SmartBackup is a backup/sync application that syncs one or multiple sources (files, folders or volumes) to a destination folder (or volume). During a sync, the configured source items will be copied to the destination folder, and when SmartBackup runs it will determine what has changed (using the file modification dates) since the last backup, and only copy/new or changed files.
A destination is a backup of a set of sources, and you can add more than one destination and switch between them (on the right side of the App window) to use multiple different backups.

Here is how you set up your first backup:

• Click "Add" and select a destination folder. You can select a folder or a volume, but even if you dedicate a whole volume to a backup, it is recommended to create a folder for the backup on the top level. (This way you can continue to use the volume for other files and it won't interfere with SmartBackup's management of the destination folder.) A destination can also be an existing SmartBackup destination, and in this case selecting it will load the source configuration from it.
• Add source items, to the left side via drag&drop or using the "Add" button on the left.
• Click "Start" to start the first backup/sync.

Options: Source items have a popup button to select a "mode" from. Using this option you can temporarily skip items, or set items to be excluded. (See details further below.)

Click the Action (...) button under the destination title to configure the options for the currently selected destination. Here you can configure details about archiving (of changed or deleted files), scheduled automatic syncs, or configure advanced options. The most important option in "Advanced" is how SmartBackup handles dataless files (such as iCloud Drive files that are not downloaded). By default SmartBackup will download them when it tries to copy them, just to be on the safe side. This will slow down the backup of course. If you want to leave offline files as being offline, change the appropriate option under "advanced".

Click the "Magnifying Glass" button to search the destination for files by name and see all existing versions.

Each source has a "mode" popup on its right side. This popup can be set to "sync" (the default), "skip" to ignore this item during sync but not remove it from the destination, "exclude" to globally exclude this item from the sync, and "exclude matching" to globally exclude every item with this name.

If you want include a subfolder of an excluded folder, you can add it as a separate additional source set to "sync".

Sometimes you want to exclude invisible folders from your sync. To add those, click the "Add" button on the bottom left to show the open panel and then use the checkbox in the Open Panel to show invisible files. Select them, add them as sources and set them to be excluded.

Each destination has configurable "Options" which are accessible via the (...) button. The options panel allows you to configure "Archiving", "Advanced" and "Automation" for the currently selected backup destination.

Archiving

Here you can configure if and how long you want to keep deleted or changed files. When an item is archived during a sync (for example because it has been deleted on the source), it is moved to a top level folder inside your destination folder called "__removed" or "__changed" and kept tidily in time-stamped subfolders.
The archives can be browsed in Finder, or using the "Magnifying Glass" button under your selected destination's icon.

Advanced

The main advanced option of general interest in "Advanced" is "ignore dataless files". It defines if files that are not downloaded (for example iCloud files) should be downloaded for backup. By default everything is downloaded and this option is off. If you want to backup your home folders, but leave offline files simply offline (while being aware that they then can't be backed up), you can select this option.

You should rarely have to modify the other defaults configured under "Advanced" unless you do something specific like debugging a sync using extended logging, changing the number of parallel copies (please see the "copy threads" section for details) or require pre-allocation for Xsan/Stornext volumes.

Automation

You can configure a schedule to run the sync to a destination automatically in the background.

Once the scheduled time arrives, SmartBackup will automatically start the sync in the background (without showing the SmartBackup window), and send notifications to the Notification Centre. If your Mac was asleep when a scheduled time arrived, the sync will happen immediately when your Mac wakes up. If your Mac was switched off, the scheduled sync is skipped.

SmartBackup supports any read/writeable location on your Mac as a Source or Destination. This includes the internal SSD or Harddrive, external disks, Network Shares and NAS etc.

SmartBackup supports source and destination disks protected with FileVault. FileVault is implemented on the filesystem level and Apps that interact with files can just work with it without requiring special support. Note that copying files from a FileVault protected disk does not make the destination disk protected too. You need to enable FileVault on the destination disk via Disk Utility independently.

SmartBackup is designed to takes great care to preserve all mac file metadata including ACLs. In special circumstances (for example if source items belong to multiple different users) SmartBackup requires elevated permissions to preserve all metadata, for example by running in SuperUser mode.

In order to perform certain sync tasks (for instance syncing files that belong to different users), SmartBackup needs to run as SuperUser (root). The option to re-launch SmartBackup as SuperUser is no longer available inside SmartBackup due to changes in macOS.

You can re-launch SmartBackup as superuser in Terminal, or use this Automator workflow to relaunch: Download SuperUser Launcher

Please note that SmartBackup.app needs to be installed in /Applications for the Automator workflow to work. When launching the SmartBackupSU.app for the first time on 10.15 or later, you need to right-click on the App and then select Open (SmartBackupSU is not notarised).

Destination Unavailable

If SmartBackup shows a destination as unavailable, it means that SmartBackup could not access the destination path when it tried to load the settings. Make sure that your backup destination is mounted and available at the expected location. You can re-select a destination using the "destination popup button".

If you rename a destination folder or volume, you need to re-select it under the new name.

Slow Backups

SmartBackup runs as fast as your storage or NAS share goes. If it appears to be slow, check that your sources and destinations are accessible at the expected speed. The number one reason why a backup is unexpectedly slow (or appears to "hang") is that SmartBackup encountered a dataless file (offline iCloud files etc) and will now wait for them to be downloaded. See "Destination Options" on how to skip them.

Errors

Errors during a sync are usually not SmartBackup bugs but issues with a particular setup, and SmartBackup just reports them.

If there are major errors, SmartBackup will show an error alert after the sync. Minor issues and a general report of every sync is written to the SmartBackup Log which is available via the Windows menu.

If there are errors regarding reading files from the source or creating files on the destination, they are most likely permission issues. Investigate the folders in question to determine why SmartBackup is not allowed to copy those files and make sure you use SuperUser mode for syncing files that belong to other users.

Some files in your Home Folder are super secret and not for you to back up (Apple says so :-)). You are not allowed to read them no matter your permissions. They are mostly in your home folder's Library and the only way to avoid the error is to exclude them.

You can configure the number of parallel copy threads in your backup options. The ideal number of copy threads depends on the type of disks you use at the source and destination.

• If a single "spinning" harddisk is involved as a source or destination 2 copy threads will be fastest.
• If source and destination are SSD/Flash based, or a RAID, 4 copy threads will give you optimum performance.
• If you use a network backup, it depends on your setup and the type of data. Somewhere between 2-4 threads will be fastest.
• On fast Xsan/Stornext volumes, choose the number of stripe groups available as the number of threads.

If you want to integrate SmartBackup with your scripts or call it from the terminal or ssh session, you can start a sync to a configured SmartBackup destination via the commandline mode. Simply call SmartBackups application binary with the path to your configured destination as a parameter.


In commandline mode, SmartBackup does not launch the user interface and also works when no user is logged in. As you would expect, the exit status reflects if the backup went well.