# Saving plays and using the Playbook

Canonical: https://rufiostats.com/help/court/saving-and-playbook
Reviewed: 2026-10-13

Keep local drafts, save plays to My plays, download a backup and recover work after closing a tab.

## Save a play you can reopen

1. In **Edit mode**, make your changes and check the save status.
2. Press **Ctrl/Cmd+S**, or open **Playbook** and choose **Save current**.
3. The play is now in **My plays**. Open it there to continue later.
4. Choose **Save play file** to download a separate backup.

My plays and Save play file give you two ways to keep your work.

![My plays and Save play file give you two ways to keep your work.](https://rufiostats.com/help/shots/court/playbook-saving.webp)

## Saving and the Playbook

- **Autosave:** your play saves in your browser a moment after every change, and the top bar shows **Saved**, **Saving**, or **Unsaved**. If you close the tab by accident, your work is restored when you come back.
- A new play is a draft until you press **Ctrl/Cmd+S**, which puts it in your Playbook.
- **Playbook:** open it from the top bar. **My plays** lets you search, filter by folder or tag, and sort. Each card can be opened, renamed, duplicated, moved to a folder, tagged, saved as a play file, or deleted. A deleted play can be brought back with **Undo** on the toast that appears.
- The **Quick Plays** tab has the built-in example, the starter plays and the formations. Use **Open as new play** to save a copy, or **Apply to this play** to set up the play you have open. The originals are never changed.

To pass a play to another device or a coworker, use **Save play file** on a play card. It saves a `.rufio-play.json` file. On the other side, use **Import file** in the Playbook, or drag the file onto the Court window.

Without an account, plays live in this browser only. If you clear site data or use a private window, they are gone, so save a play file for the ones that matter, or sign in to keep a copy in the cloud. If the browser blocks storage, the Playbook tells you, and everything still works for that session.

## Recover a draft

Reopen Court in the same browser and device. Court checks its working copy and saved play before deciding what to restore. **Discard** removes the restored working copy and opens the saved play, or the example if there is no saved play. Download a play file first if you want to keep the restored changes.

Court reports when it restores an unsaved play.

![Court reports when it restores an unsaved play.](https://rufiostats.com/help/shots/court/recovery.webp)

## Before clearing browser data

Local plays are stored in this browser. Export files before clearing site data, leaving a school computer or reinstalling a browser. Private browsing or blocked storage may keep work only for the current visit; follow the warning and download a file.

Cloud copies are a separate feature of a signed-in account. Read [Account, cloud and sharing](https://rufiostats.com/help/court/account-cloud-and-sharing) to understand which copy you are using.