Beginning Reverse-Engineering .tb File Format #41

rowan-mcalpin · 2026-04-30T07:09:14Z

rowan-mcalpin
Apr 30, 2026

I'm starting this initially because I saw this message in a different discussion. I've done a bit of digging (still a ton to do) but it's at least an initial lead.

Using the official TourBox windows app, I created a profile that had no bindings in it, and two different profiles with one binding each (of two different buttons). I exported each of those profiles to their .tb file format. Starting with an xxd of the files, I don't see any human readable data. Running a diff on them shows a ton of different between them, so I assumed there was some sort of either obfuscation or compression happening.

If I run file, I see that it is a gzip archive.

~$ file No-bindings.tb 
No-bindings.tb: gzip compressed data, from FAT filesystem (MS-DOS, OS/2, NT), original size modulo 2^32 8703

Naturally, I extract this into No-bindings.decoded and ran cat No-bindings.decoded. The output (see below) seems pretty obviously an XML file, and it appears human-readable at that!

<TableTransfer>
  <version>1.8</version>
  <configBytes><!-- I have removed this data, as it is over 4000 bytes --></configBytes>
  <shortCuts/>
  <presetName>A</presetName>
  <presetConf>
    <category>
      <TBCategory>
        <name>id821</name>
        <html>Rotating Section.html</html>
        <longDesc>NONE</longDesc>
        <items>
          <int>4</int>
          <int>55</int>
        </items>
        <foldItems>
          <int>5</int>
          <int>6</int>
          <int>7</int>
          <int>8</int>
        </foldItems>
        <fold>true</fold>
      </TBCategory>
      <TBCategory>
        <name></name>
        <shortDesc></shortDesc>
        <items>
          <int>9</int>
          <int>10</int>
        </items>
        <foldItems>
          <int>11</int>
          <int>12</int>
          <int>13</int>
          <int>14</int>
        </foldItems>
        <fold>true</fold>
      </TBCategory>
      <TBCategory>
        <name></name>
        <shortDesc></shortDesc>
        <items>
          <int>15</int>
          <int>56</int>
        </items>
        <foldItems/>
        <fold>true</fold>
      </TBCategory>
      <TBCategory>
        <name>id822</name>
        <html>Prime Four Section.html</html>
        <longDesc>NONE</longDesc>
        <items>
          <int>1</int>
          <int>2</int>
          <int>0</int>
          <int>3</int>
        </items>
        <foldItems>
          <int>33</int>
          <int>31</int>
          <int>24</int>
          <int>28</int>
          <int>32</int>
          <int>27</int>
          <int>30</int>
          <int>25</int>
          <int>29</int>
          <int>26</int>
        </foldItems>
        <fold>true</fold>
      </TBCategory>
      <TBCategory>
        <name>id823</name>
        <html>Kit Section.html</html>
        <longDesc>NONE</longDesc>
        <items>
          <int>42</int>
          <int>16</int>
          <int>17</int>
          <int>18</int>
          <int>19</int>
          <int>34</int>
          <int>35</int>
        </items>
        <foldItems>
          <int>43</int>
          <int>44</int>
          <int>45</int>
          <int>46</int>
          <int>20</int>
          <int>21</int>
          <int>22</int>
          <int>23</int>
          <int>36</int>
          <int>37</int>
          <int>57</int>
          <int>58</int>
        </foldItems>
        <fold>true</fold>
      </TBCategory>
      <TBCategory>
        <name>id3420</name>
        <html>Custom Section.html</html>
        <longDesc>NONE</longDesc>
        <items/>
        <foldItems/>
        <fold>false</fold>
      </TBCategory>
    </category>
  </presetConf>
  <hudList>
    <visible>false</visible>
    <x>950</x>
    <y>828</y>
    <monitorArea>
      <x>0</x>
      <y>0</y>
      <width>1280</width>
      <height>960</height>
    </monitorArea>
    <sideHideMode>0</sideHideMode>
    <dockerShellSize>84</dockerShellSize>
    <itemFontSize>13</itemFontSize>
    <itemWidth>245</itemWidth>
    <alpha>204</alpha>
    <toolBarAlpha>255</toolBarAlpha>
    <coverAlpha>51</coverAlpha>
    <style>1</style>
    <distractionFree>0</distractionFree>
    <items>
      <int>0</int>
      <int>1</int>
      <int>2</int>
      <int>3</int>
      <int>4</int>
      <int>5</int>
      <int>6</int>
      <int>7</int>
      <int>8</int>
      <int>9</int>
      <int>10</int>
      <int>11</int>
      <int>12</int>
      <int>13</int>
      <int>14</int>
      <int>15</int>
      <int>24</int>
      <int>25</int>
      <int>26</int>
      <int>27</int>
      <int>28</int>
      <int>29</int>
      <int>30</int>
      <int>31</int>
      <int>32</int>
      <int>33</int>
      <int>34</int>
      <int>35</int>
      <int>36</int>
      <int>37</int>
      <int>42</int>
      <int>55</int>
      <int>56</int>
      <int>57</int>
      <int>58</int>
    </items>
    <locations>
      <entry>
        <int>1</int>
        <com.tourbox.model.MonitorLocation>
          <monitorCount>1</monitorCount>
          <index>0</index>
          <isPrimary>true</isPrimary>
          <relativeLoc>
            <x>950</x>
            <y>828</y>
          </relativeLoc>
          <extraFlag>0</extraFlag>
        </com.tourbox.model.MonitorLocation>
      </entry>
    </locations>
  </hudList>

