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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.

A card's check result in Arkeep, with a red status headline, the Copy What's Missing panel with drive tiles, and a list of files not backed up grouped by folder
A card's result: the headline, the Copy What's Missing panel, and the files that aren't backed up yet.

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.