Getting started

Install Arkeep on your Mac, add your archive drives and run your first index. License activation arrives at launch.

Arkeep remembers every drive you own. When you plug in a memory card, a USB drive or an audio recorder, it checks every file against all of your archive drives, even the ones sitting on a shelf, and tells you what isn't backed up yet. Then it can copy what's missing to the drives you pick.

Arkeep checks and copies your backups. It never keeps its own copy of your files. Your files stay on your cards and drives.

This page walks you through setup, from download to your first card. Most of it takes a few minutes. The first index of a big archive takes longer, but you can start checking cards before it's done.

Install Arkeep on your Mac

1. Go to arkeep.app and download Arkeep.
2. Open the download and drag Arkeep into your Applications folder.
3. Open Arkeep from Applications.

Arkeep lives in your Mac's menu bar, at the top of the screen. Click its icon any time to see what it's doing and open its windows.

Coming at launch The first time Arkeep opens, it will show the Terms of Use for you to accept.

Arkeep is available for Mac, with an iPhone companion app. Windows and Android are coming later.

Activate a license

Coming at launch

Activating a license in the app arrives at launch. When you buy Arkeep, you get an email with your license key. Your receipt comes in a separate email from Link, the checkout Stripe runs for Arkeep. There will be two ways to activate:

• Click the link in the email. It opens Arkeep and fills in your key for you.
• Paste the key. Copy the key from the email and paste it into Arkeep.

Activation will send your license key, a random device ID and your Mac's name to the Arkeep license server one time. After that, Arkeep will check your license offline. There's no account to make and no password to remember.

A Personal license covers 2 computers plus your phone. Your phone never uses one of your computer slots. To see which computers are on your license, or to move it to a new Mac, see Licenses and devices.

Let Arkeep see your drives

During setup, macOS asks whether Arkeep can access removable drives. Allow it. Arkeep needs this to notice when you plug in a card and to read your archive drives.

Arkeep only reads your cards. It never deletes anything from a card, and it never formats one. Clearing a card is always up to you.

Add your archive drives

Your archive drives are the drives where your finished backups live. Arkeep checks every card against all of them.

1. Plug in the archive drives you have handy.
2. In setup, tick each drive that's part of your archive.
3. Leave out your working drives and anything you don't want counted as a backup.

You don't need every drive plugged in today. You can add more archive drives later, whenever you plug them in. Arkeep remembers each one and keeps its list of files even after you unplug it, so a drive on the shelf still counts.

Last, turn on Open at Login. That way Arkeep is always running and ready when a card goes in.

Your backup key

Arkeep keeps your index and backup history on your Mac. It also saves encrypted backups of that index, so the record of what was on your drives isn't lost if something happens to your Mac. Arkeep creates the encryption key for these backups by itself and stores it in your Mac's Keychain. Everyday backups and restores need nothing from you.

You also get a recovery key, a short code you'd use to open those backups on a new Mac. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. You can see it any time in Settings after entering your Mac's password or using Touch ID.

Coming at launch An "Email me my recovery key" checkbox in setup will email the key to you once through our email provider, at your purchase email address. Arkeep's license server won't store it. Anyone who can get into that email account could use the key, so you'll be able to leave it off and keep writing the key down instead. Learn more in Updates and your backup key.

Your first index

Before Arkeep can check a card, it needs to learn what's on your archive drives. This is the index. Arkeep keeps the index on your Mac, so it can answer even when your drives are unplugged.

One drive at a time

Arkeep indexes one drive at a time. You can watch each drive's progress in the Activity list on the Overview page and in Settings, with the files counted, the files indexed and an estimate of the time left.

You don't have to wait for every drive. As soon as a drive is done, Arkeep can check cards against it.

Two passes

Indexing happens in two passes:

1. The fast pass records each file's name, size and dates. This is quick, and it's what lets you start checking cards.
2. The fingerprint pass runs in the background afterward. It reads a small piece from the start and end of each file to make a quick fingerprint. This is what lets Arkeep tell apart two different files that happen to share a name and size. On a big archive, especially on spinning drives, this pass can take hours.

Until a file has its fingerprint, Arkeep can still match it on name, size and capture date. Your card's report marks those files as "matched without fingerprint." Once the fingerprint pass finishes, those notes go away on their own. Read more in Checking a card.

It works around you

Indexing runs at low priority, so your Mac stays usable for editing or anything else while it works. It also pauses and resumes on its own. If you quit Arkeep, put your Mac to sleep or unplug a drive, indexing stops where it was and picks up again next time. Indexing also waits while Arkeep is copying a card.

When the first drive is ready

When your first drive finishes, Arkeep shows a short welcome card telling you that drive is ready and inviting you to plug in a card. That's your cue.

Once every archive drive you chose has finished its first index, Arkeep says so once, with real numbers, for example "8 drives · 1,312,450 files · 41 TB. Arkeep knows your archive." The same line stays at the top of the Overview. While a drive is still being indexed, the Overview says how many drives are still to go instead.

Plug in your first card

Put a memory card in your card reader, or plug in a USB drive or an audio recorder (like a Zoom or a DJI Mic receiver). Arkeep notices it right away, checks every file against your archive drives and shows one notification with the result. It tells you how many files are on the card, how many aren't backed up yet and how much space they take.

Click the notification to open the results. If everything is backed up, Arkeep says so in green, and there's nothing else to do. If some files are missing, you can see exactly which ones and where they came from, then copy them to the drives you choose.

To learn what each result means, see Checking a card. To copy the missing files, see Copying what's missing.

Next steps

• Checking a card: what green, amber and red mean.
• Copying what's missing: copy to several drives at once, with every copy verified.
• Drives and Drive Memory: what Arkeep remembers about each drive, and what to do if one fails.
• Backup history and search: find any file, client or card across every drive.
• Mobile companion: pair your iPhone and check backups on the go.
• Keyboard shortcuts: get around Arkeep faster.
• Troubleshooting and the FAQ: answers when something isn't working.

Still stuck? Email [email protected].

Checking a card

What happens when you plug in a card, how Arkeep decides a file is backed up, and what the green, amber and red results mean.

When you plug in a memory card, a USB drive or an audio recorder, Arkeep checks every file on it against all of your archive drives and tells you what isn't backed up yet. It does this even when your archive drives are unplugged, because it checks against its index, the list of files it keeps on your Mac.

Arkeep only reads the card. It never changes, moves or deletes anything on it.

What happens when you plug in a card

1. Your Mac mounts the card, and Arkeep notices it right away.
2. Arkeep reads the list of files on the card and compares each one against your archive drives.
3. One notification shows the result, for example "FX3 Card: 87 not backed up" with "FX3 Card: 1,214 files, 87 not backed up (42 GB). 1,127 backed up on Archive A."
4. Click the notification to open the card's result in the Arkeep window.

While the check runs, the card's page in the Arkeep window shows its progress. You can eject the card any time. The check stops at once and nothing on the card is touched.

The check works with no archive drives plugged in at all. That means you can check a card on a laptop in the field, far from your drives, and still get a real answer.

What Arkeep checks, and what it skips

Arkeep checks memory cards, USB drives, audio recorders and any other drive you plug in that isn't one of your archive drives. This guide calls all of them "cards" for short. It leaves some things alone on purpose:

• Your archive drives. Plugging one in refreshes its index instead of checking it. See Drives and Drive Memory.
• Your startup disk, disk images, network drives and Time Machine drives.
• Anything you've told it to skip. In Settings, under General, open Skip these cards and drives and add a name, such as a working SSD you plug in every day.

It also ignores system clutter that isn't really yours, such as ._ files, .DS_Store, .Trashes and .Spotlight-V100.

Checking something by hand

You can also check a card, drive or folder yourself:

1. Open Arkeep and go to Overview.
2. In the Activity section, click Check a Drive.
3. Pick a card or drive that's plugged in, or choose Choose a Folder… to check any folder on your Mac.

To check a card again, select it in the sidebar and press Command-R.

How Arkeep decides a file is backed up

A file on your card counts as backed up only when Arkeep finds a file on one of your archive drives that matches it on all four of these:

1. The same name, ignoring upper and lower case. So C0001.MP4 and c0001.mp4 match.
2. The exact same size, down to the byte.
3. The same date. Arkeep uses the capture date stored inside the photo or video. When a file has no capture date, it uses the date the file was last modified.
4. The same quick fingerprint, a code made from the first and last 1 MB of the file. This tells two different files apart even when they share a name and size.

Reading only 2 MB from each file keeps the check fast, even on a card full of long clips.

A few things about dates:

• Memory cards store times without a time zone. If you shot in one time zone and check the card in another, the modified dates can be a whole number of hours apart. Arkeep allows for that when it compares modified dates. Capture dates read from inside the file must match exactly.
• A re-exported, trimmed or renamed file is a different file, so it shows as not backed up.