I did the same process for one of the presets that had a single binding (the side button to key A) and ran a diff between the two.

~$ cmp -l No-bindings.decoded Side-to-key-a.decoded 
 113 101 121
 114 101 121
7310  70  67
7311  64  67

These indicate the byte locations and the difference in values between those bytes. The first two (byte 113 and 114) are in the config bytes. That shows me that the configuration bytes between these two configurations are extremely similar.

I don't have the time tonight to research any further, but maybe this can serve as a starting point for someone else.

rowan-mcalpin · 2026-04-30T07:14:40Z

rowan-mcalpin
Apr 30, 2026
Author

Additionally, I noticed that the presets downloaded from TourBox's website are using a different file extension .tbx rather than .tb. I uncompressed one of those files (a preset for Adobe Fresco, chosen for no particular reason beyond that the name was in English) and got a JSON file, shown below. (I have reformatted it to be multiple lines)

{
  "version": 3,
  "uuid": "1224688408014753792",
  "presetType": "fresco",
  "settings": {
    "3": {
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-22"
      },
      "feature": {
        "mode": 1
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "27": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-16"
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "13": {
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "vibra": 1,
        "speed": 1
      }
    },
    "17": {
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-19"
      },
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      }
    },
    "11": {
      "feature": {
        "vibra": 1,
        "speed": 1
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "55": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-23"
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "30": {
      "reverse": false,
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-11"
      },
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      }
    },
    "43": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-25"
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "23": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "8": {
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "vibra": 1,
        "speed": 1
      }
    },
    "44": {
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-24"
      },
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "16": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-20"
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "26": {
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-14"
      },
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      }
    },
    "12": {
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "speed": 1,
        "vibra": 1
      }
    },
    "58": {
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      }
    },
    "19": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-27"
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "28": {
      "reverse": false,
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-1"
      },
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      }
    },
    "14": {
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "speed": 1,
        "vibra": 1
      }
    },
    "56": {
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      }
    },
    "29": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-13"
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "42": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-0"
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "18": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-18"
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "2": {
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-26"
      },
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "mode": 1
      }
    },
    "24": {
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      }
    },
    "37": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "22": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-4"
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "21": {
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-6"
      },
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "33": {
      "reverse": false,
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-3"
      },
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      }
    },
    "20": {
      "reverse": false,
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-5"
      },
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      }
    },
    "35": {
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-8"
      },
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      }
    },
    "10": {
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      }
    },
    "34": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-7"
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "6": {
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "speed": 1,
        "vibra": 1
      }
    },
    "9": {
      "feature": {
        "vibra": 1,
        "speed": 1
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "1": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 1
      },
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-21"
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "32": {
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-17"
      },
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      }
    },
    "7": {
      "feature": {
        "speed": 1,
        "vibra": 1
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "36": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "45": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-10"
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "46": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-9"
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "15": {
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "speed": 1,
        "vibra": 1
      }
    },
    "0": {
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-20"
      },
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "mode": 1
      }
    },
    "25": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-12"
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "57": {
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      }
    },
    "31": {
      "feature": {
        "mode": 0
      },
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-2"
      },
      "reverse": false
    },
    "5": {
      "reverse": false,
      "feature": {
        "speed": 1,
        "vibra": 1
      }
    },
    "4": {
      "reverse": false,
      "primary": {
        "id": "fresco-28"
      },
      "feature": {
        "vibra": 2,
        "speed": 1
      }
    }
  },
  "tags": {
    "83-6": "Publish & export",
    "71-0": "Fill",
    "87-0": "Magic wand",
    "66-0": "Switch to last brush",
    "83-8": "Save",
    "91-0": "Brush size decrease",
    "69-0": "Eraser",
    "72-10": "Sync & return to Home",
    "78-8": "New layer",
    "68-8": "Deselect",
    "73-10": "Invert selection",
    "67-8": "Copy",
    "83-10": "Quick export",
    "70-2": "Enter/exit Full Screen mode",
    "72-0": "Live brush",
    "88-8": "Cut",
    "86-8": "Paste",
    "44-8": "Hide/show layer",
    "86-0": "Vector brush",
    "73-0": "Eyedropper",
    "90-8": "Paste",
    "76-0": "Lasso",
    "84-8": "Transform",
    "-42-10": "Clear layer contents",
    "93-0": "Brush size increase",
    "90-10": "Redo",
    "76-8": "Lock/unlock layer",
    "86-2": "Flip canvas vertically",
    "80-0": "Pixel brush",
    "72-2": "Flip canvas horizontally"
  },
  "complexKeys": [],
  "keyboard": 1,
  "presetName": "Adobe Fresco"
}

