After spending time fine-tuning stick deadzones, trigger effects, and button mappings, losing that setup to a reinstall or a new PC is genuinely annoying. Whether you’re reformatting, moving to a new machine, or just want a safety net against a corrupted settings file, it’s worth knowing where DSX actually keeps your configuration data and how to back it up properly.
Why This Matters More Than It Seems
It’s easy to underestimate how much time goes into a well-tuned profile until you lose one. Adaptive trigger tension states, deadzone curves calibrated to your specific controller’s stick condition, custom button macros, none of that is quick to redo from memory, and most people don’t write down the exact values they landed on after an afternoon of testing. A five-minute backup now saves a genuinely frustrating re-tuning session later, especially if you’ve got separate profiles built for different games or genres.
Where DSX Actually Stores Your Settings
This is the part a lot of guides get wrong, some assume DSX stores settings the same way DS4Windows does, in a Profiles folder under %appdata%. It doesn’t. According to Paliverse’s own release notes for DSX, the app’s save file lives at C:\Temp\DualSenseX\, saved as an XML file. DS4Windows and DSX are separate projects with separate save structures, so folder paths and file formats that apply to one won’t necessarily apply to the other.
Worth noting: exact file paths can shift between versions, especially since DSX has moved from a standalone GitHub release to a Steam-distributed app over time, and Steam apps sometimes handle local data slightly differently than a portable executable would. If you don’t find your settings exactly where described here, DSX’s own in-app tools (covered below) are a more reliable way to manage backups than hunting through folders manually.
The Easiest Way: Use DSX’s Built-In Reset and Backup Options
Rather than digging through file paths, DSX includes its own settings management tools, look in the app’s Settings menu for a Reset App Settings option. When used, this doesn’t just wipe your settings, it renames your current save file with an “_OLD” suffix rather than deleting it outright, which effectively gives you an automatic backup point you can restore from if something goes wrong after a reset. If you’re troubleshooting a corrupted profile, this is a safer first step than manually deleting files.
Manually Backing Up Your Settings File
If you’d rather handle backups yourself:
- Make sure DSX isn’t running, close it completely from the system tray so it isn’t actively writing to the settings file.
- Navigate to
C:\Temp\DualSenseX\in File Explorer (you can paste this directly into the address bar). - Locate the save file (an XML file, likely named something like
DSX_SaveFile.xml). - Copy it to a backup location, an external drive, a separate partition, or a cloud storage folder all work fine.
If you don’t see this folder or file at that path on your current version, check DSX’s Settings menu for any option that opens the app’s data folder directly, similar tools exist across various versions and will take you to wherever your specific build actually stores things.
Restoring on a New PC
To bring your settings to a new machine or after a reinstall, install DSX fresh from its official Steam page, close the app once it’s finished its initial setup, then copy your backed-up file back into the same C:\Temp\DualSenseX\ location (or wherever your version stores it), overwriting the default file DSX created. Relaunch DSX and your profiles, trigger settings, and lightbar preferences should all be back in place.
A Note on Where to Actually Download DSX
DSX itself only comes from Paliverse, through its official Steam page or, for the older standalone build, its GitHub releases page (though Steam is the actively maintained version at this point). This site doesn’t host or modify DSX itself, we just link to the real source, so there’s no separate “official installer” to look for here beyond those two places.
If Something Goes Wrong
If your profiles don’t seem to be restoring correctly, a version mismatch between the DSX build that created your backup and the one you’re restoring to is a common cause, older save files don’t always import cleanly into newer versions if the settings format has changed. If that happens, don’t panic and delete anything, keep both the old and new save files around while you troubleshoot, you can always try reintroducing the old file again after confirming the new install works correctly on its own first.
If you’re seeing detection issues that aren’t related to profiles at all, controller not showing up, drivers not installed, that’s a separate problem from anything covered here. Our Drivers page and Troubleshooting guide cover that separately, profile problems and connection problems are usually unrelated, so it’s worth ruling out which one you’re actually dealing with before assuming your backup is at fault.
Making This a Habit
If you tend to fiddle with settings often, chasing a slightly better feel for a specific game, it’s worth backing up periodically rather than only after something breaks. Copying that one file takes seconds, and keeping a dated copy or two (rather than a single overwritten backup) means you can roll back to a specific past configuration if a recent change turns out to be one you didn’t actually like.