Files that never count

Some copies never count as a backup, even if they match:

• A copy Arkeep made that wasn't verified (from Fast copy, or a copy that was interrupted). See Copying what's missing.
• A file Arkeep has marked as missing or possibly damaged on a drive.
• Every file on a drive you've marked as failed or missing, or removed from your archive.

When in doubt, Arkeep says "not backed up"

Arkeep is built so it won't call a file backed up unless it finds a match under these rules. Sometimes that means it flags a file that you know is safe, for example one you renamed after copying it. That's on purpose: an extra copy costs a little space, and a wrong "backed up" could cost you the footage.

"Not backed up" always means not in your archive: no copy on any of the archive drives Arkeep has indexed. A copy on some other drive doesn't count, even if it's the same file. Under the red count, the result says so, for example "Not on any of your 6 archive drives."

"Also found on" a drive outside your archive

If a drive that isn't in your archive is plugged in, such as a travel drive under Other Drives, Arkeep looks on it in the background for the files that aren't backed up, using the same rule. When it finds some, a quiet note appears under the count: "Also found on BLTF TRAVEL, which isn't part of your archive." The files stay red: only your archive counts. Click Add to Archive… in the note to make that drive one of your archive drives. See Drives and Drive Memory.

The same heads-up shows further down, in tan, so you see it where you work:

• In Copy What's Missing, each session (and each folder when you copy a drive) with files on that drive gets a small tan chip: "Also found on BLTF TRAVEL", or "Also found on BLTF TRAVEL · 120 of 268" when only some of its files are there. There's one chip per drive. Click a chip to see how many files and Add to Archive….
• In the file list, under "No copy in your archive", those files say "Also on BLTF TRAVEL".

Tan never means backed up. The files still count as not in your archive until that drive is.

What the colors mean

Every result has a color and a symbol, so you can tell them apart even without color.

• Green, with a check mark: all backed up. Every file on the card matched a file on your archive drives. The result says so, and there's nothing else to do.
• Red, with an X: not backed up. Some files have no match on any archive drive. The result lists exactly which ones.
• Amber, with a warning triangle: look closer. Amber means Arkeep can't give you a clean answer yet. It shows up when:
  • some files or folders on the card couldn't be read, so the check isn't complete;
  • the only copies of the missing files are ones Arkeep made without verifying them ("copied, not verified");
  • none of your archive drives has been indexed yet, so nothing can count as backed up.

While a checked card is plugged in, the three drives in the Arkeep menu bar icon turn green, amber or red to match the result. You can see the answer at a glance without opening anything.

"Matched without fingerprint"

Fingerprinting a big archive runs in the background after the first index, and it can take hours. Until an archive file has its fingerprint, Arkeep matches it on name, size and date only.

Those files count as backed up, but the report lists them in their own folder, Matched Without Fingerprint, with the note "name, size and date match; not fingerprinted yet." The result's summary also says how many there are.

Once the fingerprint pass reaches those archive files, the note goes away the next time you check the card. You can see how far fingerprinting has come on each drive's page. See Getting started for how indexing works.

"Same name, different file"

Sometimes a card file has the same name and size as an archive file, but a different date or fingerprint. Arkeep lists it as "same name, different file" and treats it as not backed up.

This happens most often when a camera restarts its file numbering. After DSC09999.ARW, many cameras go back to DSC00001.ARW, so two different cards can hold two different photos with the same name. Uncompressed raw files from the same camera are often exactly the same size too. The fingerprint and date are what tell them apart.

Reading the result

Select a card in the sidebar to see its result.

At the top is the headline, such as "FX3 Card: 87 not in your archive." Under it, Arkeep says where the rest of the card lives, for example "Backed up: 1,127 on Archive A, 1,127 on Archive B," along with when the card was checked and how many files and gigabytes are on it.

If Arkeep copied this same card before (and it hasn't been formatted since), a line says when, and how the green count came about, for example "Last copied at 11:32 AM. Arkeep has copied 366 files from this card; 161 others were already in your archive." It never shows a second "not copied" number: the red count is the only one that says what still needs a copy.

If anything is missing and the card is still plugged in, the Copy What's Missing panel comes next. See Copying what's missing.

The file list

Below that, the card's files are shown as folders you can open:

• Not in Archive: every file with no match on your archive drives, in the card's own folders. The note beside each file says why, for example "No copy in your archive" or "same name, different file."
• Matched Without Fingerprint: files that count as backed up but haven't been fingerprinted on the archive side yet.
• Stays on the Card (Not Counted): camera housekeeping files. See below.
• Could Not Be Read: anything Arkeep couldn't open. These make the check incomplete.

Select a file and press Space to show or hide the preview pane while the card is plugged in. At the bottom of the list, a line shows which archive drives the card was compared against and when each one was last indexed, so you know how current the answer is.

Camera housekeeping files

Cameras write files to every card for their own bookkeeping: clip XML sidecars, thumbnails, card databases and stored settings. They aren't footage, and most people never keep them. Arkeep lists them under Stays on the Card (Not Counted). They don't count as backed up or missing, so they never stop a card from going green.

If there are other file types you never keep, add them in Settings, under General, in Skip these file types (for example xml or thm).

Buttons and exports

• Ignore closes the result and removes the card from the sidebar. It never deletes anything.
• Show Report shows the saved report file in Finder. Every check is saved in your reports folder, which you can change in Settings, under General.
• Export Report… in the File menu (Shift-Command-E) saves a CSV list of the files that aren't backed up, with their folder, size and reason.
• Get Info in the File menu (Command-I) shows when the card was last checked, its size and where it's mounted.

Ejecting the card

Press Command-E, or eject the card in Finder as usual. If Arkeep is reading the card, it stops and lets go first, so the eject goes through instead of telling you the disk is in use.

Clearing or formatting a card is always up to you. Arkeep never does it.

Next: Copying what's missing.

Copying what's missing

Copy only the files that aren't backed up yet, to several drives at once, filed where they belong, with every copy verified.

Copy What's Missing copies the files that aren't backed up yet onto the drives you choose. It reads the card once, writes every drive from that one read, files each clip and photo into the folder it belongs in, and reads every copy back to check it before calling it done.

Arkeep only reads the card. It never deletes, moves or formats anything on it.

Start a copy

The Copy What's Missing panel appears in a card's result whenever files are missing and the card is still plugged in. See Checking a card.

1. Check the folder name at the top of the panel, and change it if you like.
2. Look over Where files go to see which folder each group of files goes into.
3. Tick the drives to copy to.
4. Click Copy to 2 Drives (the button names how many drives you ticked).

You can also press Shift-Command-C with the card selected, or press Return in the panel. For a simple card, you can copy right from the menu bar too. See Quick copy from the menu bar.

If you unplugged the card after the check, the panel says "Plug FX3 Card back in to copy from it." Copying needs the card itself.

Name the shoot folder

Everything from the card goes into one folder on each drive, which this guide calls the shoot folder. Arkeep suggests a name made from the card's name and today's date, for example "FX3 Card 10.28.26". Type over it with whatever you like, such as "Morgan & Ellis wedding".

You can also type a path, such as Clients/Bricks brand shoot/Day 1. As you type, Arkeep suggests folders that already exist on the drive, and tells you whether the name you've typed is an Existing folder or a New folder that's made when the copy starts.

If a new name is very close to an existing one, Arkeep asks "Did you mean…?" before anything is made, so a typo doesn't create a second folder for the same client. Pick the existing folder, or make the new one anyway.

If a folder with that name is already there, Arkeep asks what to do:

• Add to It puts the new files in the existing folder. A file already there is never replaced.
• Use a New Name adds a number to the name, for example "FX3 Card 10.28.26 2".

Choose where files go

Where files go shows one line for each group of files on the card: each file type, and each camera when the files say which camera made them. Each line says how many files there are, where they go inside the shoot folder, how much space they take and why Arkeep chose that folder. For example:

• 312 MP4 files from your Sony A7 IV go into Footage/A Cam, because they're the "A cam on this card".
• 24 WAV files go into Audio, because that's "where your .WAV files usually go".

Each line has a checkbox and a folder field:

• Untick a line to leave those files on the card.
• Type or browse to change the folder a line goes into.

Arkeep learns your layout

As Arkeep indexes your archive drives, it looks at how you already file your shoots: which folders your footage, audio and photos go into, which camera is usually your A cam and which file types you keep. The top of the section says where the plan comes from, for example "Learned from 214 shoots on your drives."

Until it has learned your layout, Arkeep uses a simple default: Footage, Audio and Photos. File types you don't usually keep start unticked, with a reason such as "you don't usually keep .thm files." Arkeep thinks in families of file types: RAW photos (ARW, CR3, NEF, RAF, DNG and the like), JPEG and HEIF photos, video, and audio. So a new camera's files are treated like the ones you already keep. For example, if you keep Sony .ARW files, a Canon card's .CR3 files are ticked and go where your .ARW files usually go. A type starts unticked only when you've never kept anything in its family. You can see the learned layout in Settings, under General, next to Offload layout.

