Drives and Drive Memory
What Arkeep remembers about each drive, how it spots missing and damaged files, what to do when a drive fails or goes missing, and how the Loss Report works.
Drive Memory is Arkeep's record of every drive it has indexed and every file that was on it. Arkeep keeps the list, not the files. If a drive dies, gets damaged or goes missing, that list tells you exactly what was on it, what's still safe on your other drives and what had no other copy.
Drive Memory only reads and reports. It never deletes, moves or repairs anything on your drives.
Your drives in Arkeep
Your archive drives are listed in the sidebar of the Arkeep window, under Drives, and as tiles on the Overview page.
Fullness colors
Each drive is shaded in its color by how full it is: light when it's nearly empty, deep when it's nearly full. A label says the same thing in words, for example "76% full · 18.2 TB of 24 TB." Color on a drive only ever means how full it is, never that something is wrong.
When a drive is more than 90% full, a small orange Almost full badge appears. When it reaches 100%, the badge says Full.
A drive that isn't plugged in shows its last known fullness, faded, with "Offline · last seen" and the date. Arkeep remembers each drive's size and free space every time you plug it in.
Drive colors
Give each drive its own color so you can spot it at a glance. Right-click the drive in the sidebar or its tile on the Overview and choose Color, or open the drive and choose More › Color. Pick Teal (the starting color), Blue, Indigo, Purple, Pink, Orange, Green or Graphite. The color shows in the sidebar, on the drive's tile, on its page, when you pick drives to copy to, and on your iPhone after the next sync. It still gets deeper as the drive fills up. There's no red or yellow, because red always means something isn't backed up yet.
Drive health
Each drive is Healthy, Watch or At risk, and its page lists why. Arkeep reads the drive's own health check (S.M.A.R.T.) when macOS can. Most USB enclosures don't pass it through, and the page then says "Health data not available from this enclosure." Arkeep also watches for:
- files it can't read;
- damaged files;
- copies that don't read back the same;
- reading that slows down compared with the drive's own past speed;
- unplugging without ejecting, 3 or more times in 30 days;
- drives it has known for 5 years or more.
A drive to watch or at risk shows a badge in the sidebar and on its Overview tile, and you get one notification when a drive's health gets worse. Arkeep watches for warning signs. No tool can catch every failure, so keep every shoot on at least two drives.
A drive's page
Click a drive in the sidebar or on the Overview page to open its page. Its details stay at the top on both tabs: files, size, fingerprinted, files only on this drive, last indexed, and its health. Below them, Summary shows Recent Changes and Files shows the drive's folders, in the same place.
Summary
- The drive's name and fullness, on a band in its fullness color, with whether it's connected.
- Files and Size: how many files are on it and how much space they take.
- Fingerprinted: how much of the drive the background fingerprint pass has finished.
- Only on this drive: how many of its files exist on no other archive drive. See "The single-copy warning" below.
- Last indexed: when Arkeep last read the drive's file list.
- Recent Changes: files added, missing, back again, changed or damaged, found at each index.
Files
The Files tab shows everything on the drive as folders, as of its last index. It works when the drive is unplugged too, so you can look through a drive that's sitting on a shelf. When the drive is plugged in, double-click a file to show it in Finder.
Select a file and press Space to show or hide the preview pane. If the drive isn't plugged in, the preview shows the small thumbnail Arkeep saved while indexing.
The toolbar
- Loss Report opens the drive's Loss Report. See below.
- More (the circle with three dots) has Re-index, Mark Drive as Failed…, Mark Drive as Missing… and Remove from Archive….
Press Command-I for the drive's details, including its capacity, where it's mounted, how many files are fingerprinted, when Arkeep first saw it and when it was last indexed.
Adding and managing archive drives
Open Settings and go to Archive Drives. Each archive drive has a row showing whether it's plugged in, when it was last indexed, how many files were counted and how many are fingerprinted. While a drive is being indexed, its row shows the progress and the time left.
- Add a drive that's plugged in: click Plugged In and pick the drive.
