1Retro Cloud Saves: Setup on Every Handheld, and What It Does Not Sync

2026-11-05 · Setup guide

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Syncing emulator saves between devices has always been a job you do yourself. You install Syncthing on everything, or you run a WebDAV server, or you copy an SD card by hand and hope.

1Retro is a service that does it for you, and the reason it is worth a guide is narrow and specific: it ships an app that runs on the handheld. Not on a PC watching an SD card. An actual on device client for OnionOS, muOS, NextUI, MinUI and MiSTer, which syncs over Wi-Fi at the press of a button.

Nothing else in this space does that. If you play the same RPG on a Miyoo Mini Plus and a TrimUI Brick, this is the first tool built for exactly that.

There is one thing to settle before you set it up, because the service's own website gives two different answers about it.

The Short Version

• What it is. A cloud backup and sync service for emulator save files, with native clients for desktop, Android, and several handheld firmwares.
• The thing to know first. In game saves sync. Save states do not. The service's comparison page says otherwise. Its own setup pages and its pricing page agree with us.
• Where it runs. Desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux), Android, OnionOS, muOS, NextUI, MinUI, MiSTer FPGA, and a command line tool.
• No iPhone client. Not on the supported list.
• It needs Wi-Fi on the handheld, which rules out the original Miyoo Mini entirely.
• Free tier is real but tight. 20 MB and two saves per game. The saves per game limit is the one you will hit, not the storage.
• Paid from $2 a month, or $20 a year, with two months free on annual plans.
• The muOS trap. muOS resumes games from an automatic save state, and that state can silently overwrite a newer save you synced from another device. There is a fix. It is in this guide.
• Privacy looks genuinely good, with one disclosure worth reading: it parses your save files to pull out progress information.

What Actually Syncs, and What Does Not

Start here, because this determines whether the service does what you want.

1Retro's comparison page states that it "backs up save files (SRAM, memory cards) and save states, versioned in the cloud," and its feature table lists "syncs save states" as a thing it does.

Its setup pages say the opposite, twice, in identical words:

In game saves sync. Save states do not.

That line appears on both the muOS page and the NextUI page. The pricing page settles it: "labels and save states" is listed as a feature of the Basic tier and marked Soon, which is the site's own label for things that are not available yet.

So the accurate position today is that 1Retro syncs in game saves only. Save state syncing is announced, not shipped. The comparison page is ahead of the product.

We are pointing this out because save states are precisely what people assume a save sync service handles, and because in emulation they are the fragile thing. Our save state management guide covers why states are tied to an emulator and often to its exact version. Battery saves travel well. States do not. A service that only syncs the portable half is making a defensible choice, but it needs to say so on the page where people decide to pay.

Two more exclusions worth knowing:

• Emulator configs and BIOS files are out of scope. The service says so directly.
• Standalone emulators do not sync. On muOS, a game running under DraStic for DS keeps its saves in DraStic's own format, and those are not picked up. Anything running through RetroArch is fine.

Setting It Up

Every client follows the same shape. Install it, pair it once with a code, then sync. Pairing is always either a QR code you scan with your phone, or a short code you type at the service's device page in any browser.

Desktop

The easiest one, and the right place to start.

1. Make a free account.
2. Download the app for macOS, Windows or Linux. It installs normally and lives in your menu bar or system tray, starting with your computer.
3. Open it, sign in, and point it at your emulator's save directory. It recognises common ones automatically, including RetroArch, Snes9x and mGBA.
4. Play. It watches the folder and uploads changes.

One architectural detail that is nicer than it sounds: the app's settings open as a local page in your browser that talks only to the app on your own machine. The company's servers never see your folder structure, only the save files you upload.

Android

There is a dedicated Android app. If you are on an Odin, a Retroid, or an Anbernic Android handheld, this is your route, and it covers RetroArch plus anything writing standard save files.

OnionOS, on a Miyoo Mini Plus

Check this first: your device needs Wi-Fi. The original Miyoo Mini has no Wi-Fi hardware at all, so it cannot use this service by any method. The Mini Plus is the floor.