Camera housekeeping files (XML sidecars, thumbnails and card databases) stay on the card.

Mirror the whole card

If you'd rather keep the card exactly as the camera wrote it, turn on Mirror the whole card in Settings, under General. Arkeep then copies everything on the card, in the card's own folders (PRIVATE, DCIM, XML sidecars and all), into the shoot folder.

Choose the drives

Your drives appear as large tiles, each with its name and free space. Archive drives say "Archive drive" under the name.

• Default drives are already ticked. To choose them, open Settings, go to Archive Drives and tick Copy here by default for each drive you usually copy to.
• Not enough space? A drive that can't fit the files is dimmed and says how much more space it needs.
• Pick where on the drive. The folder link on each tile shows where the shoot folder goes on that drive, such as "Top level of the drive" or "/Clients". Click it to choose a different folder on that drive. Arkeep remembers the folder each drive was last copied into.

A line under the tiles tells you how many copies you'll have when it's done, for example "1,214 files will be on 2 drives." If you tick only one drive, the line turns amber: "A second drive keeps a backup if one fails."

To work from the keyboard, press Tab to move into the tiles, use the left and right arrow keys to move between them, and press Space to tick or untick one.

Copying to several drives at once

One click starts every drive you ticked. Arkeep reads each file from the card once and writes it to every drive from that single read, so a second or third drive adds little time, especially when each drive has its own connection to your Mac.

While the copy runs, the card's page shows:

• each drive with its own progress bar and file count;
• the time left;
• live speeds for reading the card and writing the drives, and which one is the slower part;
• Pause, Resume and Stop. Stop keeps every file already copied and verified.

If a copy feels slow, the speed line tells you why. See Troubleshooting.

Background indexing and fingerprinting pause while a copy runs, so they don't slow it down. They carry on afterward.

How every copy is verified

By default, every copy is checked by its contents, not only by its name and size:

1. As Arkeep reads each file from the card, it works out a checksum (XXH3-128) of the whole file.
2. It writes the copy to each drive under a hidden temporary name.
3. It reads the copy back from the drive itself and works out its checksum again.
4. Only when the two match does the copy get its real name.

A file is done only when every drive's copy matches. Files Arkeep copied and verified count as backed up right away, and they're added to that drive's file list in Arkeep.

Proof of the offload

After each copy, Arkeep writes two files into the shoot folder on every drive:

• An ASC MHL checksum list in an ascmhl folder. This is the film industry's standard format, so a client or post house that asks for proof of a clean offload can check it with their own tools.
• A short PDF, named after the shoot folder, for example "Morgan & Ellis wedding Offload Report.pdf". It lists the card, the cameras, every drive and how each copy went.

Fast copy

If you'd rather have speed than certainty, turn on Fast copy in Settings, under General. Arkeep then skips reading each copy back. Those copies are labeled "copied, not verified" in amber, and they never count as backed up. The copy panel reminds you when Fast copy is on.

When the copy finishes

You get a notification, for example "FX3 Card: copied to 2 drives" with "1,214 files, every copy verified."

The card's page then shows how the copy went on each drive:

• Green: "Passed: all 1,214 files verified."
• Amber: "Copied, not verified (Fast copy)."
• Red: for example "3 failed, 1,211 copied." Click Retry Failed to try those files again.

Each drive has a Show in Finder button. Open Files to see every file on every drive with its result. If any file got a new name because a different file already had its name, Arkeep lists it under "saved under a new name."

Arkeep then checks the card again on its own, so its result shows what's backed up now.

Safety rules

• Arkeep never writes to the card. It never deletes, moves or formats anything on it.
• Arkeep never overwrites a file. If a different file already has the same name, the copy is saved with a number added, for example C0001 (2).MP4. This works on exFAT drives as well as APFS and Mac OS Extended.
• Arkeep doesn't copy a file twice. If the same file, with the same contents, is already in place from an earlier copy, it's marked "already there, same contents" and nothing is written.

If a copy is interrupted

A drive is unplugged

If you unplug one drive in the middle of a copy, only that drive stops. Its row says "Unplugged. Plug it back in and the copy picks up where it stopped." The other drives carry on. When they're done, Arkeep sends a notification saying which drive it's waiting for. Plug it back in, along with the card, and the copy finishes.

You quit Arkeep

If you quit while a copy is running, Arkeep asks first. Files already copied and verified are kept.

Arkeep or your Mac stops unexpectedly

If Arkeep quits or crashes in the middle of a copy, the next time it opens it shows Copy was interrupted on the Overview page and on the card's page, along with a notification. It tells you how many files were already copied and verified.

1. Plug in the card and the drives you were copying to.
2. Click Resume. Arkeep skips the files already copied and verified and copies the rest.

Click Dismiss if you'd rather not finish it. Files already copied stay where they are.

Before resuming, Arkeep removes its own unfinished hidden files from the shoot folder (names that end in .arkeep-partial). It never removes anything else. See Troubleshooting for more on what to do after a crash.

Drives and Drive Memory

What Arkeep remembers about each drive, how it spots missing and damaged files, what to do when a drive fails or goes missing, and how the Loss Report works.

Drive Memory is Arkeep's record of every drive it has indexed and every file that was on it. Arkeep keeps the list, not the files. If a drive dies, gets damaged or goes missing, that list tells you exactly what was on it, what's still safe on your other drives and what had no other copy.

Drive Memory only reads and reports. It never deletes, moves or repairs anything on your drives.

Your drives in Arkeep

Your archive drives are listed in the sidebar of the Arkeep window, under Drives, and as tiles on the Overview page.

Fullness colors

Each drive is shaded in its color by how full it is: light when it's nearly empty, deep when it's nearly full. A label says the same thing in words, for example "76% full · 18.2 TB of 24 TB." Color on a drive only ever means how full it is, never that something is wrong.

When a drive is more than 90% full, a small orange Almost full badge appears. When it reaches 100%, the badge says Full.

A drive that isn't plugged in shows its last known fullness, faded, with "Offline · last seen" and the date. Arkeep remembers each drive's size and free space every time you plug it in.

Drive colors

Give each drive its own color so you can spot it at a glance. Right-click the drive in the sidebar or its tile on the Overview and choose Color, or open the drive and choose More › Color. Pick Teal (the starting color), Blue, Indigo, Purple, Pink, Orange, Green or Graphite. The color shows in the sidebar, on the drive's tile, on its page, when you pick drives to copy to, and on your iPhone after the next sync. It still gets deeper as the drive fills up. There's no red or yellow, because red always means something isn't backed up yet.

Drive health

Each drive is Healthy, Watch or At risk, and its page lists why. Arkeep reads the drive's own health check (S.M.A.R.T.) when macOS can. Most USB enclosures don't pass it through, and the page then says "Health data not available from this enclosure." Arkeep also watches for:

• files it can't read;
• damaged files;
• copies that don't read back the same;
• reading that slows down compared with the drive's own past speed;
• unplugging without ejecting, 3 or more times in 30 days;
• drives it has known for 5 years or more.

A drive to watch or at risk shows a badge in the sidebar and on its Overview tile, and you get one notification when a drive's health gets worse. Arkeep watches for warning signs. No tool can catch every failure, so keep every shoot on at least two drives.

A drive's page

Click a drive in the sidebar or on the Overview page to open its page. Its details stay at the top on both tabs: files, size, fingerprinted, files only on this drive, last indexed, and its health. Below them, Summary shows Recent Changes and Files shows the drive's folders, in the same place.

Summary

• The drive's name and fullness, on a band in its fullness color, with whether it's connected.
• Files and Size: how many files are on it and how much space they take.
• Fingerprinted: how much of the drive the background fingerprint pass has finished.
• Only on this drive: how many of its files exist on no other archive drive. See "The single-copy warning" below.
• Last indexed: when Arkeep last read the drive's file list.
• Recent Changes: files added, missing, back again, changed or damaged, found at each index.

Files

The Files tab shows everything on the drive as folders, as of its last index. It works when the drive is unplugged too, so you can look through a drive that's sitting on a shelf. When the drive is plugged in, double-click a file to show it in Finder.

Select a file and press Space to show or hide the preview pane. If the drive isn't plugged in, the preview shows the small thumbnail Arkeep saved while indexing.

The toolbar

• Loss Report opens the drive's Loss Report. See below.
• More (the circle with three dots) has Re-index, Mark Drive as Failed…, Mark Drive as Missing… and Remove from Archive….

Press Command-I for the drive's details, including its capacity, where it's mounted, how many files are fingerprinted, when Arkeep first saw it and when it was last indexed.

Adding and managing archive drives

Open Settings and go to Archive Drives. Each archive drive has a row showing whether it's plugged in, when it was last indexed, how many files were counted and how many are fingerprinted. While a drive is being indexed, its row shows the progress and the time left.

