Saving And Recovery

Manual Save Versus Autosave

Autosave protects the workspace on the current device. Manual save writes a `.alphabit.json` file that you can reopen later or store in version control. Those are different, and both matter.

What Autosave Stores

• open fonts and their current editor state
• per-font window positions, ordering, and active windows
• selection and specimen state
• saved-baseline state used for dirty checks
• clipboard state where relevant

What App Preferences Store

App preferences store settings that are not tied to one font, including the theme preference, new-font metadata defaults, and the shared kerning window’s open state and bounds.

Unsaved Changes

Changes are tracked against the last explicit save baseline for each font. Closing a font, closing the workspace, or leaving the page can trigger an unsaved-changes confirmation.

Multi-Tab Behavior

Tabs on the same device coordinate. If one clean tab saves, another clean tab can reload automatically. If two tabs diverge, the app warns instead of overwriting one with the other.

Recovery

If a broken autosaved workspace ever blocks startup, open the app and paste `?purgeLocal=1` into the URL bar after the URL. That clears the local workspace record before the normal restore pass runs.

Practical Advice

• Use autosave as a recovery layer, not your only copy.
• Save `.alphabit.json` before making risky format conversions.
• Keep exports and source files separate in your own project structure.