Backup, restore & reset

Zenith keeps everything on your phone, in its own private storage. Zenith uploads nothing, though Android's own phone backup may copy that storage — everything except the Shuttle, your AI keys and your Google sign-ins — to your Google account. A backup file is written only when you ask, to a place you choose. Saving, restoring, and reset all live on one page: Settings › star chart.

#Which file is which

• A sky (.zsd) holds one sky — a whole setup: its stars, its look, and its icons. It is the shareable unit, and it imports as a new sky, never overwriting the one you're on.
• A backup (.zbak) holds the whole launcher — every setting, all your stars, your talismans, your custom icons, the names and icons you gave apps in deep sky, and my sky's settings — for moving to a new phone. The file is named "zenith-launcher-backup.zbak".

When you restore a .zbak, star charts, settings, talismans, and custom icons all travel. Only widgets can't cross to another phone in a .zbak: their stars come across, but you re-bind each widget once. Android's own phone transfer is different: when it moves Zenith to a new phone, your widgets come back by themselves.

A .zbak doesn't carry your AI keys, the ask the sky panel's own choices (provider, model, read aloud, and the 👁 screen sharing), chat memory, your AI consent, or the Shuttle. On a new phone you enter your AI key again. Both files are plain, readable text, so anyone you give one to can read it.

#Save one sky to share

1. Open Settings › star chart.
2. Tap "save this sky ✦".
3. Choose where to save the file.

You now have a .zsd file for that sky, ready to share.

#Back up everything

1. Open Settings › star chart.
2. Tap "back up all".
3. Choose where to save the file.

You now have a .zbak file holding your whole launcher. Keep it somewhere safe — this is what you restore from on a new phone.

#Restore from a file

1. Open Settings › star chart.
2. Tap "open…".
3. Pick a .zsd or .zbak file. An older .json sky file opens too.

A .zbak always asks first. A card reads "restore this backup?" — "it replaces the stars of the sky you're on, your settings and your talismans." Tap "restore" to go ahead, or "cancel" to leave everything as it was. A .zsd you pick here is added as a new sky at once, so your current sky stays untouched.

You can also tap a Zenith file in a file manager, or share one to Zenith. A backup brings up the same card. A sky asks too — "add the sky “<name>” as a new sky?" — with "add sky" and "cancel".

A file saved by a newer Zenith Launcher doesn't open: "this file was saved by a newer Zenith Launcher. update the app to open it."

Undo a restore. Just before a restore, Zenith saves your setup as it was. If it can't, you see "couldn't save your setup first, so nothing was restored", and nothing changes. After a restore, "put back the setup from before the restore" shows on this page. Tap it and you see "your setup from before the restore is back".

#Reset your sky

Reset erases the stars on the sky you're on. It cannot be undone, so back up first if you might want your layout again.

1. Open Settings › star chart.
2. Tap "erase all rings…".
3. It now reads "tap again to erase all rings". Tap it again to confirm.

Every region — a zone of the sky that groups stars — on this sky is emptied, and region names go back to "Region 1" through "Region 9". Widgets on it are released. Your settings and your other skies are kept.

#Bring back a hidden app

The same page lists any apps you've hidden from deep sky, under "hidden from deep sky", each with an "unhide" button. The list sits just above "erase all rings…".

Go gently here. When you unhide the last hidden app, the list closes and "erase all rings…" moves up to where "unhide" was. Look before you tap a second time.

#See also.

Backup / restore & new-phone data loss · Privacy & permissions · Widgets & floating widgets