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Device Sync

Tools → Device Sync moves your progress between the phone and an NX Redux handheld (TrimUI Brick, Brick Pro or Smart Pro S), over a USB-C cable or Wi-Fi. It works the same way as the handheld's Device Sync, and the two talk to each other.

Update the handheld first

Device Sync needs the latest NX Redux on the handheld. An older version stops at pairing with Update the handheld to the latest NX Redux to use Device Sync., before anything is copied.

What gets synced

  • Game saves (Saves/)
  • Save states, with their slot pictures
  • ROMs, only when you turn them on (see ROMs), with their art and RetroAchievements data
  • BIOS files, collections and game hashes

Everything else stays on each device: settings, recently played, play time and your RetroAchievements login.

How to sync

  1. Connect the devices with a USB-C cable (the handheld's bottom port, the same as for netplay), or put both on the same Wi-Fi network.
  2. Close any running game. Device Sync won't start while a game is open, and no game starts while a sync runs.
  3. Open Tools → Device Sync on both devices.
  4. Pick Sync via cable (the default) or Sync via Wi-Fi, the same on both devices, and press A Start. The devices find each other and sync.

While it runs, the page shows the step (1/4 to 4/4), the file count and each file as it is copied. When it ends, it shows how many files each side got, such as Sync complete: 12 files received, 5 sent.

Button What it does
A Start Start the sync
B Cancel Stop looking for the other device
B Stop Stop a running sync. It asks Stop the sync? first.
A Sync again / Retry Run it again, after it ends or fails
X ROMS: ON / OFF Sync ROMs too. Off each time the page opens.
B Back Go back
  • A stopped sync keeps the files it already copied.
  • A sync that is stopped or fails on one device ends on the other at once. A phone left waiting says The other device's sync failed. Check it, then sync again.; a handheld says The other device's sync failed.
  • If the other device paired but its answer was lost, the phone stops with The other device paired, but its answer never reached this phone. Stop the sync on it, then start again on both.
  • You can leave the page or switch apps: the sync goes on, with a Device Sync notification. The notification's Cancel stops it. Open Device Sync again to see where it is.
  • Sync via Wi-Fi needs the phone on Wi-Fi. If it isn't, the page says Wi-Fi not connected. Turn on Wi-Fi, or sync via cable.

ROMs

ROMs are off each time you open the page. Press X (ROMS: ON), or, on touch without a hint bar, tap the SD-card icon at the right of the page title. The icon is lit when ROMs sync, and a notice says ROMs will sync too or ROMs won't sync. ROM sync needs All files access; without it the page says ROMs were skipped: turn on All files access to sync them.

Between two phones, each console folder syncs as it is. With a handheld, the phone's one folder per console maps onto the handheld's per-emulator folders:

  • Games from every handheld folder of a console land in the phone's console folder. A game the handheld keeps in two emulator folders of one console is pulled once.
  • A game pulled from a handheld emulator folder, such as Game Boy Advance (MGBA) or Sega Master System (GPGX), keeps that emulator on the phone: it becomes the game's Emulator choice. A game that already has a choice keeps it.
  • Each phone game goes to one handheld folder: the one whose tag is the emulator the phone runs the game with. With several such folders, the one named like the console. With none, the console's first emulator folder the handheld has. A handheld with only Sony PlayStation (PSX) gets the phone's PCSX ReARMed games there.
  • A console the handheld has no folder for is skipped, and listed when the sync is done. Sync never creates a ROM folder on the handheld.
  • Box art and screenshots travel with the games, and only fill gaps.

Handheld folders that were renamed still match: by the console's name, ignoring case, spaces and punctuation (Gameboy (GB), Mastersystem (GPGX)), by a console name inside the folder name (Sega Mega-CD (GPGX)), or by the tag. A folder with a tag that several consoles share, such as GPGX, and a name no console matches is skipped, not guessed.

Saves match by game across the handheld's save formats (MinUI, Generic, RetroArch, compressed) and go where the game is. BIOS files only fill what the other side lacks, per console. Collections and game hashes follow the same mapping.

On Nintendo DS, when a game's only save is the handheld's DraStic .dsv, the phone plays and saves that .dsv in place, so progress goes both ways. A game you started on the phone keeps the phone's save format.

More detail
  • Sync never deletes anything. A file missing on one device is copied over; when both devices have the same file, the newer one replaces the older one.
  • Both devices send and receive in the same session, so one run brings both up to date. A second run right after copies almost nothing.
  • Save states only work with the emulator that made them; states for an emulator the other device doesn't have are copied but unused.
  • macOS leftovers (._* files, .DS_Store) are skipped.
  • Device Sync and Import saves don't run at the same time. Start during an import says Wait for the import to finish, then sync.