Delta Emulator: How to restore game saves

Delta emulator is one of the best emulator out there for iPhone and iPad that emulates many retro game consoles. As of when this article is written, Delta emulator supports Nintendo / Famicom (in short: NES), Super Nintendo / Super Famicom (in short: SNES), Nintendo 64 (in short: N64), Game Boy (in short: GB), Game Boy Color (in short: GBC), Game Boy Advance (in short: GBA), Nintendo DS (in short: NDS). In the last article, I have given a thorough steps how you can back-up your game saves, if you have not seen them and especially if you have not made a back-up to your game saves, I recommend you to check the article here – because losing your game progress is totally not cool: Delta Emulator: How to back up game saves at JILAXZONE.

In this article, I’m walking you through 2 option you can do to restore your Delta Emulator game saves: Option 1) Via Files app and Option 2) Via AltStore. Without further ado, check out the detailed steps below.

• This tutorial detailed the steps to restore your Delta Emulator Game Saves on your iPhone running on latest iOS.
• It’s applicable for all game console supported by Delta: NES, SNES, N64, GB, GBC, GBA, NDS.
• No jailbreak nor any forms of subscriptions is required.
• This tutorial though intended for iPhone, but works the same for iPad as well as iPod Touch.
• For other interesting articles related to gaming, check it out here Xbox, PS5, Nintendo Switch, other gaming, iOS, Tech or more at JILAXZONE.
• If you find this article / content inside is already obsolete, do let me know by commenting on the comment section below so that I can update the article to reflect the latest process/news. Thanks.

If you have not installed Delta emulator yet on your iPhone, follow the complete detailed steps provided here: Step by step guide to install Delta on iPhone at JILAXZONE.

For other Delta emulator related articles (such as updating Delta to the latest version and troubleshooting issues on Delta emulator), go and find here: Other Delta Emulator topics at JILAXZONE.

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Here’s how to restore Delta Emulator game saves so that you can recover your game progress

There are 2 options you can do to restore your Delta Emulator game saves, either Option 1) via Files app or Option 2) via AltStore. The better one is to do it via Files app while the much simpler one is to do it via AltStore.

The steps written here are tested on: a) Latest iOS – at the time this article is written is iOS 15 Public Beta 4 and using the iPhone that I currently have – iPhone XR. In case you are not on iOS 15 or iPadOS 15 yet, check the link here to get iOS 15 & iPadOS 15: Here’s how to update iPhone to iOS 15 today (iPad and iPod Touch included!) at JILAXZONE. b) Latest Delta Emulator– at the time this article is written is Delta Emulator version 1.3. In case you are not on latest Delta Emulator yet, check here on how you can update Delta to the latest version: Delta Emulator: How to update to the latest version at JILAXZONE. Should you are using different version of iOS or iPadOS and / or different Delta Emulator version, the steps may be slightly different but should not deviate too much. Anyway, in case you have questions / issues, feel free to put them down on the comment section down below, I’ll be more than happy to help you.

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Option 1) Via Files app

Note: Do use option 1) only if you have made a backup using Option 1 backup method. Option 1 backup method is where you have either backup Delta Emulator Save States or backup .sav file of your game(s). To find if you have either backup Delta Emulator Save States or .sav file of your game(s), check out the details here: option 1 backup method.

Step 1a) On your iPhone, open Files app.

Step 1b) Inside Files app, go to “Browse” tab and go to the root folder by keep pressing the “< back” button until you are on “Browse” page and see both “iCloud Drive” and “On My iPhone”. This “Browse” page with “iCloud Drive” and “On My iPhone” is what is called as “root folder”.

Step 1c) Locate your backup folder. It’s either located on iCloud (check method 1) or located on your iPhone (check method 2).

Method	Description	Steps
Method 1)	If your Delta game saves backup is located in iCloud	Steps: > From root folder, navigate to “iCloud Drive”. > Inside iCloud Drive, locate the folder where you stored your Delta Emulator game saves. If you are following my backup guide, then it’s located on “Delta Backup” folder.
Method 2)	if your Delta game saves backup is located locally on your iPhone	Steps: > From root folder, navigate to “On My iPhone”. > Inside On My iPhone, locate the folder where you stored your Delta Emulator game saves. If you are following my backup guide, then it’s located on “Delta Backup” folder.

Since everyone may have labelled your backup folder differently and have different location of the backup folder, so for easier reference on this article, let’s just called your backup folder as “Delta Backup” folder.

Step 1d) Restore Delta game saves. Follow the instruction below.

