Backing up Storage Studio's own settings

Storage Studio backs up itself once a day. It copies its own settings, its records of what it has moved where, and your transfer history to your external drive, and keeps the seven most recent copies. If those records are ever damaged or lost, you can put an earlier copy back. This is separate from Data Backup, which backs up your own files.

You'll find it at the bottom of Settings… → Advanced, in the Self-backup group.

What's in it

• Storage Studio's settings.
• Its records of what it has moved, where, and the rule state behind your automatic moves.
• Your transfer history.

Logs aren't included — they're large and Storage Studio can do without them. Your own files, your apps and their settings aren't part of this backup.

When it happens

%% caption: How the daily self-backup works
flowchart TD
  A[Storage Studio is running] --> B{Is your external drive connected?}
  B -->|No| C[Skipped until the drive is back]
  B -->|Yes| D{Already backed up today?}
  D -->|Yes| E[Nothing to do]
  D -->|No| F[Copy settings and records to the drive]
  F --> G[Keep the seven newest copies, remove older ones]

• Once a day, while Storage Studio is running and your external drive is connected. If the drive isn't connected, it waits until it is.
• Each copy is labelled with its date, the Mac it came from and the Storage Studio version.
• The seven most recent copies are kept; older ones are removed.

To make one straight away, click Backup now. Refresh reloads the list, and Open backup folder shows the copies in Finder.

If the list is empty, the group says why — for example that the drive isn't connected, or that no backup has been made yet and you can click Backup now.

Restoring an earlier copy

1. In Self-backup, find the date you want and click Restore.
2. Storage Studio explains what will happen: its settings, its records of what it has moved where, and your transfer history are replaced with the versions from that date. Your files, your apps and their own settings aren't touched.
3. Type Replace and click Replace settings.

Your current settings and records aren't thrown away — they're kept alongside the restored ones, so support can put them back if you picked the wrong copy. The background service picks up the restored settings within about 30 seconds.

Restoring replaces the settings Storage Studio is using right now, so only do it when something has gone wrong — for example after its records were lost or damaged.

See also: Restore Points, How Storage Studio keeps every change reversible, Starting Storage Studio at login.