save restore local storage to a local file

I probably would have just tacked this on as a comment to Nathaniel Johnson's answer, but I don't have the reputation yet! With regard with those methods, here are some more simple versions of his functions:

function getLocalStorage() {
    return JSON.stringify(localStorage)
}

function writeLocalStorage(data) {
    Object.keys(data).forEach(function(key) { localStorage.setItem(key, data[key])})
}

The process for saving and retrieving local storage has two parts.

First you must be able to retrieve the contents of local storage in a form that is manageable in javascript. Since local storage is a map of key-value pairs the easiest way to this is to turn local storage into a javascript object. Then take this object and turn it into a JSON string. What you do with this string is up to you but I find it easiest to just have the user copy the string into an email.

function getLocalStorage() {
    var a = {};
    for (var i = 0; i < localStorage.length; i++) {
        var k = localStorage.key(i);
        var v = localStorage.getItem(k);
        a[k] = v;
    }
    var s = JSON.stringify(a);
    return s;
}

When I get the string, I use the following function to turn my local storage into a copy of their local storage. Remember to wipe your local storage clean before duplicating their data with a call to localStorage.clear()

function writeLocalStorage(data) {
    var o = JSON.parse(data);
    for (var property in o) {
        if (o.hasOwnProperty(property)) {
            localStorage.setItem(property, o[property]);
        }
    }
}

The last part of your question is how to protect the data from overwriting. You can't write to a local file, however, you can have copy the data into <textarea> and tell the user how to copy and paste the data into a email or a more direct approach.

This javascript below works for me:

function getLocalstorageToFile(fileName) {
  
  /* dump local storage to string */
  
  var a = {};
  for (var i = 0; i < localStorage.length; i++) {
    var k = localStorage.key(i);
    var v = localStorage.getItem(k);
    a[k] = v;
  }
  
  /* save as blob */
  
  var textToSave = JSON.stringify(a)
  var textToSaveAsBlob = new Blob([textToSave], {
    type: "text/plain"
  });
  var textToSaveAsURL = window.URL.createObjectURL(textToSaveAsBlob);
  
  /* download without button hack */
  
  var downloadLink = document.createElement("a");
  downloadLink.download = fileName;
  downloadLink.innerHTML = "Download File";
  downloadLink.href = textToSaveAsURL;
  downloadLink.onclick = function () {
    document.body.removeChild(event.target);
  };
  downloadLink.style.display = "none";
  document.body.appendChild(downloadLink);
  downloadLink.click();
  
}