A file chooser will be brought up where you can select the name and directory of the snapshot file to be written. The standard extension of JProfiler's snapshot files is *.jps. Once JProfiler has finished writing the snapshot to disk, a message box informs you that the snapshot was saved.

A bookmarks will be added when a snapshot is saved manually.

In situations where physical memory is sparse, saving an HPROF snapshot can be preferable compared to saving a full JProfiler snapshot. Also, there are alternative ways to save HPROF snapshots:

• with -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError
  The -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError VM parameter is supported by Hotspot JVMs and is the basis of the "Out of memory exception" trigger type.
• with jmap
  The jmap executable in the JDK can be used to extract an HPROF heap dump from a running JVM. It is partially supported by Sun 1.5 JVMs and supported by all Sun 1.6 JVMs.
• with the command line utility jpdump provided by JProfiler
  JProfiler includes a command line tool that is more versatile than jmap. It lets you select a process, can connect to processes running as a service on Windows, has not problems with mixed 32-bin/64-bit JVMs and auto-numbers HPROF snapshot files. If you execute it with the -help option, you will get help on its usage:

    Usage: jpdump [options]
  
    jpdump saves an HPROF heap dump from a locally running JVM to a file.
    The HPROF file can then be opened in the JProfiler GUI.
  
    * if no argument is given, jpdump lists all locally running JVMs.
    * with the following arguments you can partially or completely supply all
      user input on the command line:
  
      -p  --pid=PID      The PID of the JVM whose heap should be dumped
                         With a specified PID, no further questions will by asked.
      -a  --all          Save all objects. If not specified, only live objects are
                         dumped
      -f  --file=PATH    Path to the dump file. If not specified, the dump file
                         <VM name>.hprof is written in the current directory.
                         If the file already exists, a number is appended.
      -h  --help         Show this help
  
    Note that the JVM has to be running as the same user as jpdump, otherwise
    JProfiler cannot connect to it.
    An exception are Windows services running under the local system account if you
    list them interactively with jpdump.

• By clicking the [Heap Dump Only] button in the "Quick attach" tab of the start center. This has the same effect as the jpdump command line utility described above, just that you can select the JVM and the target file in the JProfiler GUI.

• by selecting Session->Open Snapshot from JProfiler's main menu.
• by selecting a file from the "Open snapshot" tab in JProfiler's start center.

• JProfiler snapshots
  

  After a JProfiler snapshot has been loaded, the functionality of all views is identical to a live profiling session with the exception of the heap walker view: The heap walker overview will be shown if a heap snapshot was taken at the time of saving, otherwise the heap walker will be unavailable.

• HPROF snapshots
  

  When an HPROF snapshot is loaded, only the heap walker is available. Also, the "Allocations" and "Time" views of the heap walker are not available.

• PHD snapshots
  

  When a PHD snapshot is loaded, only the heap walker is available. Also, the "Allocations" and "Time" views of the heap walker are not available. PHD files do not contain garbage collector roots, so JProfiler simulates classes as roots. Finding class loader memory memory leaks may be difficult with a PHD file.

The status bar indicates that a snapshot is being viewed by displaying the message  Snapshot in its rightmost compartment.