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Can someone explain the structure of %localappdata%\Packages*package id*\ in Windows 8 so I can get a better idea of what files should be backed up and what files shouldn't be. Specifically what state, settings, and appdata folders are important to backup and what is the AC folder? I haven't been able to find any information regarding whether the AC folder saves any app specific settings and/or what exactly it is storing.

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    You cannot backup Metro apps to reinstall later, so I hope you're only asking about backing up app settings.
    – Karan
    Oct 22, 2012 at 21:08
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    I am trying to determine what files within these folders are important to backup. I understand you can't reinstall an app from the backup but you could restore settings.
    – bbodenmiller
    Oct 23, 2012 at 7:57
  • In general, what are you trying to back up? Are you about to upgrade to Windows 8 and thinking about what you want to backup before this happens?
    – mcandre
    Nov 4, 2012 at 4:22
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    I already am running Windows 8. I'm what you would call a backup overachiever however I don't want to backup application runtime files but rather settings, application data, etc. Even if the settings are supposedly synced to Microsoft servers I want to back them up.
    – bbodenmiller
    Nov 5, 2012 at 4:36

3 Answers 3

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Windows 8/8.1 automatically manages and syncs "C:\Users{user}\AppData\Local\Packages\RoamingState" data that is equivalent to "WinRT App roaming data storage".

Unfortunately WinRT App local storage is not syncing between PC and only this data should be placed in the backup. This data placed in "C:\Users{user}\AppData\Local\Packages\LocalState".

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You should not worry about backup as windows 8 automatically syncs "Certain app settings and purchases made in an app"(from sync your settings) enter image description here

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    I disagree. While that is certainly useful you definitively should still be backing up information even when using Windows 8. That setting is dependent on the developer having wrote their application to properly sync data. Developers are also limited to storing 100kb on Microsoft servers.
    – bbodenmiller
    Nov 5, 2012 at 4:38
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    Note it says "Certain app settings and purchases made in an app" not app data.
    – bbodenmiller
    Jan 28, 2013 at 3:08
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The LocalState and RoamingState folders seem to store the majority of the information. Sadly it seems you can't easily just backup one of those folders as they also get used by many applications for caching. For now I'm not backing up %localappdata%\Packages as it appears no Windows Store applications I use are actually storing any relevant information that doesn't already sync with another web service. If that changes in the future I'll have to reevaluate.

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