- Add a drive that isn't plugged in: type its exact name in Add a drive by name and click Add. Arkeep indexes it the next time you plug it in.
- Re-index reads the drive's file list again. The drive needs to be plugged in.
- Copy here by default ticks the drive for you in Copy What's Missing.
- Save thumbnails for when it's unplugged keeps small previews of the drive's photos and videos. See "Thumbnails" below.
- More has Open Drive, Loss Report, Mark Drive as Failed…, Mark Drive as Missing… and Remove from Archive….
Add to Archive and Remove from Archive
A drive you've plugged in that isn't an archive drive shows in the sidebar under Other Drives. Its files never count as backups. To make it an archive drive, click Add to Archive… at the top of its page, right-click it in the sidebar, or use the button in an "Also found on" note on a card's result. Arkeep shows the drive's size and a rough indexing time first. After you confirm, it indexes the drive with progress under Drives, moves it into the Drives group, and checks what's plugged in again, so files only on that drive turn green.
To stop using an archive drive, right-click it in the sidebar or on the Overview, or open More on its page, and choose Remove from Archive…. This only removes the drive from Arkeep's index. It never touches the files on the drive. Afterwards, files that were only on that drive show as not backed up again, and if it was ticked for Copy here by default, it's unticked. Arkeep still remembers what was on it, and you can add it back any time.
Arkeep only reads a drive in either direction. Nothing on it is changed, moved or deleted.
You don't have to re-index by hand very often. Every time you plug in an archive drive, Arkeep refreshes its index on its own.
What Arkeep remembers
- Every drive it has ever indexed, with its name, capacity, when it was first seen, when it was last plugged in and when it was last indexed.
- Each drive's status: an archive drive, marked as failed, marked as missing, or no longer an archive drive.
- Every file on every drive. When a file disappears, Arkeep marks it "missing since" the date it noticed. It never removes the file from its record.
- Every change it finds when it re-indexes a drive, with the date:
- added: a new file;
- missing: a file that was there before and is gone now;
- back: a missing file that came back;
- changed: a new size and a new date, which is an ordinary edit;
- damaged: a new size or new contents while the date stayed the same, which is a sign of silent damage.
The single-copy warning
Every archive drive shows how many of its files exist on no other archive drive, for example "2,140 files (1.1 TB) only on this drive." Arkeep works this out again after every index and every copy.
This is the cheapest protection there is. If a drive has files that live nowhere else, you can copy them to a second drive before anything goes wrong. When every file has another copy, the drive says "Every file also exists on another drive" in green.
Catching damage early
Rechecking fingerprints
Each time you plug in an archive drive, after its fingerprint pass, Arkeep reads a slice of its fingerprinted files again: at least 500 files, or 1% of the drive, starting with the ones checked longest ago. Activity shows it as "Re-checking files" with its own count, for example "340 of 1,080 files". It saves as it goes, so if Arkeep is quit partway, the next time picks up with files it hasn't rechecked yet. Over time every file gets rechecked. A file whose fingerprint changed while its size and date didn't is marked as possibly damaged.
The quick fingerprint covers the first and last 1 MB of each file. Damage in the middle of a long clip isn't caught by this check.
Alerts
Arkeep shows an alert in the menu bar dropdown, and sends a notification, when:
- a re-index finds more than 50 files missing from a drive ("files missing from Archive A");
- any file may be damaged;
- a drive had read errors while being indexed (shown in red, with advice to copy the files that are only on that drive somewhere else right away);
- an archive drive is connected but doesn't mount within a minute (also red).
Click Open Drive in the alert to go to the drive's page.
Files that never count as a backup
Files marked missing or damaged, and every file on a drive marked as failed, missing or no longer an archive drive, never count as a backup copy when Arkeep checks a card.
When a drive fails or goes missing
- Open Settings and go to Archive Drives, or open the drive's page.
- Click More, then choose Mark Drive as Failed… or Mark Drive as Missing….
- Confirm. Arkeep doesn't touch the drive itself.