• Add a drive that's plugged in: click Plugged In and pick the drive.
• Add a drive that isn't plugged in: type its exact name in Add a drive by name and click Add. Arkeep indexes it the next time you plug it in.
• Re-index reads the drive's file list again. The drive needs to be plugged in.
• Copy here by default ticks the drive for you in Copy What's Missing.
• Save thumbnails for when it's unplugged keeps small previews of the drive's photos and videos. See "Thumbnails" below.
• More has Open Drive, Loss Report, Mark Drive as Failed…, Mark Drive as Missing… and Remove from Archive….

Add to Archive and Remove from Archive

A drive you've plugged in that isn't an archive drive shows in the sidebar under Other Drives. Its files never count as backups. To make it an archive drive, click Add to Archive… at the top of its page, right-click it in the sidebar, or use the button in an "Also found on" note on a card's result. Arkeep shows the drive's size and a rough indexing time first. After you confirm, it indexes the drive with progress under Drives, moves it into the Drives group, and checks what's plugged in again, so files only on that drive turn green.

To stop using an archive drive, right-click it in the sidebar or on the Overview, or open More on its page, and choose Remove from Archive…. This only removes the drive from Arkeep's index. It never touches the files on the drive. Afterwards, files that were only on that drive show as not backed up again, and if it was ticked for Copy here by default, it's unticked. Arkeep still remembers what was on it, and you can add it back any time.

Arkeep only reads a drive in either direction. Nothing on it is changed, moved or deleted.

You don't have to re-index by hand very often. Every time you plug in an archive drive, Arkeep refreshes its index on its own.

What Arkeep remembers

• Every drive it has ever indexed, with its name, capacity, when it was first seen, when it was last plugged in and when it was last indexed.
• Each drive's status: an archive drive, marked as failed, marked as missing, or no longer an archive drive.
• Every file on every drive. When a file disappears, Arkeep marks it "missing since" the date it noticed. It never removes the file from its record.
• Every change it finds when it re-indexes a drive, with the date:
  • added: a new file;
  • missing: a file that was there before and is gone now;
  • back: a missing file that came back;
  • changed: a new size and a new date, which is an ordinary edit;
  • damaged: a new size or new contents while the date stayed the same, which is a sign of silent damage.

The single-copy warning

Every archive drive shows how many of its files exist on no other archive drive, for example "2,140 files (1.1 TB) only on this drive." Arkeep works this out again after every index and every copy.

This is the cheapest protection there is. If a drive has files that live nowhere else, you can copy them to a second drive before anything goes wrong. When every file has another copy, the drive says "Every file also exists on another drive" in green.

Catching damage early

Rechecking fingerprints

Each time you plug in an archive drive, after its fingerprint pass, Arkeep reads a slice of its fingerprinted files again: at least 500 files, or 1% of the drive, starting with the ones checked longest ago. Activity shows it as "Re-checking files" with its own count, for example "340 of 1,080 files". It saves as it goes, so if Arkeep is quit partway, the next time picks up with files it hasn't rechecked yet. Over time every file gets rechecked. A file whose fingerprint changed while its size and date didn't is marked as possibly damaged.

The quick fingerprint covers the first and last 1 MB of each file. Damage in the middle of a long clip isn't caught by this check.

Alerts

Arkeep shows an alert in the menu bar dropdown, and sends a notification, when:

• a re-index finds more than 50 files missing from a drive ("files missing from Archive A");
• any file may be damaged;
• a drive had read errors while being indexed (shown in red, with advice to copy the files that are only on that drive somewhere else right away);
• an archive drive is connected but doesn't mount within a minute (also red).

Click Open Drive in the alert to go to the drive's page.

Files that never count as a backup

Files marked missing or damaged, and every file on a drive marked as failed, missing or no longer an archive drive, never count as a backup copy when Arkeep checks a card.

When a drive fails or goes missing

1. Open Settings and go to Archive Drives, or open the drive's page.
2. Click More, then choose Mark Drive as Failed… or Mark Drive as Missing….
3. Confirm. Arkeep doesn't touch the drive itself.

The drive leaves your list of archive drives, its files stop counting as backups, and the Loss Report opens. The drive stays in the sidebar and in Settings, marked as failed or missing, so you can open its Loss Report again any time.

A missing or failed drive's page tells you what was on it, for example "4,210 files (1.2 TB) were on this drive. 3,980 are on other archive drives. 230 were only here." Click Show the Files Only Here to open the Loss Report with just those files, and Show Everything to see the whole report.

If the drive turns up again, or it was a false alarm, open its More menu and choose Use as Archive Drive Again.

Stop Using as Archive Drive… is for a drive you're retiring rather than one that failed. Its files stop counting as backups, but Arkeep still remembers what was on it.

The Loss Report

The Loss Report lists every file that was on a drive at its last index and sorts it by whether you still have it somewhere else. You can open it for any drive, including one that's working fine, to see what would be lost if it failed. Click Loss Report on the drive's page, or select the drive and press Command-L.

At the top, the report says which index it's based on, with the date, and how many files were on the drive. Three boxes give the totals:

• Only copy lost (red): files with no copy on any other archive drive. These are what was lost.
• Changed or damaged (amber): files that were damaged, or that changed while their date stayed the same.
• Safe elsewhere (green): files that also exist on another archive drive.

Below the totals, each group opens into the drive's own folders, down to every file. Safe files say where the other copy lives, for example "also on Archive B." If that copy was matched before both files were fingerprinted, it says "not yet fingerprinted." The report also lists files that were already missing before the report, with their dates, and the drive's history of changes.

Arkeep matches copies with the same rule it uses to check cards. See Checking a card.

Exporting the report

Click Export in the toolbar:

• Export CSV… lists every file, which a data recovery service can use to know exactly what to look for.
• Export PDF… is a summary you can share with a client or an insurer.

Shift-Command-E exports the PDF. Both are saved only where you choose.

The Loss Report tells you what was on a drive and what has no other copy. Arkeep can't recover files from a failed drive.

Thumbnails for unplugged drives

While indexing, Arkeep saves a small picture (up to 256 pixels) of each photo and the first frame of each video, so you can see what's on a drive that isn't plugged in. They're kept on your Mac next to the index.

Making thumbnails, like learning how you file your shoots, is background tidy-up. It runs at low priority, after a drive's other work. Activity on the Overview shows it on its own quiet line, "Tidying up in the background". It never shows in the menu bar or under a drive job's name.

In Settings, under Thumbnails, choose a Cache size limit (5 GB unless you change it) and see how much space they use now. When the cache is full, the thumbnails you looked at longest ago go first. To turn thumbnails off for one drive, untick Save thumbnails for when it's unplugged in Archive Drives.

Some pro camera formats, such as Blackmagic RAW and RED, show their icon instead of a thumbnail.

Tidying shoots copied as the card was

If you've copied whole cards onto a drive in the past, with the camera's own PRIVATE and DCIM folders, the drive's page lists them under Shoots in Card Layout. Click Tidy into My Layout… on a shoot to move its footage and photos into your usual folders, inside the same shoot folder on the same drive. The drive needs to be plugged in.

This is the one place Arkeep moves files on a drive, and only after you ask:

• You see every move first, and nothing happens until you click Move.
• Nothing is deleted, and nothing is replaced. If a name is already taken, the file gets a number.
• Camera housekeeping files (XML sidecars, thumbnails, card databases) stay where they are.

Shoots that have been edited

Edit projects and photo catalogs find their media by its path, so moving the files means relinking the media in each project afterwards. Before you can tidy a shoot, Arkeep checks its index for projects near the shoot:

• DaVinci Resolve projects and their backups (.drp)
• Final Cut Pro libraries (.fcpbundle)
• Premiere Pro projects (.prproj), including auto-saves
• Lightroom catalogs (.lrcat)

While it checks, the shoot shows Checking… and its Tidy into My Layout… button stays off. A shoot with projects nearby shows, in orange, how many were found, for example Edited: 2 projects nearby.

When you open the review for an edited shoot, it says Edited projects may lose their media links. and lists every project it found. The Move button stays off until you tick Move anyway. I'll relink the media in these projects.

Arkeep only looks in the shoot's own folder and the folder around it. For example, for a card folder inside Clients/Morgan & Ellis wedding, it looks through the whole Morgan & Ellis wedding folder. It never searches a whole category folder or the whole drive, so a project kept somewhere else won't be found.

Resolve projects stored in Resolve's own project database, rather than exported as .drp files, can't be seen at all. If you edit in Resolve, check your project list before you tidy a shoot.

One shoot at a time

Arkeep only tidies one shoot at a time. While a tidy runs, every other Tidy into My Layout… button is off, and its tip says "Another shoot is being tidied. One at a time."

Keeping drive records

In Settings, under Archive Drives, choose how long to Keep records of old drives for: 1 year, 2 years, 5 years or Forever. Forever is the default.

