades to every linked game.

Symptom: Importing a save file shows ""{name}” is not a recognized save file. Supported: save{N}.dat, envdata, envdata.utf, gloval.sav, kidoku.dat, or a .zip archive.” or “Could not read “{name}” — it is not a readable zip archive (encrypted archives are not supported).”

Cause: Sakura only recognizes ONScripter’s own save file types, and can’t open encrypted zip archives.

Solution: Make sure you’re importing the actual save files (or a plain zip of them) from the source install — see Importing Saves for the exact files to bring over. If the zip is password-protected, extract it on a computer first and re-zip without a password.

If saves are missing, won’t sync, or won’t restore after trying the above, see Support with the game name and whether the affected save folder is Local or iCloud.