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Add a second backup set
A backup set pairs a source (a folder, a drive, your whole home) with a destination and a schedule. Run more than one to protect different scopes at different cadences — like hourly cloud for your active project and nightly external-drive for the full archive.
Read Backing upBack up to an external drive
Plug in a drive, format it for macup, and point a set at it. External drives are fast for first-seeds and fast for restores, but they share a failure domain with your Mac — pair them with a cloud set, not replace one.
Read Backing upBack up to macup Cloud
macup Cloud is our managed destination — end-to-end encrypted, no egress fees, immutable Object Lock by default. Sign in, pick a tier by capacity, and point a backup set at it. Your passphrase never leaves your Mac.
Read First run and configurationGrant Full Disk Access (and why)
Full Disk Access lets macup read files outside its sandbox — including Mail, Messages, and other users' home folders. Without it, macup can only back up its own sandbox, which isn't a backup. Here's how to grant it, and what it does and doesn't give us.
Read Install and updateInstall macup and run your first backup
Download the signed DMG, drag macup to Applications, grant Full Disk Access, and point it at your first destination. The whole flow takes about five minutes on a typical Mac.
Read Backing upMigrate from Time Machine
Install macup alongside Time Machine, point a set at your home folder, run both in parallel for 30 days. Verify a restore on macup, then disable Time Machine if you want. Your Time Machine archive stays — macup doesn't touch it.
Read TroubleshootingRecover a lost encryption key
If you've forgotten your passphrase, use your recovery code. If you've also lost your recovery code, there is no path back — the whole point of end-to-end encryption is that we can't read your files without one of them. The article is mostly about prevention.
Read RestoringRestore a single file
Open macup, click Restore, browse to the file, pick a version, choose where to put it. Takes under a minute for typical files. Restore from any snapshot — last Tuesday at 2:14pm, six months ago, the first snapshot ever.
ReadInstall and update
- Install macup and run your first backup Download the signed DMG, drag macup to Applications, grant Full Disk Access, and point it at your first destination. The whole flow takes about five minutes on a typical Mac.
- Uninstall macup Quit macup, delete /Applications/macup.app, then run the uninstall script to remove the daemon, Keychain items, and preferences. Backup data in cloud destinations stays until you delete it separately.
- Update macup macup auto-updates in the background by default. You can also update manually from the app menu, check your version, or pin to a specific release if your IT policy requires it.
First run and configuration
- Add a second backup set A backup set pairs a source (a folder, a drive, your whole home) with a destination and a schedule. Run more than one to protect different scopes at different cadences — like hourly cloud for your active project and nightly external-drive for the full archive.
- Exclude files and folders Exclude what you don't want to pay storage for — caches, derived data, downloads, node_modules. macup ships a curated default list for Mac developers and creators; you can add rules globally or per-set.
- Grant Full Disk Access (and why) Full Disk Access lets macup read files outside its sandbox — including Mail, Messages, and other users' home folders. Without it, macup can only back up its own sandbox, which isn't a backup. Here's how to grant it, and what it does and doesn't give us.
- Set a bandwidth limit Cap how much of your upload macup uses. Schedule different limits for different times of day — throttled during work hours, unleashed overnight. Applies per-destination, so a local-drive backup isn't affected.
Backing up
- Back up to an external drive Plug in a drive, format it for macup, and point a set at it. External drives are fast for first-seeds and fast for restores, but they share a failure domain with your Mac — pair them with a cloud set, not replace one.
- Back up to an S3-compatible bucket macup's BYOS tier lets you point at any S3-compatible bucket — AWS S3, Wasabi, Cloudflare R2, MinIO on your own hardware. You pay $5/mo per device and the storage bill goes to your provider directly.
- Back up to macup Cloud macup Cloud is our managed destination — end-to-end encrypted, no egress fees, immutable Object Lock by default. Sign in, pick a tier by capacity, and point a backup set at it. Your passphrase never leaves your Mac.
- Migrate from Backblaze Install macup, pick destinations, start the first backup. Run Backblaze Personal in parallel for 30 days — that matches their post-cancellation retention window. Verify a restore on macup, then cancel Backblaze inside their window.
- Migrate from Time Machine Install macup alongside Time Machine, point a set at your home folder, run both in parallel for 30 days. Verify a restore on macup, then disable Time Machine if you want. Your Time Machine archive stays — macup doesn't touch it.
- Pause a backup Click the menubar, click **Pause all**. Optional duration (15 min, 1 hour, 4 hours, until manually resumed). Pauses all sets across all destinations. Resume by clicking **Resume**. Snapshots in flight finish cleanly; no partial data.
- Switch from BYOS to macup Cloud Migrating off your own S3 bucket onto macup Cloud is a destination swap — no data loss, your history is preserved. Add the cloud destination, retarget your set, keep BYOS running in parallel for a week, then decommission.
Restoring
- Restore a single file Open macup, click Restore, browse to the file, pick a version, choose where to put it. Takes under a minute for typical files. Restore from any snapshot — last Tuesday at 2:14pm, six months ago, the first snapshot ever.
- Restore a whole folder Same flow as single-file restore, scaled. Pick a folder, pick a snapshot, pick a target. macup parallelises the transfer and resumes if interrupted. A 100 GB photo folder from macup Cloud on gigabit runs about 15 minutes.
- Restore to a new Mac New Mac, same account, same data. Install macup, sign in, enter your passphrase, pick which backup sets to restore. Most restores start within five minutes of opening a fresh Mac box.
- Verify a backup's integrity macup runs automatic integrity checks monthly. You can force one manually at any time — it re-reads stored chunks, recomputes checksums, and flags any corruption. A clean verify means every file in every snapshot is byte-exact.
Troubleshooting
- iCloud Keychain integration macup can synchronise your encryption key through iCloud Keychain so a fresh Mac running on the same Apple ID picks up your backups in seconds, not minutes. It's optional, additive, and never the only path back — your passphrase and recovery code remain the canonical recoveries.
- Recover a lost encryption key If you've forgotten your passphrase, use your recovery code. If you've also lost your recovery code, there is no path back — the whole point of end-to-end encryption is that we can't read your files without one of them. The article is mostly about prevention.
Talk to a person.
If the article isn't here, it should be. Write to support@macup.app and — if we think the answer should exist — we'll add it.