1. Turn on Wi-Fi in OnionOS settings.
2. Download 1RetroSync.zip, unzip it, and copy the 1RetroSync folder into the App folder on your SD card.
3. Restart the handheld.
4. Open the app, scan the QR code or enter the device ID in a browser, and approve it.
5. The first sync starts on its own.

After that, each launch is a one shot sync. Your handheld's saves go up, and newer saves from your other devices come down to the card.

muOS

1. Connect to Wi-Fi in muOS settings.
2. Download 1RetroSync.muxapp and copy it into the ARCHIVE folder at the top level of your SD card. Create that folder if it is not there.
3. On the device, go to Applications, then Archive Manager, and pick 1RetroSync to install it.
4. It then appears in Applications. Open it and pair.

Once paired, the app opens with Sync saves already highlighted, so a sync is one button press.

Two options are worth turning on. Watch for saves keeps syncing in the background after you leave the app, at some cost to battery, and only over Wi-Fi. Start watching at boot brings that back after a restart, but it needs User Init Scripts enabled in muOS's Advanced Settings or it quietly does nothing.

Then read the next section, because muOS has a trap.

NextUI and MinUI

These share one client. On MinUI, install minui-wifi-pak first and connect with that, because MinUI does not manage Wi-Fi itself.

1. Download 1Retro.Sync.pak.zip.
2. On the SD card, open Tools, then the folder for your device:
   • tg5040 for the TrimUI Brick and Smart Pro
   • tg5050 for the Smart Pro S
   • my355 for the Miyoo Flip
   • rg35xxplus for Anbernic handhelds on MinUI
3. Create a folder there named 1Retro Sync.pak and unzip the contents into it.
4. It appears in the Tools menu. Open it and pair.

The same pak covers MinUI, which is how Anbernic devices like the RG35XX Plus and RG40XX are supported.

MiSTer FPGA

The cleverest of the installs, because it hooks into tooling MiSTer owners already run.

1. Get your MiSTer on the network, by Ethernet or Wi-Fi.
2. Add one Downloader .ini file to the root of the card, either over SSH or with the card in your computer.
3. Run Update All or Downloader from the Scripts menu.

From then on, every update_all run installs and updates 1Retro along with everything else, so there is never anything to fetch by hand. Your saves folder is never touched by Downloader itself. When it finishes, 1retro is in the Scripts menu, driven entirely by the controller.

The first run hashes every ROM on the card to work out which games you have, so give it time. Later runs are quick. Background logs land in a file on the card if you need to see what happened, and the same binary can be run from a shell for one off syncs.

Batocera, Retrobat and SteamOS

These appear on the service's supported list but have no dedicated setup page, which means they are covered by the desktop app or the command line tool rather than a native client. If you are on a PC handheld, the desktop app watching your EmuDeck or Batocera save folder is the practical route. We cover the EmuDeck specific option in how to sync saves across devices.

The muOS Save State Trap

This is the most useful thing on this page, and it will bite anyone who plays the same game on two devices.

Out of the box, muOS saves a state every time you quit a game and loads it the next time you start. Convenient, and normally invisible.

The problem is that a save state contains its own copy of the game's save. So here is what happens:

1. You play on your PC and make an in game save. It uploads.
2. You pick up your muOS handheld. 1Retro downloads that newer save to the card. Correct so far.
3. You launch the game. muOS loads its local save state, which carries the older save from the last time you played on this device.
4. Within about a minute, the game writes that older save back to the card.
5. The next sync uploads it as your newest save.

Your PC progress is now overwritten, by a feature designed to be helpful, and nothing warned you. The sync worked perfectly. The resume feature undid it.

The fix, if you play the same games on more than one device:

1. Start any game and open RetroArch's menu.
2. Go to Settings, then Saving, and turn off Auto Load State. In newer RetroArch versions this is called Load State Automatically.
3. This is the step people miss: muOS does not keep RetroArch settings when you quit. Go to Main Menu, then Configuration File, then Save Current Configuration.

