Autosave, recovery & snapshots
Autosave#
Ambersprite continuously writes a recovery snapshot of the open document in the background. It is separate from your saved file — you never have to think about it.
- The write is debounced and coalesced, so it doesn't interrupt drawing.
- Navigating away (Home, New, Open) **flushes*the snapshot synchronously first, so the last stroke is always captured.
- The snapshot's durable revision only advances after the write is verified by reading it back.
Recovering after a crash or force-quit#
If the app was terminated with unsaved work, the gallery shows Recover unsaved (N). Tap it to open the recovery list:
- **Recover*— reopen the document with the recovered state.
- **Open Copy*— recover into a new copy, leaving the original file untouched.
- **Delete this recovery*— discard it.
There's also Back to canvas on the gallery for the simple case where the sprite is still in memory and you just navigated Home.
Version snapshots#
A snapshot is a manual save-point inside the document.
- **Sprite ▸ Version Snapshots*opens the list.
- **Capture*stores the current state as
v1,v2, … - **Restore*rolls the document back to a snapshot — and this is itself undoable, keeps the document ID and URL, and marks the file dirty.
- **Share*exports a snapshot as its own
.pxstudiofile.
Capture a snapshot before a risky change — a big recolour, a flatten, a canvas resize. It's cheaper than duplicating the whole document and you can compare by restoring back and forth.
Timelapse#
If timelapse recording is on, Ambersprite keeps a lightweight record of your painting process. Export it as a GIF from File ▸ Export ▸ Timelapse.