[How To] Importing LeapDroid VM data

Edit: 9/30/16, There’s a better solution to importing Leapdroid VM data which can be found here:  Link 

 

With all the mobile games populating the app stores our mobile device storage memory and battery life’s are something to look out for, especially on older devices. I have a iPhone 5 that now barely has enough power to go through a day of average use off a full charge. A solution to playing mobile games without further limiting my battery life is to use an emulator. The emulator i’m currently using is LeapDroid, a free and simple Android emulator. In the past I’ve used Bluestacks and attempted to use Andyroid, but a free Bluestacks account required installing miscellaneous apps to use their program, a huge hassle, and Andyroid just didn’t work.  LeapDroid has its own bit of problems that I’ve run into, but those were easily resolved with a quick reset of the emulator, and so far runs much better than the prior. More information can be found on their website at http://www.leapdroid.com/.

However, while playing mobile games on my laptop, I wanted to sit back more comfortably so I decided I would figure out how to transfer my emulator files over to my desktop. For those interested in using LeapDroid, here is my guide to transferring emulator data between computers.

Assuming you have already have LeapDroid installed on your computer, LeapDroid will install VM files in your Documents folder.

 

Backing up data

Your data file for LeapDroid will be located in C:\Users\user_name\Documents\Leapdroid\VMs\vm1 if you use VM1. If VM2, navigate to the VM2 folder. In the VM folder the emulator data is the data.vmdk file. Store this on a USB or any other means of storage. This file can be fairly large as it will contain all of your application data. Mine was about 2GB and to transfer I used a USB storage device.

 

Importing Backup data

To import backup data on another machine with LeapDroid, first run LeapDroid until you see the LeapDroid logo appear and either account screen or mains screen shows up. Close LeapDroid after LeapDroid properly loads up.

LeapDroid boot up screen

LeapDroid main screen

Then, create a backup of the preexisting data.vmdk on your machine. I did this by moving data.vmdk into a new folder named “bak”. Place your saved data.vmdk from your USB into the VM folder you just modified and run LeapDroid. My first time doing this caused the loading screen of LeapDroid to freeze which I terminated with task manager, terminating LeapDroid Frontend process. After placing the original data file back where it was, running LeapDroid, and repeating earlier steps, LeapDroid successfully loaded my saved data.

 

 

TL;DR Steps:

1. Create new folder in same directory and name it “bak”
2. Run LeapDroid and let it load up to the main screen (screen with all the icons)
3. Close LeapDroid
4. Move data.vmdk into “bak”
5. From your USB, copy your saved data.vmdk into the vm directory
6. Run LeapDroid
   1. If LeapDroid is stuck at the startup screen, terminate with task manager by ending LeapDroid Frontend process.
   2. Switch data.vmdk files beteeen directories.( move current data.vmdk onto desktop and move /bak/data.vmdk into the vm directory)
   3. Run LeapDroid, if loads normally, repeat steps 2, 3, 4, and 5. (For step 5, take the data.vmdk from your desktop back into the vm directory)
7. LeapDroid should run with your saved data files shown by your saved applications

 

The above steps worked for me, however after a period of time LeapDroid will get stuck at the loading screen when I reopen LeapDroid after a period of time if I transfered the data file from another pc. To fix that I repeated the steps above. Creating a backup of the data file for the same pc works just fine. This method isn’t a permanent solution to transferring data files, but I find handy if you need to access some files for whatever reason or if you’re willing to switch the data files around every time you use LeapDroid. Hope this helps with those looking to use LeapDroid on multiple devices!