Clearly this is using a different format, again I haven't analyzed enough to identify which one might be easier to support.

0 replies

AndyCappDev · 2026-04-30T12:43:26Z

AndyCappDev
Apr 30, 2026
Maintainer

This is a great start, thanks for digging in! After looking at both formats and checking TourBox's own documentation, I think the picture is actually more favorable than it looks at first.

Per TourBox's tutorials, the Console app's user-export format is .tbx, not .tb. On desktop the flow is hamburger menu next to a preset → Export, and on iPad it's the three-dot menu → Share Preset → Save to Files. Both produce .tbx files. That's the same format the website's preset library distributes — meaning the JSON format you decoded in your second comment isn't just for downloadable presets, it's also what users get when they export their own profiles from Console.

If that holds up, it largely sidesteps the .tb reverse-engineering problem. .tbx import alone would cover both "import an official preset" and "import my own Windows/Mac profile" — which is the real user-facing need. And the .tbx schema looks easy to read today: gzipped JSON, button IDs in the 1–58 range that almost certainly line up with TuxBox's existing internal codes, clean per-button entries with primary.id (action), feature.mode/vibra/speed (haptics — maps onto haptic.py), and reverse (dial direction). Probably a few days of work to wire up to see if it works.

That leaves a question about your .tb finding. A few possibilities worth checking:
(a) you may be on an older Console version that still wrote .tb, and newer versions emit .tbx — release notes hint at format churn,
(b) .tb may be a separate "save my entire workspace" format (the XML wrapper carrying HUD layout, categories, fold state, monitor geometry fits that role), distinct from "export this preset for sharing" which is .tbx, or
(c) it's an older/region-specific build. Could you check what Console version you're on and whether .tbx shows up as an export option in the per-preset menu? That'd tell us whether .tb is legacy or still actively produced.

So the practical plan: prioritize .tbx import — that's viable now and covers the realistic use case. Treat .tb as a legacy-compatibility nice-to-have, contingent on confirming whether current Console versions still produce it. I don't have access to a windows box at the moment but if anyone here has the latest Console and can confirm what their export menu produces, that'd shape the priority a lot.

Thanks again for looking into this (I am surprised I did not think of the fact that it might be compressed) — really useful research.

1 reply

rowan-mcalpin Apr 30, 2026
Author

Busy this morning so this will be a brief reply. I'm attaching an image of the button I used to get the .tb files. I'll check later what version I'm on, it could be out of date (I'm just running it in a VM so I don't use it very often).

When pressing that button, it then gives me a checkbox list to select which profiles I'd like to export. There's a chance that the .tb format is meant to be used for a bulk export of multiple profiles at once.

If the 1-58 range button IDs don't cleanly map to the existing IDs, I don't think it would be too difficult to export 58 different profiles identical in every way except which button is mapped to a key. We can test if the IDs match up (logically, they should) and if they don't, there's another pretty straightforward route.

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Beginning Reverse-Engineering .tb File Format #41

Uh oh!

{{title}}

Uh oh!

Replies: 2 comments 1 reply

Uh oh!

{{title}}

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

{{editor}}'s edit

{{editor}}'s edit

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

{{title}}

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

{{editor}}'s edit

{{editor}}'s edit

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

{{title}}

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

{{editor}}'s edit

{{editor}}'s edit

Uh oh!

Select a reply

Uh oh!

Beginning Reverse-Engineering .tb File Format #41

Uh oh!

rowan-mcalpin Apr 30, 2026

Replies: 2 comments · 1 reply

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

rowan-mcalpin Apr 30, 2026 Author

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

AndyCappDev Apr 30, 2026 Maintainer

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

rowan-mcalpin Apr 30, 2026 Author

rowan-mcalpin
Apr 30, 2026

Replies: 2 comments 1 reply

rowan-mcalpin
Apr 30, 2026
Author

AndyCappDev
Apr 30, 2026
Maintainer

rowan-mcalpin Apr 30, 2026
Author