Type of Game Save	Description	Steps
Game Saves 1)	Delta Save States	This is the game saves that are created each time you tap on “Save State” or when Delta created the auto save for your game. Use this method, if you want to restore your Delta “Save State”. Steps: > From Files app root folder, navigate to your “Delta Backup” folder. > Copy the entire folders, but exclude any .sav files. Do it by tapping on the “(…)” (3-dot) button located on top right of the screen, then tap on “Select”. > Select all the folders inside “Delta Backup” folder except .sav files. > Once all selected, tap on the “Square with Arrow” button located on bottom left of the screen, then tap on “Copy”. > Then navigate to On My iPhone > Delta > Database > Save States. > Inside the “Save States” folder, do tap and hold on the empty screen, then tap “Paste”. > When prompted, tap “Replace” to replace any existing game saves with your backup game saves. If you do it correctly, you should see all your game saves backup folders are restored to “Save States” folder.
Game Saves 2)	Original Game Save States	This is the game saves (.sav file) that are created by the game itself when you are saving the game progress from inside the game (certain games such as SNES, GBA or DS games, have the ability to save the game). Use this method, if you want to restore the .sav file(s). Steps: > From Files app root folder, navigate to your “Delta Backup” folder. > Copy only the .sav file you want to restore. Do it by tapping on the “(…)” (3-dot) button located on top right of the screen, then tap on “Select”. > Select only the .sav file inside “Delta Backup” folder that you want to restore. > Once selected, tap on the “Square with Arrow” button located on bottom left of the screen, then tap on “Copy”. > Then navigate to On My iPhone > Delta > Database > Games. > Inside the “Games” folder, do tap and hold on the empty screen, then tap “Paste”. > When prompted, tap “Replace” to replace any existing .sav file with your backup game saves. If you do it correctly, you should see your “.sav” files from “Delta Backup” folder are copied here. Redo the step (carefully) to restore other game saves.

That’s it. You have managed to restore your Delta game saves!

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Option 2) Via AltStore

Note: Do use option 2) only if you have made a backup using Option 2 backup method. Option 2 backup method is where you backup the entire Delta emulator via AltStore. To find whether you did option 2 backup before, check out the details here: option 2 backup method. Restoring backup using Option 2, will wipe out any existing game progress and replace them with the one from the backup. So if let’s say, you did a backup using Option 2 backup method last week, and only this week you have started playing a “new game” and saved your game progress. When you do a restore using Option 2, your “new game” game progress will be lost because “new game” was never part of the “option 2 backup” last week. If you are in such situation, I recommend to use “Option 1 restore method” instead (Check out the steps above).

This option is the much simpler option (less steps) but only applicable to those installing Delta via AltStore and have Computer with them – because AltStore requires Computer with AltServer installed and running. In case you want to switch your Delta emulator to be installed via AltStore, you can check the complete steps here:  Step by step guide to install Delta Emulator via AltStore on iPhone at JILAXZONE.

Prerequisites: 1) iPhone with AltStore installed. 2) Computer with AltServer installed and running. In case you need to install AltStore on your iPhone and / or AltServer on your Computer, you can check the full complete step by step guide here: Step by step guide to install Delta Emulator via AltStore on iPhone at JILAXZONE.

Step 2a) On your Computer, run AltServer. Connect your iPhone to the AltServer either by plugging in Lightning cable to your Computer or wirelessly. Check out how you can connect your iPhone to Computer & AltServer wirelessly here: Connect iPhone to Computer & AltServer wirelessly (enabling auto-refresh) at JILAXZONE.

Step 2b) On your iPhone, open AltStore app. Navigate to “My Apps” tab.

Step 2c) Inside My Apps tab, long press “Delta” icon until sub menu pops up. Tap on “Restore Backup”. AltStore will prompt you “Are you sure you want to restore this backup? This will replace all data you currently have in Delta.”, tap on “Restore Backup” to start restoring Delta. Wait until you get the notification that restore is completed.

That’s it. You have managed to restore your Delta emulator & game saves!

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Bring it all together

Now you know how to restore your Delta Emulator game saves, so in the case you game progress or game save is accidentally corrupted, deleted or lost, you can always restore it back using the method shown above. However, you also need to remember to do the backup process regularly (whichever timing you deemed comfortable) otherwise you may find your last game saves backup was years ago.

In case you have queries related to this topic, don’t hesitate to submit your queries on the comment section down below. I’ll be happy to help and assist you. Cheers!

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