Learn how MonTally stores, imports, exports, and restores settings, themes, profiles, and encounter data

Data Management

MonTally stores more than a simple encounter count. It keeps application settings, profile state, encounter snapshots, and tracker metadata that all work together.

This guide explains what can be imported and exported, what should be backed up, and how to move your setup safely between systems.

What MonTally Stores

Depending on your workflow, MonTally can store:

application settings
theme and UI preferences
capture area settings
selected monitor information
encounter counters
persistent hunt history
profile data
native tracker baselines for integrations like PokeMMO

Importing and Exporting

You can access import and export actions through Settings.

General flow:

Open MonTally
Open Settings
Go to the import/export area
choose the type of data you want to export or import

Export Settings

Exporting settings is useful when you want to back up your configuration or move your setup to another machine.

This export can include things like:

switches and feature toggles
UI preferences
selected sprite style
theme colors
counter customization
capture area configuration

Use this before:

reinstalling MonTally
changing computers
testing risky configuration changes

Export Pokémon Data

Exporting Pokémon data is useful when you want to preserve your actual encounter progress.

This includes:

current encounter data
persistent encounter data
total encounters

Use this regularly if the hunting progress itself matters to you.

Import Settings

Import settings when you want to restore the application behavior and look of a previous setup.

Typical use cases:

restoring after reinstall
cloning your setup to another computer
recovering from a broken configuration

Import Pokémon Data

Import Pokémon data when you want to restore encounter progress.

Typical use cases:

moving to another device
restoring a backup
recovering a previous local state

Profiles and Data Separation

Modern MonTally uses profiles to separate tracking contexts.

That means imported and exported data can matter at more than one level:

global application settings
active profile encounter state
native tracker metadata

If you use PokeMMO integration, keeping a separate profile for it makes your data much easier to understand and restore.

Capture Area and Monitor Data

MonTally stores the capture area as structured data, not just as loose coordinates.

That includes:

selector window bounds
capture rectangle
monitorIndex

This matters a lot in multi-monitor setups, because the capture area belongs to a specific display context.

If you move the game to another screen later, reconfigure the capture area instead of assuming the old monitor mapping is still correct.

Example Settings Structure

Below is a representative settings export:

{
  "statusSwitch": true,
  "showAllSwitch": true,
  "showShinySwitch": true,
  "totalSwitch": false,
  "resetSwitch": false,
  "apiSwitch": false,
  "debugSwitch": false,
  "turboSwitch": false,
  "notificationsSwitch": true,
  "selectedLanguage": "en",
  "selectedSort": "date_desc",
  "selectedSprite": "Main",
  "showBorder": false,
  "shinyColor": true,
  "smallUI": false,
  "customCounterEnabled": false,
  "captureArea": {
    "window": {
      "x": 0,
      "y": 0,
      "width": 530,
      "height": 250
    },
    "capture": {
      "x": 120,
      "y": 140,
      "width": 420,
      "height": 120
    },
    "monitorIndex": 1
  }
}

What This Means

the settings include both behavior and UI configuration
captureArea is preserved as part of the setup
monitorIndex tells MonTally which display the capture area belongs to

Example Encounter Data Structure

{
  "current": {
    "Deino": {
      "counter": 10,
      "id": 633,
      "isSpecial": false,
      "timestamp": 1744795504783
    }
  },
  "persistent": {
    "Deino": {
      "counter": 10,
      "id": 633,
      "isSpecial": false,
      "timestamp": 1744795496839
    }
  },
  "totalEncounters": "24"
}