How to Export and Import an Atmos Profile

Exporting and importing a profile is one of the most important long-term features in Atmos.

It turns the app from something you configure once on one machine into something you can preserve, move, and restore. It also reaches much further than many users expect. An Atmos profile does not only remember a list of tracks. It packages a much broader slice of your Atmos environment.

This guide explains how Atmos profile export and import work, what a .profile file actually contains, and what users should expect when they restore one.

What an Atmos profile is

An Atmos profile is a packaged snapshot of your saved Atmos setup.

That includes both content and state. The system is designed so the imported environment can feel recognizably like the one you exported instead of behaving like a loose settings backup.

In practical terms, a profile can include:

• saved media profiles
• active playback and background state
• cursor skin state
• cursor effect state
• widget layout and settings
• packaged local files used by those systems

This is what makes profile transfer one of the most powerful features in the app.

Where profile export and import live

Profile export and import are managed from Settings.

Inside the profile transfer area, Atmos provides two main actions:

• Export Profile
• Import Profile

Export creates a new .profile file.

Import opens an existing .profile file and restores what it contains.

This workflow is intentionally simple on the surface, but there is a lot happening underneath it.

What file type Atmos uses

Atmos uses the .profile extension for exported profile packages.

This is not just a plain text file or a loose folder. A valid Atmos profile is:

• packaged into a zip structure internally
• then encrypted
• then saved as a .profile file

That means a real Atmos profile is not just a renamed document. It is a structured and encrypted transfer package.

If a file is not a valid Atmos profile, import fails with a clear invalid-profile message instead of half-importing broken data.

How to export an Atmos profile

To export your setup:

1. Open Atmos.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Find the profile transfer controls.
4. Choose Export Profile.
5. Wait for the package to build.
6. Choose where to save the .profile file.

Atmos shows progress while the export is being prepared.

Once the package is ready, the app opens a save panel and suggests a timestamped filename. After you save it, the exported profile is ready to store, move, or import later.

How to import an Atmos profile

To import a profile:

1. Open Atmos.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Choose Import Profile.
4. Select a .profile file.

Atmos validates the file, decrypts it, unpacks it into a temporary import area, and then restores the data it recognizes.

If the file is not a real Atmos profile, import stops with an error rather than applying partial garbage data.

What Atmos includes when exporting

This is the question most people actually care about.

An export can include:

• your saved media profiles
• current persisted app state
• custom cursor skins
• active cursor skin and enabled state
• cursor effect selection and per-effect intensities
• widget layout and widget settings
• packaged media files used by profiles and widgets

This matters because export is much more than a settings-only backup.

Media profiles are included, along with local files when possible

Atmos exports your saved media profiles from the library, including their associated local file paths.

When those paths point to ordinary local files, Atmos packages those files into the profile so they can be materialized again during import.

This is important because it means a profile is not merely a list of broken references. It tries to carry the actual local assets with it.

That includes:

• uploaded tracks
• imported backgrounds
• active track file references
• active background file references

If the source file still exists at export time, Atmos tries to package it.

Built-in content behaves differently

Built-in content is not treated the same way as ordinary local files.

For built-in assets, Atmos keeps the bundle-style reference rather than copying those files into the export package like normal user media.

That makes sense because built-in content already belongs to the app itself.

This distinction helps keep the exported profile focused on the portable parts of your setup instead of redundantly packaging things the app already ships with.

Current state is included, not just the library

Export also includes the current persisted Atmos state.

That means the profile can carry things like:

• which audio profile is active
• which background profile is active
• whether audio is enabled
• whether backgrounds are enabled
• the last known active track path
• the last known active background path

This is one of the reasons imported profiles can feel like real environment restores instead of simple asset dumps.

Custom cursor skins are exported too

Atmos includes cursor skin state in profile export.

That includes:

• the active skin ID
• whether cursor skins are enabled
• per-skin active variants
• custom cursor skins themselves

For custom skins, the app copies the actual custom cursor folders into the export package so they can be recreated later during import.

This is a big deal if you have built or imported cursor packs you want to preserve across machines.

Cursor effects are included

Cursor effects are part of the export as well.

That means the profile can carry:

• the active cursor effect
• the saved per-effect intensity values

This is a nice hidden feature because it preserves not only whether an effect is on, but also the way you tuned it.

So if you like a specific Ghost, Stardust, Bubbles, or Ink Trail feel, export keeps that detail too.

Widgets are included, including their layout

The widget system is also part of the profile snapshot.

Atmos exports:

• the widgets themselves
• whether widgets are enabled
• snap-to-grid state
• grid division settings
• widget settings
• widget media references such as widget photos

This matters because widgets are one of the most layout-sensitive systems in the whole app. Exporting them makes the environment much more portable.

