Stored data#

All data in Kate is stored locally in your device, and never leaves your device. This is true for Kate’s cartridges, settings, save data, and screenshots/video recordings of cartridges. Even if you’re running the web version of the emulator.

There are two consequences to this. One is that you can run any cartridge without needing an internet connection, just take your device with you. The other is that you can’t easily start playing a game in one device and continue it in a different device.

You also need to ensure that your device has enough storage space to keep all of this data. You can check your storage usage from the Settings -> Storage screen, and you can choose to archive cartridges to free up space from there as well.

Note

Syncing save data between devices is planned for a future version, but not currently implemented. There are no easy ways of syncing multiple devices currently.

System storage#

Kate needs to store data that is used by the emulator itself to function. This includes:

  • The emulator code and assets;

  • All of the settings that you can change in the Settings screen;

  • Developer profiles (if you use them);

  • Public and private keys for cartridge signing and verification;

  • Performance-related caches;

  • Meta-data required to manage all other data Kate stores;

  • Execution and audit logs.

Kate itself does not offer a detailed breakdown of space usage for this data, and rather groups all of it under System in the storage summary. While some of this data can be managed at a more fine-grained level, there’s no general way of removing or manually changing most of this data without corrupting the Kate emulator and having to reset to factory defaults (hence losing all your data).

Warning

Your browser might provide tools for inspecting and managing stored data in a more fine-grained way, but such usage is not supported by Kate, as the browser does not have enough information to guarantee changes will keep the data in a usable state; modifying them without knowing what you’re doing risks corrupting the emulator and cause permanent data loss.

Remember: Kate only stores data locally in your device. If it’s gone, it’s gone forever. There are no ways to recover it.

Media storage#

This is where Kate stores all screenshots and video recordings that you make using the capture button (Capture button). They’re grouped under Media in the storage summary.

Each individual piece of media is associated with a cartridge, so when viewing data about a cartridge you will also get a summary of the portion of the media storage that it uses.

Kate allows you to delete individual media files by opening them in the media gallery and selecting Delete from the options menu.

Note

Deleting multiple media files with a single operation is planned for a future version, but not currently implemented.

Cartridge storage#

When you install a cartridge from a .kart file, Kate will copy all necessary data to the Kate cartridge storage and keep it in an efficient format for running the game later. This format allows Kate to run the cartridge with a shorter startup time and using less memory. These will show up under Cartridges in the storage summary.

Cartridge data can be removed by archiving them. This will remove the cartridge files, but keep all media, save data, and meta-data around. That means that you can re-install the cartridge at any point and continue from where you left off.

You can also delete the cartridge along with all its associated data. In this case, reinstalling the cartridge will not restore that data; when you later run the reinstalled cartridge, it’ll be as if you were running it for the first time.

Both archiving and deleting the cartridge data can be done from the cartridge storage screen, which you access by selecting a cartridge in the storage settings.

Save data storage#

Cartridges can store small amounts of data when you play them; Kate refers to this as “Save Data”, and this usage is grouped under Saves in the storage summary. You can manage cartridges’ save data from the cartridge storage screen.

See the save data section for details.

Free space#

If you’re running the native emulator, or the web emulator in a browser that provides this information, you’ll see the remaining space Kate can use under Free in the storage summary.

When you’re running out of space, you may get a notification alert about it, along with a low-space indicator in the resource indicator bar.

Important

This space is not necessarily the amount of space you have remaining in your device if you’re running Kate from a web browser. That’s because web browsers define a smaller storage quota to ensure web pages won’t negatively affect your device’s performance.

Kate itself also adds a safety margin to this quota, so you might get alerts about your storage space running low even when you have more space available in your device.