Saved configs, backup and transfer¶
astar keeps its whole setup on the Mac it runs on — no account, no sync, no server. This page covers what that setup consists of, how to move it to another Mac, and how to share part of it with someone else.
Saved configs¶
A saved config is one rig you switch to in a single click: a hardware profile, the input and output devices, the mic and speaker gains, compression, noise reduction, VOX, full duplex, and — for a serial interface like the UCI150 — the whole serial/PTT wiring.
The point is that you flip between rigs instead of re-picking devices by hand. A desk setup with a USB radio interface and a portable headset setup are two configs, and switching restores both halves at once.
Settings → Saved configs. System Default always sits at the top: it is a real config, not a hidden fallback, so there is always a known-good plain-audio state one click away. ★ marks the config applied at launch.
Mic profiles follow the device, not the config
A mic profile is characterized against one input device and is re-applied whenever that device is selected — so switching configs also restores the right mic profile, without the config having to carry it.
Where it is stored¶
Everything lives in one macOS preferences domain:
Your AllStarLink account is not in there. The portal username, node and password are kept in the login Keychain, which is why they survive a reset of the preferences and why they are never part of an export.
To take a raw backup of everything, or put one back:
defaults export com.aj7hr.astar ~/astar-backup.plist # save
defaults import com.aj7hr.astar ~/astar-backup.plist # restore
Quit astar first for the restore — a running app rewrites its preferences on exit and would overwrite what you just put back.
That raw plist is exact and total, which makes it the right tool for this Mac, later and the wrong one for anything you intend to share. For that, use export.
Export¶
Settings → Backup → Export…. Choose what to include:
| Section | What travels |
|---|---|
| Saved configs | Your rigs and the mic profiles they reference |
| Node directory | Favorites and recents |
| Audio and serial settings | Devices, gains, VOX, compression, serial PTT |
| Callsign | Your M17 callsign |
| Window and panel state | Which panels are open, Dock icon, selected network |
The result is a plain-text JSON file with an .astarconfig extension. It is
meant to be opened and read — you can check what is in one before trusting it.
Callsign is what makes a file personal
It is a separate tick box for exactly that reason. Leave it off and an export is a rig you can hand to anyone; leave it on and the file identifies you. Your node directory is worth a thought too — it records which nodes you have been dialing.
Credentials are never exported, whatever you tick. There is no option to include them.
Import¶
Settings → Backup → Import…, pick a file, then choose which of its sections to bring in. Only the sections the file actually contains are offered.
Importing adds and updates. It never deletes. Your existing configs and nodes stay; anything matching is updated in place. Importing the same file twice is a no-op rather than a way to get everything twice — the second run reports "Nothing to change — already up to date."
That is what makes a partial import useful: you can take somebody's node list and leave their microphone, gains and serial wiring alone.
| Section | How a match is decided |
|---|---|
| Saved configs, mic profiles | By id — a config edited elsewhere updates in place and keeps its position |
| Node directory | By node number — the same node is never stored twice, your label and ★ are kept |
Afterwards astar reports what actually changed, e.g. "2 configs added, 15 nodes added, 31 settings applied, callsign set." Nothing is reported for a section you left unticked.
Devices are matched by name
A config records its input and output device by the name macOS reports. Import onto a Mac without that device and the config keeps the name and falls back to the system default until the device appears. See Hardware for what happens when two devices report the same name.
Config version¶
Every exported file, and the preferences domain itself, records a config
version — currently 1.
It exists so a future astar can translate an older file rather than reject it. The rule it follows is worth knowing if you keep old exports around:
- Adding new fields or whole new sections does not change the version. An older astar ignores what it does not recognise, and a newer one treats what is missing as unset, so files stay portable across releases.
- The version only moves when existing data would be misread without being rewritten — a setting renamed, a unit changed, a meaning reversed.
- Anything that moves it ships the translation with it. A version 1 file will keep importing.
A file from a newer astar than the one you are running is refused with a clear message rather than half-read; update astar and try again.
Starting over¶
To reset astar to factory state, quit it and remove the domain:
Your AllStarLink account survives, because it is in the Keychain. Take a
defaults export first if there is any chance you want it back.