--- title: "Where a backup can go" url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/backup-destinations category: "Backups" tags: ["backups", "external drive", "cloud accounts", "delta trust"] summary: "A backup set can go to a folder on another drive, to one of your own connected cloud accounts, or — if your plan includes it — to Storage Studio's own vault. Cloud backups are always encrypted on your Mac first." updated: 2026-10-01T05:31:41.000Z --- # Where a backup can go A backup set can go to a folder on another drive, to one of your own connected cloud accounts, or — if your plan includes it — to Storage Studio's own vault. Cloud backups are always encrypted on your Mac first. 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](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/delta-trust) and [Delta Drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/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](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/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. ```mermaid %% 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 ``` *Flowchart — Choosing a destination for a backup set. Outline:* - Where should this set's backups live? - On a drive: leads to Choose a folder… - In a cloud account you connected: leads to Pick the account - In Storage Studio's own vault: leads to Delta Trust — the locked vault - Choose a folder… - leads to Same drive as the files? - Pick the account - leads to Set a passphrase the first time - Delta Trust — the locked vault - leads to Backups start - Same drive as the files? - Yes: leads to The card warns you and suggests a second destination - No: leads to Backups start - Set a passphrase the first time - leads to Backups start ## 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](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/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](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/backup-speed-and-power). ## 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](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/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](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/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. - **Can I move my iPhone backups to an external drive on a Mac?** Yes. Finder has no setting for where it keeps iPhone and iPad backups, but Storage Studio can move them to your external drive from What's Using Space: it copies them, checks every file arrived, and only then frees the space on your Mac. Finder keeps backing up to the drive afterwards, so keep… (https://storagestudio.us/faq) - **What is purgeable space on a Mac and how do I clear it?** Purgeable space is storage macOS is holding — old snapshots, cached cloud files, optimised media — that it frees automatically when you need room, which is why "free" space can look smaller than expected. Storage Studio reclaims a lot of it on demand instead of making you wait. (https://storagestudio.us/faq) - **How do I reclaim space from local Time Machine snapshots on a Mac?** macOS keeps point-in-time APFS local snapshots so Time Machine can restore even when your backup drive is away — useful, but they can hold a lot of space. Storage Studio lists every snapshot, shows which are already safely backed up, and reclaims the space you choose in one click. (https://storagestudio.us/faq) See also: [Data Backup](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/data-backup) · [Backup versions: what's kept and for how long](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/backup-versions) · [Choosing an external drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/choosing-an-external-drive) ## What links here - [Backup versions: what's kept and for how long](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/backup-versions) - [Cloud accounts](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/cloud-accounts) - [Connecting Box](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/connecting-box) - [Connecting Dropbox](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/connecting-dropbox) - [Connecting Google Drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/connecting-google-drive) - [Connecting OneDrive, including work and school accounts](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/connecting-onedrive) - [Data Backup](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/data-backup) - [Delta Trust](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/delta-trust) - [S3-compatible storage](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/s3-compatible-storage) - [Storage Studio and Time Machine](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/compared-with-time-machine) - [The backup passphrase](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-backup-passphrase) - [What backup messages mean](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/backup-messages)