Single-file restore is for the “oops, I deleted the wrong thing” moment. Folder restore is for the bigger problems: a corrupted project directory. A Photoshop session that rolled back and cascaded through linked files. A client asking for the “August” deliverables folder exactly as it was at the end of last quarter. The flow is the same as single-file — just scaled up, with a few controls that matter more when the payload is big.
Step 1 — Open the Restore view
Launch macup. Click Restore, or press ⌘ + R.
Step 2 — Pick the destination
Same logic as single-file. Freshest destination for quick restores. Offsite destination for post-incident restores. If you have macup Cloud plus a local drive, and the local drive is suspect, go to macup Cloud.
Step 3 — Browse to the folder
Navigate the repository view to the folder you want. Click to select it. If you need several folders at the same snapshot, hold ⌘ and click each one — multi-select is supported.
Step 4 — Pick a snapshot
Two modes.
Single-snapshot restore
Pick one snapshot in the timeline. Every selected folder is restored from that snapshot. This is the right choice for “restore the whole project as it was on Friday at 5pm.”
Per-folder snapshot
Click the timeline strip under each folder in the selection pane. Each folder gets its own snapshot. Useful when you want the current state of some folders plus a rolled-back state of one specific subfolder.
Step 5 — Choose the target
Two targets, same as single-file — but the stakes are higher at folder scale.
Original path
macup shows an overwrite-at-folder-level prompt. It is not file-by-file; you confirm once, and then the tree is written. Use this when you are absolutely certain you want to replace the current state.
Fresh folder
~/Desktop/macup-restored-<timestamp>/<original-path>/. The original directory tree is preserved inside the timestamped wrapper, which makes it easy to diff -r the restore against the current state before you promote it. For non-trivial folder restores, this is the safer default.
Step 6 — Transfer settings
Two settings that matter for folder-scale restores.
Preserve ownership and permissions
- Yes when you are restoring to the same user on the same Mac. Full-fidelity restore of
chmod,chown, extended attributes, and Finder tags. - No when you are restoring to a shared-user path, a different user, or a cloud-synced folder where the upstream service owns the permissions.
Skip files newer than snapshot
When this is on, any current file that is newer than its snapshot counterpart stays in place. Useful when you want to roll back most of a folder but keep a few files you have edited since. When this is off, the snapshot wins every conflict.
Step 7 — Click Restore
Click Restore. Progress shows per-file throughput on the left and overall ETA on the right. The transfer runs in parallel across connections and is bounded by whichever is slower — your bandwidth or the destination’s read speed.
Interruption-safe
Power cut. Wi-Fi drops. You close macup by accident. None of this kills the restore. On next launch, macup resumes from the last fully-written file. Nothing partial gets left on disk.
Verify the result
When the restore finishes, run a diff. For a scratch-folder restore, diff -r ~/Desktop/macup-restored-<timestamp>/Users/you/Projects/Big-Project /Users/you/Projects/Big-Project will list every difference. For a checksum-based pass, any tool that walks both trees works — the important thing is that you look at the output. See “Verify a backup’s integrity” for the deeper-level check.
A folder restore that has been diffed against expectations is a folder restore you can hand to a client without a knot in your stomach.