Drives you still use are never removed. Failed, missing and retired drives are removed once their status is older than the period you choose.

To remove one old drive's record yourself, open its More menu and choose Delete Record…. Arkeep always asks first, because you would no longer be able to see what was on that drive. Nothing on the drive itself is touched.

Related: Backup history and search, Updates and your backup key.

Backup history and search

Find any file, client, shoot or card across every drive, even when the drives are unplugged, and move your history to a new Mac.

Arkeep keeps a permanent history on your Mac of every drive, every file on it and every copy it has made. You can find out where something is backed up without plugging in a single drive.

What the history records

• Each drive: its name, capacity, when it was first seen, when it was last plugged in and when it was last indexed.
• Each file on your archive drives: its name, folder, size and dates, its fingerprint, and whether it has gone missing or may be damaged.
• Each copy Arkeep makes: the date and time, the card's name, the cameras found, the shoot folder, every drive it went to and whether each drive's copy passed verification.
• Each file Arkeep copies: its name, size, checksum, capture date, and the camera model and serial number when the file's metadata has them.
• Each card check: saved as a report in your reports folder.

Nothing is removed from the history on its own. A file that disappears from a drive is marked "missing since" the date Arkeep noticed, not deleted. The only exception is the records of old drives, if you choose a time limit for them. See Drives and Drive Memory.

Where it lives

The history is stored on your Mac, in the same database as the index. It works with no drives connected and no internet.

Because the history is the only record of what was on a drive that has died, Arkeep also saves encrypted backups of it to a second place you choose, such as another archive drive or a cloud folder. See Updates and your backup key.

Searching

1. Open the Arkeep window. From the menu bar, click the Arkeep icon, then Open Arkeep.
2. Click the search field at the top right ("Search files, clients, cards"), or press Command-F.
3. Type at least two letters of a file, folder, client, shoot or card name, for example "C0042", "Bricks" or "FX3 Card".

Results appear as you type.

Reading the results

A line at the top says what was found, for example "Found 12 files and 2 folders for “Bricks”." Search shows just the files and folders that match, each once, without opening every folder above them. After the size, a small chip says where it is: "on 24TB BLTF A", or "on 2 drives" when it's on more than one. Hover over the chip to see the path. Click it to see the full folder path on each drive and when that drive was last plugged in. Show in Drive Browser opens that folder in the drive's Files tab, with the file selected.

• Folders that match, such as a client or shoot folder, are shown with their file counts.
• Files that match show a status:
  • "2 copies" when the file is on more than one archive drive;
  • "Only copy" in amber when it's on one drive only;
  • "missing since" a date, or "possibly damaged since" a date, when something is wrong with that copy.
• On card only, in red, marks files that a card's latest check found not backed up. This finds a clip that never made it off a card.
• Cards checked lists cards whose name matches, with when each was checked and whether it was all backed up.

Arkeep shows the first 60 files. Type more of the name to narrow it down.

Select a file and press Space to show or hide the preview pane. A file on a plugged-in drive gets a full preview, and video plays. A file on an unplugged drive shows the thumbnail Arkeep saved while indexing.

How current is the answer?

The results come from each drive's last index. If a drive hasn't been plugged in for a while, its file list may be out of date. A drive's page shows when it was last indexed, and so does Get Info (Command-I) with the drive selected. Plug the drive in to refresh it.

Checking a card in the field

You don't need your archive drives to check a card. Plug a card into any Mac running Arkeep, even a laptop far from your drives, and Arkeep checks it against the history. The result says how many files are backed up and on which drives, for example "1,127 backed up on Archive A and Archive B," and lists exactly which files aren't.

See Checking a card for what the result means.

Verified and unverified copies

A copy Arkeep made counts as backed up only after it passes verification, when Arkeep has read it back from the drive and its checksum matches the card.

A copy that wasn't verified, because Fast copy was on or because the copy was interrupted, shows as "copied, not verified" in amber. It never counts as backed up. To make it count, copy the card again with Fast copy off, or finish the interrupted copy with Resume. See Copying what's missing.

Your recent checks

• The Overview page lists your Recent Checks, newest first, with each card's result. Click Show Reports Folder to see the saved report files.
• Cards you've checked appear in the sidebar of the Arkeep window, under Cards. Select one and press Delete to remove it from the sidebar. That never deletes any files.

Moving your history to a new Mac

Your history is a single database on your Mac. To take it with you:

1. On your old Mac, open Settings and go to Backups.
2. Click Save a Copy… and save the backup somewhere you can reach from the new Mac, such as an archive drive.
3. On the new Mac, install Arkeep, open Settings, go to Backups and click Restore From Backup….
4. Choose the backup file. Because the backup was made on another Mac, Arkeep asks for your recovery key.

If you've already set up a backup place on a drive or in a cloud folder, you can skip step 2 and restore the newest backup from there.

Restoring replaces the history on the new Mac with the one in the backup, including every drive Arkeep remembers. Arkeep saves the current history first, in case you need it back. For more on the recovery key, see Updates and your backup key. To move your license too, see Licenses and devices.

On your phone

Coming at launch The free Arkeep iPhone app will let you search this same history on your phone, with no Mac nearby. See Mobile companion.

Mobile companion

Coming at launch. The free iPhone app will pair with a QR code, search your backup history, check cards and tell you when an offload finishes.

Coming at launch

The Arkeep iPhone app isn't out yet. It's coming at launch, free with every license. This page explains what it will do, so you know what to expect.

The idea is simple: check whether a card or a shoot is backed up, and where, when your Mac isn't with you. An Android app is coming later, together with the Windows version of Arkeep.

What the app will do

• Search your backup history for any card, file, client or shoot.
• Check a card plugged into your iPhone.
• Show your recent offloads, and flag any shoot that lives on only one drive.
• Tell you when an offload on your Mac finishes or fails, if you turn that on.

The phone app will only read. It won't change your history, and it won't delete or format anything on a card.

Pairing your iPhone

Pairing will take a few seconds, with no account and nothing to type.

1. Install the free Arkeep app from the App Store.
2. On your Mac, open Arkeep's Settings and go to Mobile. A QR code will appear. Your Mac needs an activated license for this.
3. Open the app on your iPhone and scan the QR code.
4. Your Mac will save an encrypted copy of your history to your iCloud Drive. See below.

Your phone will never use one of your license's computer slots. A Personal license covers 2 computers plus your phone. See Licenses and devices.

Pairing will also pass your backup key to the phone, where it will be kept in the iPhone's Keychain. That's what lets the phone read your history, and it's also what will let you restore your backups on a new Mac from your phone. See "Restoring your backup key from the phone" below.

How your history will reach the phone

Arkeep doesn't run its own cloud storage. Your history will travel through your own iCloud Drive.

• After every index and every copy, your Mac will write an encrypted copy of your history to a folder called Arkeep in your iCloud Drive.
• The key to open it will travel only inside the QR code, from your Mac's screen to your phone's camera. It won't be uploaded anywhere, so neither Apple nor Arkeep will be able to read your history.
• The phone will only read the history. It won't change it, so your devices can't get out of step with each other.

Searching on the go

Search works the way it does on your Mac, even with your drives at home. Type part of a file, client, shoot or card name, and the app shows just the matching files and folders, each with its size and a chip saying where it is ("on 24TB BLTF A", or "on 2 drives"). Tap the chip to see the full folder path on each drive, when that drive was last plugged in, and Show in Drive Browser to open that folder. Tap a result to see when it was copied, and whether the copy was verified.

Like the Mac, the answers will come from each drive's last index, so a drive you haven't plugged in for a while may be out of date. See Backup history and search.

Checking a card on your iPhone

1. Plug the card into your iPhone with a card reader.
2. Open the Arkeep app and choose the card.
3. The app will read the card and compare every file against your history.

It will use the same matching rule as the Mac: same name, exact same size, same date and same fingerprint. See Checking a card. The result will say how many files are backed up and list the ones that aren't.

Under the counts, Safe to delete in the camera or recorder lists, by recording day, the clips, photos and recordings that are backed up, for example "Oct 29: C0633–C0670 safe to delete, C0671–C0702 not yet." Only files that count as backed up are ever listed as safe. Delete them in the camera or recorder (Format or Delete), not on a computer, so its card index stays correct.

The app will never delete or format anything on the card. Clearing a card will always be up to you.

Recent offloads

The app will list your recent offloads, newest first, with the drives each one went to and whether each copy was verified. Any shoot that lives on only one drive will be flagged, so you know to make a second copy.

Notifications

If you turn them on, your phone will get a short alert when an offload on your Mac finishes or fails, for example "Offload finished: 87 files on 2 drives."

• Notifications will be off unless you turn them on.
• The messages will never include file, folder, client or drive names.
• They'll be sent from your Mac to your phone through the Arkeep license server and Apple's notification service.

