How to back up and restore game saves on Meta Quest

This guide shows you how to back up your game saves on a Meta Quest with cloud backup, check which apps are covered, and get your progress back after a reinstall, a factory reset or on a new headset. The steps follow Meta's article Learn about cloud backup on Meta Quest, its factory reset article and Meta's Cloud Backup developer documentation, which explains when backups and restores happen.

1. Know what cloud backup saves

With cloud backup turned on, your headset saves app data, such as game progress and app settings, to the cloud. Meta says this data is encrypted on the device and stays encrypted on its servers.

It does not cover everything. Meta says developers decide whether to enable cloud backup for their app and what data is backed up, so some games and apps don't support it. Your purchases are separate: a factory reset removes downloaded games from the headset, but not the content you bought on your account.

2. Turn cloud backup on

1. Press the Meta button (or Oculus button on older controllers) on your right controller to open the Navigator.
2. Select Quick controls.
3. Select Settings, then select General.
4. Select Cloud backup, then turn on the toggle next to Cloud backup.

Meta's developer documentation says cloud backup is on by default, so this is mostly a check that nobody turned it off.

3. Check which of your apps are backed up

1. On a computer, go to secure.oculus.com/my/cloud-backup and sign in.
2. Use the search field to find a specific app, or scroll through the table.

The table shows which of your apps have cloud backup, when each was last backed up and how big the backup is. If a game you care about has no backup here, don't rely on cloud backup for it.

4. Know when backups happen

According to Meta's developer documentation, backups run on their own:

• Once a night, when the headset is idle, charging and connected to Wi-Fi.
• When you uninstall an app that you installed from the store.
• When you exit an app, up to once every six hours.

You can also start a backup yourself from the cloud backup page in the headset's Settings. Each headset keeps its own backup history, with up to five backups per app per device.

When you uninstall an app, the headset warns that your data may be lost. Meta says this warning refers to the data on the headset. Uninstalling does not delete your cloud backups.

5. Back up before a factory reset

A factory reset is irreversible and removes account information, downloaded games and content from the headset. Before you reset:

1. Make sure cloud backup is turned on (section 2).
2. Start a manual backup from the cloud backup page in Settings.
3. Check the web page from section 3 to confirm recent backup times for your important games.
4. Charge the headset to at least 50%, as Meta recommends before a reset.

6. Restore your saves

You don't need to do anything special to restore. Meta's developer documentation says cloud backup restores the latest backup for an app automatically when you install it. This covers reinstalling an app, a factory reset and setting up a new headset.

On a new headset, the backup from the old one is used. For example, if you move from a Meta Quest 2 to a Meta Quest 3, installing a game on the Quest 3 restores the most recent Quest 2 backup for it. After the Quest 3 makes its own backup, the two headsets keep separate histories.

To choose which backup is restored, or to restore a specific backup to a specific headset, use the Cloud Backups page on the web.

If you are setting up a new headset, see our Quest 3/3S setup guide first. Then reinstall your games from the Meta Horizon Store.

7. Protect backups with end-to-end encryption

On Quest 2 and later headsets, you can lock your backups with a 6-digit PIN:

1. Open Quick controls, select Settings, then General.
2. Select Cloud backup, then select Setup next to End-to-end encryption.
3. Select Continue, enter a 6-digit PIN and select Continue.
4. Re-enter the PIN and select Continue.

You need this PIN to restore after a factory reset or on a new headset. Meta warns about two things:

• If you forget the PIN and haven't set up a recovery device, Meta can't reset it or restore your backups.
• If you enter the PIN wrong 10 times in a row, your cloud backups are deleted.

To change it, select Reset PIN next to End-to-end encryption. If your phone is a recovery device, you can also reset it in the Meta Horizon app: tap Menu, then Reset next to Reset end-to-end encryption PIN. This PIN is different from your Store PIN.

8. When a game doesn't back up

Meta's developer documentation lists the usual reasons an app's data isn't backed up:

• The developer didn't enable cloud backup, or excluded the folder with your saves.
• The app's data is over 100MB.
• The app was just installed or force-stopped and hasn't been opened since. Open it once so it can back up.

For these games, cloud backup can't help. Ask the developer whether the game keeps progress in its own account system.

9. Delete backups you don't need

1. Open Settings > General > Cloud backup, then select Manage backup.
2. Follow the link to secure.oculus.com/my/cloud-backup and delete the backups you no longer want.

Deletions are permanent. Because each headset has its own backups, you may need to delete an app's backups for every headset. Cloud backups are also deleted if you delete all of your account data.