Your in game saves sync either way. This only stops an old state from undoing them. And if one does get overwritten, earlier versions of the save are still in the cloud on a paid tier, which is the best argument for not staying on the free one.

What It Costs

Four tiers. The structure matters more than the storage numbers, because the limit you will actually hit is saves per game.

Annual plans get two months free. Billing goes through Paddle, which handles local currency and tax at checkout.

A note on the storage figures for the top two tiers: the site gives two different sets of numbers. The pricing page says Plus is 1 GB and Pro is 50 GB. The homepage says 500 MB and 5 GB. We are not going to guess which is current, so check the pricing page at signup, and treat the homepage figures as possibly stale.

Save files are tiny, so 20 MB really does hold thousands of them. The free tier's actual constraint is two saves per game, which is a version history limit rather than a space limit. That is enough to back up, and not enough to recover from a mistake you made two sessions ago.

Two paid features are listed as Soon and are not available yet: save states and labels on Basic, and personal file syncing on Plus. If you are paying for something specific, confirm it has shipped first.

What It Does With Your Saves

The privacy policy is unusually readable and mostly good news. No data sold or rented. Passwords hashed with Argon2id. Two factor authentication by TOTP. Analytics through a cookie free provider with no ad networks. Deleting your account deletes everything, with no retention window. Sign in locations are derived from your IP address and the address itself is discarded rather than stored.

One disclosure deserves a direct mention, because it is easy to skim past. The service parses your save files to extract metadata, including in game progress, platform detection and checksums, so it can show you that information in the dashboard and keep sync working. It says that data is not used for anything else.

That is a reasonable thing for a save manager to do, and it is a real difference from a generic cloud folder, which cannot read the files it holds. Worth knowing before you decide which model you prefer.

Should You Use It Instead of Syncthing?

Depends entirely on where you play.

Use 1Retro if your handhelds run OnionOS, muOS, NextUI, MinUI, or you own a MiSTer. This is the only tool with a real client on those systems, and that is not a small advantage. Installing Syncthing on a Miyoo Mini Plus is not a thing you can casually do.

Stick with Syncthing if your devices are a PC, an Android handheld and a Steam Deck. Syncthing is free forever, has no account, no storage cap, no saves per game limit, and syncs whatever you point it at, including save states and configs. It is more work to set up and it has no conflict resolution screen worth the name.

One rule either way: do not run both on the same save folders. Two sync tools fighting over one file is the fastest route to a corrupted save. The service warns about this itself.

Our full walkthrough of the free options, including Syncthing and RetroArch's built in cloud sync, is in how to sync emulator saves across devices.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does 1Retro sync save states?

Not yet, despite what its comparison page says. Its own setup pages state that in game saves sync and save states do not, and the pricing page lists save states as a Soon feature. Make an in game save before you switch devices.

Will it work on my original Miyoo Mini?

No. Syncing needs Wi-Fi and the original Miyoo Mini has no Wi-Fi hardware. The Miyoo Mini Plus works.

Is the free tier enough?

For backup, yes. For playing the same game across devices, probably not for long. The two saves per game limit means very little version history, and version history is the thing that saves you when a sync goes wrong.

Does it touch my ROMs?

No. It syncs save files. The MiSTer client reads your ROMs once to identify which games you own, by hashing them, but it does not upload them. A personal file sync feature is listed on the roadmap and is not available yet.

Can I use it with a DS emulator on muOS?

Only if the game runs through RetroArch. Games running under a standalone emulator like DraStic keep saves in their own format, and those are not synced.

Related Guides

• How to sync emulator saves across devices — the free options, including Syncthing
• Save state management — what these files actually are, and why states do not travel
• OnionOS on the Miyoo Mini — getting a Mini Plus configured
• muOS setup guide — the firmware with the save state trap
• muOS vs KNULLI vs OnionOS — picking the firmware underneath all this
• Best microSD cards — where all of this lives