Your Mac already shows its own notifications when a copy finishes. This is for when you've stepped away.

Restoring your backup key from the phone

Coming at launch

If you move to a new Mac, or your Mac is lost, you'll need your backup key to open your index backups. With a paired phone, you won't have to type it:

1. On the new Mac, start restoring a backup. See Updates and your backup key.
2. Click Restore from my phone. The Mac will show a QR code.
3. Scan it with the Arkeep app on your iPhone.
4. The phone will send the key straight to the Mac over an encrypted connection on your local network. It won't go through the internet.

You can already see the Restore from my phone button in the restore window today. It's greyed out until the iPhone app is released. Until then, type your recovery key instead.

Related: Backup history and search, FAQ.

Licenses and devices

Coming at launch. How Personal and Studio licenses will work, managing the computers on your license, moving to a new Mac, and Studio seats.

Coming at launch

Buying and activating a license is coming at launch. Today's test builds of Arkeep show "Development build" in the License section of Settings, and every feature works without a key. This page explains how licenses will work once Arkeep is on sale.

Arkeep will have no accounts and no passwords. Your license key will do that job.

Prices

Arkeep is a one-time purchase with a year of updates included. It isn't a subscription. Current prices are always at arkeep.app/pricing.

There's no limit on how many archive drives Arkeep indexes. The iPhone app is included free with every license.

Payment is handled by Stripe. Your receipt comes from Link, the checkout Stripe runs for Arkeep, and your license key comes in a separate email from Arkeep.

How a license will work

1. When you buy Arkeep, you'll get an email with your license key.
2. Click the link in the email to open Arkeep with your key filled in, or paste the key into Arkeep yourself.
3. Arkeep will send your license key, a random device ID and your Mac's name to the Arkeep license server one time. If your license has a free slot, the server sends back a signed approval that Arkeep keeps and checks offline from then on.

The device ID will be random, not made from your Mac's hardware details, so it says nothing about you or your Mac.

After that:

• Arkeep will work offline. About every 30 days, when you're online, it will quietly confirm your license is still valid.
• If the license server can't be reached, Arkeep will keep working, with a 60-day grace period before it shows any reminder.
• Arkeep will never lock you out in the middle of a check or a copy.
• If the license server ever shuts down, every Mac that's already activated will keep working on the approval it already has.

The License section in Settings

Settings will have a License section that shows:

• your license type (Personal or Studio), whether your updates are active, and when they renew;
• every device on your license, with its name, its type and when it was last seen;
• a Remove button beside each device, which frees its slot right away;
• Deactivate This Device, for when you sell or give away this Mac;
• buttons to renew updates, add seats, upgrade to Studio or open your account page.

Activating a third computer

A Personal license covers 2 computers. If you activate a third, Arkeep will tell you the license is already on 2 computers and give you a button to remove one. Your phone never uses a computer slot.

Moving to a new Mac

Your history moves separately from your license. The history part works today. The license part is coming at launch.

1. Back up your history. On the old Mac, open Settings, go to Backups and click Save a Copy…. Save it to a drive you'll plug into the new Mac. See Backup history and search.
2. Free up the old Mac's slot. Coming at launch In Settings, under License, click Deactivate This Device.
3. Install Arkeep on the new Mac and activate it with the same key.
4. Restore your history. On the new Mac, open Settings, go to Backups, click Restore From Backup… and choose your backup. You'll need your recovery key. See Updates and your backup key.

If you can't open the old Mac

Coming at launch If your old Mac is lost, stolen or won't start, you'll manage your license from your browser at arkeep.app/account. There's no password. You'll sign in with a one-time link sent to the email you bought with. From there you'll be able to:

• remove a device from your license;
• find a lost license key;
• see your receipts.

Studio seats

Coming at launch

A Studio license will be one purchase that holds 5 seats. Each seat is one person, and covers that person's 2 computers and their phone. There will still be no accounts: a seat is tied to an email address only so the right person gets their key.

1. The studio owner buys Studio and gets an owner key. The owner key is also the owner's own seat.
2. In the License section, the owner types a team member's email and clicks Invite. That person gets their own seat key by email.
3. The team member activates Arkeep with their seat key. Their devices show up in the owner's License section, under their name.
4. When someone leaves the team, the owner clicks Remove Seat. That person's devices deactivate the next time they check in, and the seat is free for someone new.

Each seat works on its own. Each person's index stays on their own computer, so team members won't see each other's archives.

Adding seats and upgrading

Coming at launch

• Extra seats: a studio will be able to add seats beyond 5 at any time, one at a time, with Add Seats in the License section or on your account page. Each extra seat is $29 one-time, and adds $10 to the yearly update renewal.
• Upgrading: a Personal license will be able to upgrade to Studio at any time by paying the difference.

Your year of updates

Every license includes a year of updates. After that, renewing is optional: $29 a year for Personal, or $79 a year for Studio plus $10 for each extra seat. If you don't renew, Arkeep keeps working on the last version you received, for as long as you like. See Updates and your backup key.

Refunds

If Arkeep isn't right for you, you can get a full refund within 14 days of buying it, no questions asked. Email [email protected]. See the Refund Policy.

Questions about billing? See the FAQ, or email [email protected].

Updates and your backup key

How Arkeep updates itself without putting your history at risk, how your encrypted index backups work, and how to use your recovery key on a new Mac.

Arkeep updates itself without interrupting your work, and it backs up your index so the record of what was on your drives survives even if something happens to your Mac. This page covers both, and the recovery key that opens your backups on another Mac.

How updates work

Arkeep checks for updates once a day. When there's a new version, it shows you an update window with release notes written in plain language, and you choose whether to install it.

To check yourself, use Check for Updates… in any of these places:

• the Arkeep menu, under About Arkeep;
• the Arkeep menu bar dropdown (the arrow button next to Quit Arkeep);
• Settings, in the Updates section.

Update settings

In Settings, the Updates section shows your version and build number and when Arkeep last checked. It has two switches:

• Check for updates automatically is on unless you turn it off. Once a day, Arkeep asks arkeep.app whether there's a newer version. It sends only Arkeep's version number, and your internet address as every website visit does. Nothing about your files, drives or cards.
• Automatically download and install updates is off unless you turn it on.

Every update is signed, and Arkeep only installs updates carrying its developer's signature.

Updates never interrupt your work

• An update only installs when Arkeep is idle. It never interrupts an index, a fingerprint pass, a card check or a copy, including a copy that's waiting for you to plug a drive back in. If an update is ready while Arkeep is busy, Settings says "An update will install when the current job finishes," and it installs once the work is done.
• Your database is backed up before every install. Arkeep keeps the last 3 of these copies on your Mac. To see them, click Show Update Backups in Settings, under Backups.
• If an update can't upgrade the database, Arkeep goes back to your previous database and keeps running on it. It tells you, "Arkeep could not upgrade its database and is using your previous one. Checks still work, without fingerprints. Please contact support." Email [email protected] if you see this.

Your year of updates

Coming at launch

Every license will include a year of updates. After that, renewing is optional. If your year of updates has ended and a newer version comes out, Arkeep won't install it. Instead it will show "Renew updates to install this version," with a Renew button and a Not Now button. Your copy keeps working on the version you have, for as long as you like.

Renewing costs $29 a year for Personal, or $79 a year for Studio plus $10 for each extra seat. Current prices are always at arkeep.app/pricing.

Index backups

Your index is the only record of what was on a drive that has died, so Arkeep backs it up. Each backup holds your whole history: every drive Arkeep remembers, every file on them and every copy it has made.

Choose a backup place

1. Open Settings and go to Backups.
2. Next to Backup place, click Choose….
3. Pick a folder on another archive drive, or a cloud folder you already use, such as iCloud Drive.

Until you choose a place, Settings shows "Not chosen yet" in orange. Pick a place that isn't your Mac's own disk, so the backup survives if your Mac doesn't.

What happens after that

• Arkeep saves a backup after every index and every copy, as long as the backup place is available. If it's on a drive that isn't plugged in, Settings says so, and the next backup happens when the drive is back.
• It keeps the last 10 backups in that folder and removes older ones. It only ever removes its own backup files.
• Every backup is compressed and encrypted. If a backup file gets damaged or cut short, Arkeep notices and won't restore it.

Settings shows when the last backup was made.

The backup buttons

• Back Up Now saves a backup to your backup place right away.
• Save a Copy… saves one backup anywhere you choose, for example before you move to a new Mac.
• Restore From Backup… brings back the whole history from a backup file, including every drive Arkeep remembers. Arkeep saves your current history first, in case you need it back. If indexing or a check is running, Arkeep asks you to wait for it to finish.

Your backup key

Every backup is encrypted with a key that Arkeep makes for you the first time it needs one. The key is kept in your Mac's Keychain, on this Mac only. It isn't synced to your other devices, and it's never written to any file Arkeep makes.

Everyday backups and restores on this Mac need nothing from you.

