Backup & Restore

Export and import your keyboard settings, dictionary, and clipboard history.

Quick Summary

What	How
Settings	Settings > Activities > Backup & Restore > Export/Import Config
Dictionary	Settings > Activities > Backup & Restore > Export/Import Dictionary
Clipboard	Settings > Activities > Backup & Restore > Export/Import Clipboard
Format	JSON (text-only) or ZIP (full backup with media)

Available Exports

Configuration Export

Exports all keyboard settings to a JSON file:

Included	Description
All Settings	Appearance, behavior, neural settings
Theme Selection	Current theme choice
Custom Subkeys	Per-key customizations

How to export:

1. Open Settings
2. Tap Backup & Restore in the Activities section
3. Tap Export Config
4. Choose save location

Dictionary Export

Exports your personal dictionary:

Included	Description
User Words	Words you’ve added
Learned Words	Words the keyboard learned

Clipboard Export

Exports clipboard history in two formats:

JSON Export (text-only, lightweight)

Included	Description
History	Recent text clipboard items
Pinned	Pinned text items
Todos	Todo text items
Media metadata	MIME types noted but media files not included

ZIP Export (full backup with media)

Included	Description
All text entries	History, pinned, todos
Media files	Images, videos, PDFs, other files
Thumbnails	Regenerated on import (not in export)

[!TIP] Use JSON export for quick, lightweight backups of text entries. Use ZIP export when you want to preserve images and other media.

Importing

Import Config

1. Open Settings > Activities > Backup & Restore
2. Tap Import Config
3. Browse to your backup JSON file
4. Settings will be applied immediately

Import Dictionary

1. Tap Import Dictionary
2. Select dictionary JSON file
3. Words are merged with existing dictionary

Import Clipboard

1. Tap Import Clipboard
2. Select clipboard file (JSON or ZIP)
3. Items are added to history
4. For ZIP imports: media files are extracted and thumbnails regenerated

Import supports v2, v3, and v4 export formats — older backups work on newer versions.

Transfer to New Device

1. Export config, dictionary, and clipboard on old device
2. Transfer the JSON files (USB, email, cloud storage)
3. Import each file on new device

Data Export for ML

CleverKeys also supports exporting swipe training data:

Format	Description
JSON	Structured swipe data
NDJSON	Newline-delimited JSON for ML pipelines

Access via Settings > Privacy & Data section > Export JSON/NDJSON.

Programmatic Import/Export (Termux / Automation)

All backup operations can be triggered via Android intents for scripting and automation.

Intent Actions

Action	Description
tribixbite.cleverkeys.action.EXPORT_SETTINGS	Export settings JSON
tribixbite.cleverkeys.action.IMPORT_SETTINGS	Import settings JSON
tribixbite.cleverkeys.action.EXPORT_DICTIONARIES	Export dictionary JSON
tribixbite.cleverkeys.action.IMPORT_DICTIONARIES	Import dictionary JSON
tribixbite.cleverkeys.action.EXPORT_CLIPBOARD	Export clipboard JSON
tribixbite.cleverkeys.action.IMPORT_CLIPBOARD	Import clipboard JSON

Basic Examples

# Export settings to Downloads/CleverKeys/
am start -a tribixbite.cleverkeys.action.EXPORT_SETTINGS \
  -n tribixbite.cleverkeys/.BackupRestoreActivity

# Import dictionary via base64 (bypasses scoped storage)
am start -a tribixbite.cleverkeys.action.IMPORT_DICTIONARIES \
  -n tribixbite.cleverkeys/.BackupRestoreActivity \
  --es json_base64 "$(base64 -w0 < dictionaries.json)"

The json_base64 Extra

On Android 10+, files modified or created by external apps (cp, vim, Termux) become inaccessible to CleverKeys due to scoped storage restrictions. The json_base64 intent extra bypasses this by passing file content inline as base64:

am start -a tribixbite.cleverkeys.action.IMPORT_SETTINGS \
  -n tribixbite.cleverkeys/.BackupRestoreActivity \
  --es json_base64 "$(base64 -w0 < backup.json)"

Size limits:

• Direct am (Termux): ~96KB raw JSON (128KB base64 MAX_ARG_STRLEN)
• Via adb shell: ~48KB raw JSON (64KB adb protocol buffer)
• UI file picker: No size limit

Importing Large Files (Chunked)

Clipboard backups can exceed the am start argument limit. This script splits a JSON backup into chunks and imports each one. Requires jq and python3.

# Chunked clipboard import — handles files of any size
# Usage: python3 ck_import.py clip.json
python3 -c "
import json,base64,subprocess,sys,time
F=sys.argv[1]; MAX=125000  # base64 bytes; under 128KB MAX_ARG_STRLEN
d=json.load(open(F)); e=d['active_entries']
m={k:v for k,v in d.items() if k not in('active_entries','pinned_entries','todo_entries','total_active','total_pinned','total_todo')}
p=d.get('pinned_entries',[]); t=d.get('todo_entries',[])
chunks=[]; cur=[]; first=True
for x in e:
    tr=cur+[x]; td=dict(m,active_entries=tr)
    if first: td['pinned_entries']=p; td['todo_entries']=t
    bl=len(base64.b64encode(json.dumps(td,separators=(',',':')).encode()))
    if bl>MAX and cur:
        chunks.append((cur,first)); first=False; cur=[x]
    elif bl>MAX and not cur:
        chunks.append(([x],first)); first=False; cur=[]
    else: cur=tr
if cur: chunks.append((cur,first))
A='tribixbite.cleverkeys.action.IMPORT_CLIPBOARD'
C='tribixbite.cleverkeys/.BackupRestoreActivity'
print(f'{sum(len(c) for c,_ in chunks)} entries -> {len(chunks)} chunks')
for i,(ce,hp) in enumerate(chunks):
    cd=dict(m,active_entries=ce)
    if hp: cd['pinned_entries']=p; cd['todo_entries']=t
    b64=base64.b64encode(json.dumps(cd,separators=(',',':')).encode()).decode()
    r=subprocess.run(['am','start','-W','-a',A,'-n',C,'--es','json_base64',b64],capture_output=True,text=True)
    print(f'  [{i+1}/{len(chunks)}] {len(ce)} entries: {\"ok\" if r.returncode==0 else \"FAIL\"}')
    time.sleep(1)
" "$1"

Note: Entries with content >96KB (rare — e.g., pasted logs) exceed MAX_ARG_STRLEN even as a single-entry chunk. For those, use the UI Import button.

Entries are deduplicated by content hash — re-importing is safe (duplicates are skipped).

Troubleshooting

Import Fails

Issue	Solution
”Cannot read file”	Scoped storage issue — use UI Import button or json_base64 extra
File corrupt	Re-export from source device
Wrong format	Ensure file is CleverKeys JSON export
”not a JSON object”	File is empty or unreadable — likely scoped storage; see above

Settings Not Applied

1. Close and reopen the keyboard
2. If needed, disable and re-enable CleverKeys in system settings

Clipboard History Disappearing

Entries expire based on the History Duration setting in Clipboard Settings:

• Default: Never expire (duration = -1)
• Can be set to 1 hour, 1 day, 7 days, or custom
• Pinned items and TODO items never expire regardless of this setting
• Note: Changing this setting only affects new entries. To refresh expiry on existing entries, re-import your clipboard backup (import assigns fresh timestamps)

File Locations

Exported files are saved to the location you choose via Android’s file picker (typically Downloads folder).

Related Topics

• Privacy - Data collection settings
• Per-Key Customization - Subkey settings
• Custom Layouts - Build your own keyboard layout