Arq → macup

Switching from Arq to macup.

Move from Arq to macup without losing your archive. Mirror each plan as a macup backup set, keep Arq as read-only history for 90 days, then retire it.

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Migration checklist

8 steps. Your pace.

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Force a final run of every Arq backup plan
Open Arq, select each backup plan in the sidebar, and click Back Up Now. Wait for every plan to finish and show a green tick. If you have plans paused or set to manual, run them now so the Arq repo is current before you layer macup on top.
Export your Arq backup-set config
For each plan, open its settings and screenshot or copy the Source Folders list, the Excluded Items list, the schedule, and the destination label. You will use this as the spec for the matching macup backup sets. Do not delete the Arq plans yet — you are mirroring them, not moving them.
Install macup and set your recovery key
Download the DMG from macup.app, drag macup into Applications, and launch it. Sign in, then run the recovery-setup wizard: choose a passphrase, download the recovery code, and store it in your password manager or offline. Every file is AES-256 encrypted on the Mac before upload, and your passphrase wraps those keys.
Pick destinations to match your Arq topology
If you were running Arq to multiple destinations, recreate that in macup. Open Destinations and add up to three: macup Cloud for ransomware-resistant offsite with no egress fees, plus BYOS entries pointing at the same S3-compatible buckets or NAS shares you already used for Arq at five dollars per month per device. You do not have to reuse the Arq bucket — a fresh bucket keeps the two tools cleanly separated.
Recreate each Arq plan as a macup backup set
In macup, create one backup set per Arq plan. Paste the source folders into Includes, the excluded items into Exclusions, and match the schedule. Tag each set with the same name you used in Arq so the audit trail stays legible. This is the most manual step in the migration, and it is worth doing carefully.
Keep Arq running for 90 days as archive access
Do not cancel Arq yet. Leave its existing plans scheduled, or at minimum keep the app installed with read access to its repositories. macup starts fresh snapshots from day zero, so for the first 90 days Arq is your deep history and macup is your new history. After 90 days your macup retention has enough depth to stand on its own.
Verify with a test restore from each destination
Pick a file you know well, open Restore in the macup dashboard, and restore it from each destination in turn. Compare against the live file with a checksum. Power users with multiple destinations should verify each one independently — a destination that nobody has restored from is a destination you do not actually have.
Retire Arq after 90 days
Once macup has 90 days of history and every destination has passed a test restore, stop Arq's schedules. Keep the Arq repos read-only for another quarter if you have the space — they are a cheap insurance policy. When you are ready, delete the Arq plans, archive or erase the old repos, and remove Arq from the Mac.

Known gotchas

Things to watch for.

Specific to migrating from Arq — small issues that trip most people up.

Do not point macup at your Arq repository

An Arq repo is a pack-file store that macup should not try to snapshot file-by-file. Add the Arq cache and repo paths to every macup backup set's Exclusions tab, and keep the Arq destination bucket out of any BYOS configuration.

Credentials do not carry over

macup does not read Arq's keychain entries. You will re-enter bucket credentials in the macup Destinations panel, and you will set a new passphrase. Treat this as a chance to rotate any long-lived access keys rather than copy them across.

Scheduled schedules need conscious translation

Arq lets you write detailed hourly schedules per plan. macup defaults to continuous capture with quiet-hours windows, which is a different model. Before you recreate a cron-like schedule, check whether continuous with quiet hours gives you the same outcome with less moving-parts risk.

The recovery code is the only way back in

Arq users often encrypt with a passphrase already, so this will be familiar: if you lose both the passphrase and the recovery code, the data is unrecoverable by design. Store the recovery code the same way you store your Arq encryption password.

Ready to switch from Arq?

30 days free. No card. Run both tools in parallel until you're sure.

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