Your recovery key

Your recovery key is your backup key written out as a short code you can keep. It's 28 letters and digits in groups of five, like this: 7QK2M-9XH4T-P0B6W-RZ3NC-5VJ8D-EAF.

• It never uses the letters I, L, O or U, because they're easy to confuse with numbers. If you type one by mistake, Arkeep understands what you meant.
• The last two characters are a check. They catch almost every typo, so a mistyped key is caught right away instead of failing quietly.

To see your recovery key:

1. Open Settings and go to Backups.
2. Click Show Recovery Key….
3. Enter your Mac's password or use Touch ID.

Write it down, or keep it in a password manager. Anyone who has both your recovery key and a backup file can read your drive lists, so keep it somewhere private.

Recovering on a new Mac

On a new Mac, Arkeep makes a new backup key of its own. To open a backup made on your old Mac, you need the old key. There are three ways to give it.

By typing the recovery key

1. Install Arkeep on the new Mac.
2. Open Settings, go to Backups and click Restore From Backup….
3. Choose your backup file.
4. Arkeep sees the backup was made with a different key and asks for your recovery key. Type it in and click Restore.

After that, your recovery key becomes this Mac's key, so new backups use it too. The Mac's previous key is kept, so any backups it made earlier still open.

From your phone

Coming at launch In the same window, Restore from my phone will show a QR code for the Arkeep iPhone app to scan. The phone will then send the key over an encrypted connection on your local network, with nothing to type. You can see the button today, greyed out, until the iPhone app is released. See Mobile companion.

From your email

Coming at launch During setup, and in Settings under Backups, there's an Email me my recovery key checkbox. It's on unless you turn it off. When the Arkeep license server is live, your recovery key will be emailed to you through our email provider, once, to the address you bought Arkeep with. Arkeep's server doesn't keep a copy, not even in its logs; our email provider keeps its own record of sent emails. Until then, Arkeep saves your choice and the email waits.

Anyone who can get into that email account could use the key. If that worries you, turn the checkbox off and write the key down instead.

See also Mobile companion and Getting started.

Keyboard shortcuts

Every keyboard shortcut in Arkeep, grouped by what it does, plus the optional shortcut that opens Arkeep from any app.

Arkeep uses the standard Mac shortcuts where they exist, and shows each shortcut next to its item in the menus. To see the whole list inside the app, press Command-/ or choose Keyboard Shortcuts… in the Arkeep menu, under Settings.

Shortcuts that act on "the selected" card or drive work on whatever is selected in the sidebar of the Arkeep window. If nothing fits, Arkeep plays the alert sound and does nothing.

General

Go to

Cards and drives

Command-R and Command-E need the card or drive to be plugged in.

Reports and files

Shift-Command-E saves a Loss Report as a PDF, and a card's check as a CSV list of the files that aren't backed up. To save a Loss Report as a CSV instead, use the Export button in its toolbar.

In the Copy What's Missing panel

Where to find them in the menus

Every shortcut above, except the arrow keys, Space and the global shortcut, also has a menu item:

• Arkeep menu: Check for Updates…, Settings…, Keyboard Shortcuts…, Quit Arkeep.
• File menu: Close Window, Get Info, Export Report…, Eject.
• Edit menu: Find…
• View menu: Overview, Drives, Cards, Show Preview or Hide Preview.
• Drive menu: Check Again or Re-index, Copy What's Missing, Loss Report.

Quick copy from the menu bar

The menu bar dropdown is one compact panel. Each plugged-in card or drive, and the job Arkeep is running right now, gets one row: its name and a line of detail on the left, and its button on the right (for a running job, a progress bar and a button to stop it). Jobs that are waiting their turn share one line, such as "5 more drives queued". Click it to see them under Activity in Arkeep. Your past checks are in the Arkeep window, on the Overview page.

When a card you've checked is plugged in, its row shows how many files aren't in your archive yet, a folder name Arkeep suggests (type to change it; it suggests folders and clients as you type, like Copy What's Missing), your usual copy drives already ticked (click a drive to tick or untick it), and a Copy button. Arkeep copies exactly as Copy What's Missing does, with every copy verified, and shows the progress and a green result right in the dropdown.

If the card needs a choice first (it holds more than one session, the camera's or recorder's clock looks wrong, or it has files you don't usually keep), its row says so in a few words and shows Open in Arkeep instead, which opens the card with Copy What's Missing. Nothing is ever copied until you click Copy.

The global shortcut

Control-Option-A opens the Arkeep menu bar dropdown from any app, so you can see what Arkeep is doing without reaching for the mouse. It's off unless you turn it on.

1. Open Settings.
2. Under General, turn on Open the Arkeep menu from anywhere with ⌃⌥A.

It doesn't need any special permission on your Mac.

Quitting while Arkeep is busy

If you press Command-Q while Arkeep is indexing, fingerprinting, checking or copying, it tells you what it's doing and asks whether to quit anyway.

• Indexing and fingerprinting pick up where they left off the next time Arkeep opens.
• For a copy, files already copied and verified are kept. Run Copy What's Missing again to finish the rest. See Copying what's missing.

Related: Checking a card, Drives and Drive Memory.

Troubleshooting

Fixes for slow copies, slow indexing, cards and drives that don't show up, and what to do after a crash.

Most problems come down to hardware speed, drive access or a job that was interrupted. Find your problem below. If none of these help, email [email protected].

Slow copies

A copy can only go as fast as its slowest part: the card, the card reader, the cable and port, the hub, or the drive you're writing to. Arkeep shows you which part is holding it back.

Read the speed line

While a copy runs, the card's page shows a line of live speeds under the drives:

• Card: how fast Arkeep is reading the card, for example "Card: 85 MB/s read."
• Drive or Drives: how fast the copies are being written, for example "Drives: 240 MB/s write." With several drives, this is the slowest of them, because every drive is written from the same read.
• Overall: the real speed of the whole job. It's lower than the other two because it includes reading every copy back to verify it.

When one side is clearly slower, a note under the speeds says which one.

"The card or card reader is the slower part right now"

The card can't be read any faster than the slowest of the card and the reader. Things to try:

• Use a faster card reader. A reader that's slower than the card is a common bottleneck, especially an old USB 2 reader or a reader built into a hub. Use one that's rated for your card type, such as a CFexpress reader for CFexpress cards or a UHS-II reader for UHS-II SD cards.
• Plug the reader straight into your Mac instead of through a hub or dock.
• Check the card's own speed. Cards have a maximum read speed printed on them or listed by the maker. A card that's older, smaller or cheaper may be slower than your reader.
• Use a fast cable and port. A reader on a USB 2 cable or port tops out around 40 MB/s, whatever the card can do.

"The drive is the slower part right now"

The drive, or the connection to it, can't keep up with the card. Things to try:

• Spinning hard drives write more slowly than SSDs, often between 100 and 250 MB/s. That's normal. A fast card will out-run them.
• Give each drive its own connection. Several drives on one hub or one port share that port's speed. Spreading them across separate ports on your Mac lets them all write at full speed.
• Check the cable and port. A USB 2 cable or port slows any drive down.
• Let a busy drive finish what it's doing. A drive that's also being used by another app, or by Time Machine, writes more slowly.

Other reasons a copy takes time

• Verification reads each copy back. That's what makes a copy trustworthy, and it adds time. Fast copy in Settings, under General, skips it, but those copies are labeled "copied, not verified" and never count as backed up.
• Lots of small files copy more slowly than a few big ones, because each file has its own start and finish.
• Background work isn't the problem. Indexing and fingerprinting pause while a copy runs.

Adding more drives barely slows a copy down, because the card is read once. If the drives each have their own connection, the extra copies come almost for free.

Slow first index

Indexing a big archive for the first time can take hours, especially the fingerprint pass on spinning drives.

• You don't have to wait. You can check cards against any drive that has finished its fast pass.
• Each drive's row in Settings, under Archive Drives, shows its progress and the time left.
• Indexing runs at low priority, so you can keep editing while it works.
• It pauses when you quit Arkeep, put your Mac to sleep or unplug the drive, and picks up where it stopped.
• It also waits while Arkeep is copying a card.

Until the fingerprint pass is done, some files show as "matched without fingerprint." See Checking a card and Getting started.

A card isn't checked when you plug it in

• Make sure setup is finished. If the Arkeep menu shows Finish Setup, click it. Arkeep doesn't check cards until setup is done.
• Check that your Mac can see the card. If it doesn't appear in Finder, the problem is the card, the reader or the cable, and Arkeep can't see it either.
• Check your skip list. In Settings, under General, open Skip these cards and drives and remove the card's name if it's there.
• Is it one of your archive drives? Plugging in an archive drive refreshes its index instead of checking it.
• Some things are never checked: your startup disk, disk images, network drives and Time Machine drives.
• No notification? Notifications may be off. Turn them on in System Settings, under Notifications, then Arkeep. The result still appears in the Arkeep window.