Widget photos are packaged when needed

This is one of the quieter but more valuable details in the transfer system.

If a widget uses image paths, Atmos tries to package those photo assets into the profile and then rematerialize them on import.

That means image-based widget setups are much less fragile than they would be if export only stored the old absolute paths.

Without this step, photo widgets would often break after transfer.

What Atmos does during import

Import is not a single blind overwrite step. It restores different systems in sequence.

In broad terms, Atmos:

1. validates the file
2. decrypts it
3. unzips it into a temporary area
4. restores saved profiles
5. restores saved state
6. restores custom cursor skins and cursor settings
7. restores cursor effects
8. restores widgets
9. reapplies the imported active state

That structured flow is what lets the imported setup come back in a coherent way.

Import does not blindly duplicate everything

Another useful hidden detail: import avoids creating duplicates in some cases.

For example, when importing saved media profiles, Atmos checks existing profile IDs and only appends the ones that are genuinely new.

This helps avoid an obvious duplication problem if you import a profile into a system that already has some of the same saved content.

It is a small but important quality-of-life detail.

Imported files are materialized into Atmos storage

When imported media or widget assets are packaged inside the .profile file, Atmos does not keep them as temporary references inside the extracted import folder.

Instead, it copies those files into its own cache or support storage and updates the restored paths to point there.

This matters because the imported setup is meant to remain usable after the temporary import workspace is deleted.

Without this step, import would appear to work and then fail later.

What happens to cursor skins on import

If the imported profile contains custom cursor skins, Atmos copies those custom skin folders into its own cursor storage area and adds them as user skins.

After that, it restores:

• custom skins that were not already present
• per-skin active variants
• the active skin selection if the skin exists
• whether the cursor skin system is enabled

This makes cursor restoration much more complete than a simple “enable cursor skins” toggle.

What happens to widgets on import

Widget import restores the widget configuration snapshot and remaps photo paths when needed.

Once the snapshot is applied, the imported widget layout can restore:

• the widget list
• each widget’s position
• widget styling
• widget-specific settings
• whether the widget overlay is enabled
• grid snapping preferences

That makes the widget portion of profile transfer especially strong for users who have built careful desktop layouts.

Import summary messages tell you what changed

Atmos also builds a small import summary based on what was actually restored.

Depending on the package, the summary can reflect imported items such as:

• tracks
• prefs
• cursor skins
• cursor effects
• widgets

This gives users a clearer sense of whether the profile mainly restored preferences, content, or a broader full-environment setup.

What a profile is best used for

Atmos profile export is especially useful for:

• moving your setup to another Mac
• keeping a backup before big changes
• preserving an especially good desktop configuration
• sharing a setup between personal machines
• restoring after a reset or cleanup

This makes it one of the most practical “advanced” features in the app, not just a niche power-user tool.

What users should expect after import

A successful import should feel like Atmos has regained a recognizable previous environment, not like it has simply appended random data to the library.

Users should expect imported profiles to restore:

• media library additions
• active Atmos state
• cursor customization
• widget layout
• related packaged assets

However, import is still bounded by reality. If a source asset was not available to package cleanly, or if a reference points to something no longer recoverable, the result may be incomplete in that specific area.

That is why export quality matters.

Good export habits

If you want the most reliable exports, it helps to:

1. keep your wanted media files available locally before exporting
2. clean up broken or unused items first
3. export after your widget layout and cursor setup are in a stable state
4. keep one known-good backup before major resets or experiments

That makes the resulting .profile package much more useful later.

Useful hidden details in the profile workflow

Here are the details most users are likely to miss:

• An Atmos profile is encrypted, not just zipped.
• Export packages real local files when possible instead of only saving references.
• Built-in assets are referenced differently from user files.
• Cursor skins, cursor effects, and widget layouts are all included.
• Widget photos are packaged and restored when possible.
• Import avoids duplicating some existing items by ID.
• Imported packaged files are copied into Atmos-managed storage so they remain usable after import finishes.

These are the details that make profile transfer feel much more complete than a basic backup feature.

Final thoughts

Atmos profile export and import are deeper than they first appear. A .profile file is not only a convenience feature for saved tracks. It is a packaged snapshot of much more of the Atmos environment, including media, state, cursor systems, widgets, and associated files.

Once you understand what the profile format actually carries, it becomes one of the safest and most useful features in the app. It lets you treat a good Atmos setup as something you can preserve, move, and recover instead of something you have to rebuild from scratch.

In the next tutorial, we will return to the settings surface itself and explain what the different Atmos settings actually do.