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Getting started

Install Arkeep on your Mac, add your archive drives and run your first index. License activation arrives at launch.

Arkeep remembers every drive you own. When you plug in a memory card, a USB drive or an audio recorder, it checks every file against all of your archive drives, even the ones sitting on a shelf, and tells you what isn't backed up yet. Then it can copy what's missing to the drives you pick.

Arkeep checks and copies your backups. It never keeps its own copy of your files. Your files stay on your cards and drives.

This page walks you through setup, from download to your first card. Most of it takes a few minutes. The first index of a big archive takes longer, but you can start checking cards before it's done.

Install Arkeep on your Mac

  1. Go to arkeep.app and download Arkeep.
  2. Open the download and drag Arkeep into your Applications folder.
  3. Open Arkeep from Applications.

Arkeep lives in your Mac's menu bar, at the top of the screen. Click its icon any time to see what it's doing and open its windows.

Coming at launch The first time Arkeep opens, it will show the Terms of Use for you to accept.

Arkeep is available for Mac, with an iPhone companion app. Windows and Android are coming later.

Activate a license

Coming at launch

Activating a license in the app arrives at launch. When you buy Arkeep, you get an email with your license key. Your receipt comes in a separate email from Link, the checkout Stripe runs for Arkeep. There will be two ways to activate:

  • Click the link in the email. It opens Arkeep and fills in your key for you.
  • Paste the key. Copy the key from the email and paste it into Arkeep.

Activation will send your license key, a random device ID and your Mac's name to the Arkeep license server one time. After that, Arkeep will check your license offline. There's no account to make and no password to remember.

A Personal license covers 2 computers plus your phone. Your phone never uses one of your computer slots. To see which computers are on your license, or to move it to a new Mac, see Licenses and devices.

Let Arkeep see your drives

During setup, macOS asks whether Arkeep can access removable drives. Allow it. Arkeep needs this to notice when you plug in a card and to read your archive drives.

Arkeep only reads your cards. It never deletes anything from a card, and it never formats one. Clearing a card is always up to you.

Add your archive drives

Your archive drives are the drives where your finished backups live. Arkeep checks every card against all of them.

  1. Plug in the archive drives you have handy.
  2. In setup, tick each drive that's part of your archive.
  3. Leave out your working drives and anything you don't want counted as a backup.

You don't need every drive plugged in today. You can add more archive drives later, whenever you plug them in. Arkeep remembers each one and keeps its list of files even after you unplug it, so a drive on the shelf still counts.

Last, turn on Open at Login. That way Arkeep is always running and ready when a card goes in.

Your backup key

Arkeep keeps your index and backup history on your Mac. It also saves encrypted backups of that index, so the record of what was on your drives isn't lost if something happens to your Mac. Arkeep creates the encryption key for these backups by itself and stores it in your Mac's Keychain. Everyday backups and restores need nothing from you.

You also get a recovery key, a short code you'd use to open those backups on a new Mac. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. You can see it any time in Settings after entering your Mac's password or using Touch ID.

Coming at launch An "Email me my recovery key" checkbox in setup will email the key to you once through our email provider, at your purchase email address. Arkeep's license server won't store it. Anyone who can get into that email account could use the key, so you'll be able to leave it off and keep writing the key down instead. Learn more in Updates and your backup key.

Your first index

Before Arkeep can check a card, it needs to learn what's on your archive drives. This is the index. Arkeep keeps the index on your Mac, so it can answer even when your drives are unplugged.

One drive at a time

Arkeep indexes one drive at a time. You can watch each drive's progress in the Activity list on the Overview page and in Settings, with the files counted, the files indexed and an estimate of the time left.

You don't have to wait for every drive. As soon as a drive is done, Arkeep can check cards against it.

Two passes

Indexing happens in two passes:

  1. The fast pass records each file's name, size and dates. This is quick, and it's what lets you start checking cards.
  2. The fingerprint pass runs in the background afterward. It reads a small piece from the start and end of each file to make a quick fingerprint. This is what lets Arkeep tell apart two different files that happen to share a name and size. On a big archive, especially on spinning drives, this pass can take hours.

Until a file has its fingerprint, Arkeep can still match it on name, size and capture date. Your card's report marks those files as "matched without fingerprint." Once the fingerprint pass finishes, those notes go away on their own. Read more in Checking a card.

It works around you

Indexing runs at low priority, so your Mac stays usable for editing or anything else while it works. It also pauses and resumes on its own. If you quit Arkeep, put your Mac to sleep or unplug a drive, indexing stops where it was and picks up again next time. Indexing also waits while Arkeep is copying a card.

When the first drive is ready

When your first drive finishes, Arkeep shows a short welcome card telling you that drive is ready and inviting you to plug in a card. That's your cue.

Once every archive drive you chose has finished its first index, Arkeep says so once, with real numbers, for example "8 drives · 1,312,450 files · 41 TB. Arkeep knows your archive." The same line stays at the top of the Overview. While a drive is still being indexed, the Overview says how many drives are still to go instead.

Plug in your first card

Put a memory card in your card reader, or plug in a USB drive or an audio recorder (like a Zoom or a DJI Mic receiver). Arkeep notices it right away, checks every file against your archive drives and shows one notification with the result. It tells you how many files are on the card, how many aren't backed up yet and how much space they take.

Click the notification to open the results. If everything is backed up, Arkeep says so in green, and there's nothing else to do. If some files are missing, you can see exactly which ones and where they came from, then copy them to the drives you choose.

To learn what each result means, see Checking a card. To copy the missing files, see Copying what's missing.

Next steps

Still stuck? Email [email protected].