You can always check a card by hand: on the Overview page, click Check a Drive and pick it.

A drive isn't showing up

• Give Arkeep access to removable drives. If a drive shows "Arkeep cannot read this drive yet" during setup, or Arkeep can't read it later, open System Settings, go to Privacy & Security, then Files and Folders, and make sure Arkeep is allowed to access removable volumes.
• Check that the drive appears in Finder. If your Mac can't see it, Arkeep can't either. Try another cable or port, or check the drive in Disk Utility.
• "Archive A did not mount." Arkeep shows this alert when an archive drive is connected but macOS can't open it within a minute. Arkeep still remembers everything that was on it. Try another cable or port. If it still won't mount, the drive may be failing. Open its Loss Report to see which files exist only on that drive. See Drives and Drive Memory.
• An unplugged archive drive is still there. It stays in the sidebar and on the Overview page, shown as offline with the date it was last seen. Its files still count when Arkeep checks a card.
• To add a drive to your archive, plug it in, open Settings, go to Archive Drives, click Plugged In and pick it.

A drive or card won't eject

Press Command-E with the card or drive selected, or eject it in Finder. If Arkeep is reading it, Arkeep stops and lets go first, so the eject can go through.

• Ejecting a card during a check stops the check.
• Ejecting a card during a copy stops the copy. Files already copied and verified are kept.
• Ejecting a drive during a copy pauses only that drive. Plug it back in and its copy picks up where it stopped.

If macOS still says the disk is in use, another app may be using it.

After a crash or a forced quit

A copy was running

The next time Arkeep opens, it shows Copy was interrupted on the Overview page and on the card's page.

1. Plug in the card and the drives you were copying to.
2. Click Resume. Arkeep skips the files that were already copied and verified, and copies the rest.

Click Dismiss if you'd rather not finish. Files already copied stay where they are.

Arkeep removes its own unfinished hidden files from the shoot folder (names that end in .arkeep-partial). It never removes anything else.

Indexing or fingerprinting was running

Nothing to do. Indexing and fingerprinting pick up where they stopped, the next time Arkeep opens and the drive is plugged in.

Arkeep says it's using your previous database

If an update couldn't upgrade Arkeep's database, Arkeep goes back to the previous one and says so. Checks still work. Email [email protected] so we can help you finish the upgrade.

If something looks wrong with your history

• Arkeep backs up its database before every update, and keeps the last 3 copies. Click Show Update Backups in Settings, under Backups, to see them.
• If you've chosen a backup place, Arkeep also keeps the last 10 encrypted backups of your index there. Restore From Backup… brings back the whole history.

See Updates and your backup key.

Getting help

Email [email protected]. Tell us:

• what you were doing and what happened;
• your Arkeep version and build, from Settings, in the Updates section;
• your macOS version;
• a screenshot, if there's a message on screen.

See also the FAQ.

FAQ

Short answers to common questions about how Arkeep checks files, fingerprinting, licenses, the iPhone app, refunds, privacy and Windows.

Quick answers to the questions people ask most. Each one links to the full guide page on that topic.

About Arkeep

Who is Arkeep for?

Anyone with a big archive spread across drives: photographers and filmmakers, families with years of photos, musicians, researchers and anyone else with a shelf of drives and no clear idea what's on which. See Getting started.

Does Arkeep back up my files?

Not by itself. Arkeep checks your cards against your archive drives and copies what's missing to the drives you choose, then verifies every copy. It never keeps its own copy of your files. It keeps a list of what's on each drive, so it can tell you what's backed up and where. See Checking a card.

How do I set up my archive drives?

Plug in the drives where your finished backups live and tick them during setup. Arkeep indexes them one at a time, and you can check cards against each drive as soon as it's done. To add more later, open Settings, go to Archive Drives and click Plugged In, or type a drive's name to add it before you plug it in. See Getting started.

Do my archive drives need to be plugged in?

No. Arkeep keeps the list of every file on your archive drives on your Mac, so it can check a card with every archive drive on the shelf. See Backup history and search.

Checking and copying

How does Arkeep know a file is already backed up?

A file counts as backed up only when an archive drive has a file with the same name (ignoring upper and lower case), the exact same size, the same capture date, and the same fingerprint. A reused file name or a matching size alone doesn't fool it. See Checking a card.

What is fingerprinting?

A fingerprint is a short code Arkeep works out from the first and last 1 MB of a file. Two different files can share a name and size, especially when a camera restarts its file numbering. The fingerprint tells them apart without reading the whole file. Arkeep fingerprints your archive in the background after the first index, and it only reads your files, never changes them.

What does "matched without fingerprint" mean?

The card file matched an archive file on name, size and date, but that archive file hasn't been fingerprinted yet. It counts as backed up, and the report lists it separately so you know. The note goes away once the fingerprint pass reaches that file. See Checking a card.

Why does Arkeep say a file isn't backed up when I know it is?

Usually because the copy on your drive isn't the same file anymore: it was renamed, trimmed, re-exported or converted. Arkeep would rather flag a file that's safe than call a file backed up when it can't find a match. The note beside each file says why it was flagged. See Checking a card.

Does Arkeep ever delete or format my cards?

No. Arkeep only reads cards. It never deletes, moves or formats anything on them. Clearing a card is always up to you.

Is it safe to format a card once it's green?

Green means every file on the card matched a file on your archive drives under Arkeep's matching rule. Formatting is still your call. Many shooters wait until a card's files are on at least two drives, and Copy What's Missing tells you how many drives the files will be on before you copy. See Copying what's missing.

How does Arkeep check its copies?

Every copy is read back from the drive and compared, by checksum, with the file on the card. A file only counts as done when every drive's copy matches. Arkeep also writes an industry-standard MHL checksum list and a PDF summary into the shoot folder on each drive. See Copying what's missing.

Why are my copies slow?

A copy goes as fast as its slowest part: the card, the reader, the cable or the drive. The copy screen shows live speeds and tells you which part is slower. See Troubleshooting.

Can Arkeep get back files from a dead drive?

No. Arkeep doesn't recover files. Its Loss Report tells you what was on the drive, what's safe on other drives and what had no other copy. You can export the list for a data recovery service. See Drives and Drive Memory.

Licenses and devices

Can I try it before I buy?

Buy it and use it on your real drives and cards. If it isn't right for you, you can get a full refund within 14 days of buying it, no questions asked. See the Refund Policy.

Is this a subscription?

No. You buy Arkeep once and get a year of updates. After that, more updates are $29 a year for Personal, or $79 a year for Studio plus $10 for each extra seat, if you want them. If you don't renew, Arkeep keeps working on the last version you received. See Licenses and devices.

How much does it cost?

Personal is $99 one-time, or $79 for the first 100 founders. Studio is $249 one-time for 5 people, and extra seats are $29 each. Current prices are always at arkeep.app/pricing.

Can I use it on my laptop and my desktop?

Yes. A Personal license covers 1 person, 2 computers and their phone. See Licenses and devices.

How do I move my license to a new Mac?

Coming at launch On the old Mac, you'll use Deactivate This Device in Settings, then activate the new Mac with the same key. If you can't open the old Mac, you'll remove it at arkeep.app/account. Your history moves with Save a Copy… and Restore From Backup…, which work today. See Licenses and devices.

How does phone pairing work?

Coming at launch The iPhone app isn't out yet. When it is, you'll open Settings, then Mobile, on your activated Mac and scan the QR code with the app. There's no account and nothing to type, and your phone won't use a computer slot. See Mobile companion.

What is the refund policy?

You can get a full refund within 14 days of buying Arkeep, no questions asked. Email [email protected]. See the Refund Policy.

Privacy

Does Arkeep upload my files anywhere?

No. Your files stay on your cards and drives, and your index and history stay on your Mac. If you choose a cloud folder as your backup place, Arkeep saves encrypted backups of the index there, which only your recovery key can open. For your license, Arkeep sends only your license key, a random device ID and your Mac's name to the license server.

What data does Arkeep keep about me?

Your license key, the email you bought with, the names of the devices you activated and your order records. Payment details stay with Stripe, which runs checkout.

When the iPhone app arrives at launch, pairing a phone will put an encrypted copy of your history in a cloud folder you choose, and only your devices will hold the key. Its optional notifications won't include file, folder, client or drive names. See Mobile companion.

What if I lose my Mac?

Your index backups can be restored on a new Mac with your recovery key. Find it now in Settings, under Backups, with Show Recovery Key…, and keep it somewhere safe. See Updates and your backup key.

Platforms

Is there a Windows version?

Not yet. Arkeep launches on Mac with an iPhone companion app. Windows and Android are coming later, together. If you bought a Mac founders license, you get the Windows version free when it arrives.

Support

How do I contact support?

Email [email protected]. Include your Arkeep version from Settings, what you were doing and what happened. See Troubleshooting.