Several customers have asked me how they can move their settings and macros from one Pi image to another. This post attempts to simplify the process. To preserve your settings, you just need to copy a few files from the original Pi image to a USB stick and then move them back onto the new image once it is running.

The files to move are:

~/.fldigi/fldigi.prefs

~/.fldigi/macros/macros.mdf. NB: If you have created any personal macro files, they will be stored here and should also be copied.

~/.config/JS8Call.ini

~/.config//WSJT-X.ini

NB: ~ is a shortcut to the Pi home directory, /home/pi

You can use the Pi File Manager to do the move using simple drag and drop.

For those of you that are new to the Pi, here is a step-by-step description of the process:

1. You need an empty USB memory stick. Any size will do as you’re only storing a few kB of data.
2. Give the stick a name, i.e. Pidata. This is not essential, but it can make finding it on the Pi a bit easier.
3. Boot the original Pi image, but don’t run any data modes programs.
4. Insert the USB stick into the Pi USB socket
5. You will see a popup on the Pi screen asking if you want to open File Manager; say yes to this.
6. If you miss the File Manager prompt, you will find the USB stick mounted at: /media/pi/Pidata (or whatever name you gave the stick).
7. Open a second instance of File Manager by clicking the File Manager icon on the top menu bar.
8. Make sure the new instance is showing the contents of /home/pi
9. Arrange the two File Manager instances so they are side-by-side with one showing /home/pi and the other is showing your USB stick.
10. In the /home/pi File Manager instance, go to the View menu and select Show Hidden. This will reveal a set of hidden directories whose names begin with a period ( . ).
11. Double-click on .fldigi to see the contents of this directory.
12. Drag and drop the fldigi.prefs file to the USB stick.
13. Open the macros directory in .fldigi. Drag and drop all files in this directory with a .mdf suffix.
14. Click the Up-arrow icon by the address line to return to the /home/pi directory.
15. Double-click on .config to see the contents of this directory
16. Drag and drop JS8Call.ini and WSJT-X.ini to the USB stick.
17. Close both File Managers, shutdown the Pi and remove the USB stick.
18. Replace the Pi microSD card with the new image and power-up the Pi.
19. Repeat steps 4 to 10 so that you have the two File Manager instances open.
20. Navigate to ~/.fldigi and copy fldigi.prefs from the USB stick to that directory.
21. Navigate to ~/.fldigi/macros and copy all the files with a .mdf suffix to that folder.
22. Navigate to ~/.config and copy WSJT-X.ini and JS8Call.ini to that directory.
23. Remove the USB stick, reboot the Pi and all your settings should have been transferred!