How to Switch Cube Timers Without Losing Your History
Your solve history is years of practice — here's how to move it to a new timer in minutes, including a step-by-step csTimer import guide.
By Cubeathon Team
The biggest reason cubers stay with a timer they've outgrown isn't features — it's history. Thousands of solves, months of averages, that one PB from a year ago. Losing it feels like starting over.
You don't have to lose any of it. Here's how to move.
Before you switch: export everything
Whatever timer you use today, find its export function and save a backup file before touching anything else. Most timers export JSON; some offer CSV. Keep that file somewhere safe — it's your practice history in portable form, and it's worth having even if you never switch.
What a good import should preserve
When you bring history into a new timer, check that it keeps:
- Every solve time — not just session summaries
- Penalties — +2s and DNFs, so your averages stay honest
- Sessions — your organization, not one giant pile
- Timestamps — so progress charts stay meaningful
- Scrambles — attached to each solve where available
If an import drops penalties or flattens sessions, your statistics quietly become fiction.
Importing into Cubeathon
Cubeathon imports from other timers in your browser — the file you choose is read on your device, never uploaded.
From csTimer
- In csTimer, use File → Export → Export as file. You'll get a JSON file with every session.
- In the Cubeathon timer, open the drawer's Data tab and choose Import from csTimer (it's also in Settings, under Your data).
- Select your export file.
That's it. Cubeathon reads every session, maps each one to the right puzzle (3×3, 4×4, Pyraminx, and so on), and preserves solve times, penalties, scrambles, comments, and timestamps. A thousand-solve history imports in a couple of seconds. Each imported solve is tagged Imported: it stays in your history, but it doesn't set Cubeathon PBs or averages — those count only solves timed on Cubeathon's own timer, worked out the official WCA way.
From a Cubeathon backup
The same Data tab (and Settings → Your data) has Export and Import for Cubeathon's own JSON backups — useful for keeping an offline copy of your history. Restored solves are tagged Imported too; to move between devices with your PBs and averages intact, sign in to a free account, which syncs your solves.
After the import: a five-minute checklist
- Compare solve counts with your old timer — totals should match.
- Spot-check a few solves — times, dates and scrambles should match, each tagged Imported.
- Check one DNF and one +2 made it across with the penalty intact.
- Export a fresh backup from the new timer, so day zero is covered.
Why your history is safer here
Cubeathon is local-first: solves save to your device the moment the timer stops, work offline, and export to JSON anytime — no account required. Your history arrived portable, and it stays portable. That's the whole point.
Ready? Open the timer, import your file, and pick up exactly where you left off.