Data Backup Digest

The PlayStation Vita is the current handheld console from Sony. The eight generation device was released in late 2011/early 2012 (varying depending on territory) and offers a 5 inch multi-touch screen, two analogue sticks and optional 3G support. Although competitor Nintendo’s 3DS device is still the more popular device in terms of sales, Sony are still keen to support their Vita and hope to give it a close tie with their upcoming PS4 home console.
You may wish to back up your save game files from your PS Vita, or any other data that you might be storing on the device. It’s always best to keep a backup of anything you’ll be storing on the console, just in case it breaks, goes missing, or anything like that. It is also recommended that you back up if you are replacing the memory card in the console (with a higher capacity one, for example) or sending the console off for service. Sony themselves recommend you take a backup of the system regularly.
This guide will talk you through how to back up your data that is stored on your PS Vita and then restoring it to the device if necessary.
Before following any of the steps below, first you must:
• Ensure that your memory card is in the system. If not, put it in.
• Link your Vita to a Sony Entertainment Network account. Create one if you don’t already have one. If you’ve already used one on a previous Sony device (like the PS3) then you can just use that.
• Download and install the Content Manager Assistant. This can be downloaded here. It is an official program from Sony.
• Finally, close any applications that you have open on the Vita.
Bear in mind that this application is not suitable for backing up trophies. If you want to back up trophies then you need to enable synchronisation to the PlayStation servers on your device.
Let’s begin backing up the data on your PS Vita. First, make sure that you have the Content Manager Assistant running. On Windows the icon should appear in the taskbar and on the Mac it should be in the menu bar. If it isn’t there then launch the program.
Next, on your Vita you need to tap the Content Manager icon and then select ‘Start’. From there, tap ‘PC’ and then either ‘USB cable’ or ‘Wi-Fi’. If you want to connect using Wi-Fi then you need to select the ‘Connect to PS Vita System Using Wi-Fi’ checkbox that is found in the ‘Wi-Fi Connection Settings’ of the Content Manager Assistant.
Finally, select ‘Back Up’. To restore the backed up data, repeat the same process as above, but at this stage select ‘Restore’ instead.
Some things to bear in mind are that a backup file larger than 4 GB can’t be created on a hard drive using FAT32, changing the name of the backup file or folder might corrupt the data and you can only restore a file on a system that is linked to the same account the backup was made with.