Where a backup can go

Each backup set sends its versions to one destination: a folder on another drive, one of your own connected cloud accounts, or — when your plan includes it — Storage Studio's own vault, Delta Trust. You choose it from the Destination menu on the set's card in Data Backup, and you can change it later.

The choices

The Destination menu groups them like this:

• Included with Storage Studio — appears when your plan includes it. Delta Trust — the locked vault is Storage Studio's own protected vault for backups; once Delta Drive is set up, Delta Drive — in your _Backup folder keeps a backup inside your Delta Drive. See Delta Trust and Delta Drive.
• Somewhere of your own — Choose a folder… picks a folder on any drive your Mac can see.
• Below a divider, each cloud account you've connected in Cloud accounts, listed by type and nickname. Accounts that can't hold ordinary files, such as photo-only libraries, aren't offered.

The current destination has a tick beside it.

%% caption: Choosing a destination for a backup set
flowchart TD
  A{Where should this set's backups live?} -->|On a drive| B[Choose a folder…]
  A -->|In a cloud account you connected| C[Pick the account]
  A -->|In Storage Studio's own vault| D[Delta Trust — the locked vault]
  B --> E{Same drive as the files?}
  E -->|Yes| W[The card warns you and suggests a second destination]
  E -->|No| OK[Backups start]
  C --> P[Set a passphrase the first time]
  P --> OK
  D --> OK

A folder on a drive

Click Choose a folder… and pick a folder — usually on an external drive. Storage Studio makes a StorageStudioBackup folder inside it, with a folder for this Mac, so several Macs can share one drive without mixing their backups. You don't set a passphrase for a drive: the backup is unlocked automatically on this Mac.

If the folder is on the same drive as the files you're backing up, the card warns: "This is on the same drive as your files — it protects against mistakes, but not against that drive failing." That backup still helps you undo a deletion or go back to an earlier version, but add a second set to another drive or the cloud for real protection.

Your own cloud accounts

Pick a connected account from the menu. Before the first backup, Storage Studio asks you to Protect your cloud backup with a passphrase: your backups are encrypted on this Mac before they're uploaded. Storage-style accounts that keep files in buckets also ask you to pick one of your existing buckets, with Choose… listing them. See The backup passphrase.

Cloud backups are slower than a drive, especially the first one. The card says so until the first cloud version has been checked — see Backup speed, battery and the network.

Delta Trust and Delta Drive

Delta Trust is a private vault kept by Storage Studio. Backups there are encrypted on your Mac, and the card describes it as "protected vault · encrypted". There's no passphrase to set for each set — your recovery kit is what reconnects a Mac to it (see The recovery kit). Delta Drive is your working drive in the same plan; a backup kept in its _Backup folder uses the same encryption and the same recovery kit, but lives beside files you can move and delete. More in Delta Trust, Delta Drive and My Drive.

Changing or removing a destination

• Picking a different destination for a set that already has versions asks first: "Change backup destination?" Switching starts a fresh backup at the new place. The versions already saved at the old place stay there, but new backups don't go to them.
• Remove destination (keeps stored versions), at the bottom of the menu, disconnects the destination. The set stops backing up and Back up automatically is switched off, but nothing stored there is deleted.
• Delete & start fresh… — offered on the card when something has gone wrong — is the one that erases. It removes every saved version of the set from its destination and starts again, and you have to type Delete to confirm. There's no undo.

A set keeps its passphrase when you change its destination; changing the passphrase is a separate step.

See also: Data Backup · Backup versions: what's kept and for how long · Choosing an external drive