The drive leaves your list of archive drives, its files stop counting as backups, and the Loss Report opens. The drive stays in the sidebar and in Settings, marked as failed or missing, so you can open its Loss Report again any time.
A missing or failed drive's page tells you what was on it, for example "4,210 files (1.2 TB) were on this drive. 3,980 are on other archive drives. 230 were only here." Click Show the Files Only Here to open the Loss Report with just those files, and Show Everything to see the whole report.
If the drive turns up again, or it was a false alarm, open its More menu and choose Use as Archive Drive Again.
Stop Using as Archive Drive… is for a drive you're retiring rather than one that failed. Its files stop counting as backups, but Arkeep still remembers what was on it.
The Loss Report
The Loss Report lists every file that was on a drive at its last index and sorts it by whether you still have it somewhere else. You can open it for any drive, including one that's working fine, to see what would be lost if it failed. Click Loss Report on the drive's page, or select the drive and press Command-L.
At the top, the report says which index it's based on, with the date, and how many files were on the drive. Three boxes give the totals:
- Only copy lost (red): files with no copy on any other archive drive. These are what was lost.
- Changed or damaged (amber): files that were damaged, or that changed while their date stayed the same.
- Safe elsewhere (green): files that also exist on another archive drive.
Below the totals, each group opens into the drive's own folders, down to every file. Safe files say where the other copy lives, for example "also on Archive B." If that copy was matched before both files were fingerprinted, it says "not yet fingerprinted." The report also lists files that were already missing before the report, with their dates, and the drive's history of changes.
Arkeep matches copies with the same rule it uses to check cards. See Checking a card.
Exporting the report
Click Export in the toolbar:
- Export CSV… lists every file, which a data recovery service can use to know exactly what to look for.
- Export PDF… is a summary you can share with a client or an insurer.
Shift-Command-E exports the PDF. Both are saved only where you choose.
The Loss Report tells you what was on a drive and what has no other copy. Arkeep can't recover files from a failed drive.
Thumbnails for unplugged drives
While indexing, Arkeep saves a small picture (up to 256 pixels) of each photo and the first frame of each video, so you can see what's on a drive that isn't plugged in. They're kept on your Mac next to the index.
Making thumbnails, like learning how you file your shoots, is background tidy-up. It runs at low priority, after a drive's other work. Activity on the Overview shows it on its own quiet line, "Tidying up in the background". It never shows in the menu bar or under a drive job's name.
In Settings, under Thumbnails, choose a Cache size limit (5 GB unless you change it) and see how much space they use now. When the cache is full, the thumbnails you looked at longest ago go first. To turn thumbnails off for one drive, untick Save thumbnails for when it's unplugged in Archive Drives.
Some pro camera formats, such as Blackmagic RAW and RED, show their icon instead of a thumbnail.
Tidying shoots copied as the card was
If you've copied whole cards onto a drive in the past, with the camera's own PRIVATE and DCIM folders, the drive's page lists them under Shoots in Card Layout. Click Tidy into My Layout… on a shoot to move its footage and photos into your usual folders, inside the same shoot folder on the same drive. The drive needs to be plugged in.
This is the one place Arkeep moves files on a drive, and only after you ask:
- You see every move first, and nothing happens until you click Move.
- Nothing is deleted, and nothing is replaced. If a name is already taken, the file gets a number.
- Camera housekeeping files (XML sidecars, thumbnails, card databases) stay where they are.
Shoots that have been edited
Edit projects and photo catalogs find their media by its path, so moving the files means relinking the media in each project afterwards. Before you can tidy a shoot, Arkeep checks its index for projects near the shoot:
- DaVinci Resolve projects and their backups (.drp)
- Final Cut Pro libraries (.fcpbundle)
- Premiere Pro projects (.prproj), including auto-saves
- Lightroom catalogs (.lrcat)
While it checks, the shoot shows Checking… and its Tidy into My Layout… button stays off. A shoot with projects nearby shows, in orange, how many were found, for example Edited: 2 projects nearby.
When you open the review for an edited shoot, it says Edited projects may lose their media links. and lists every project it found. The Move button stays off until you tick Move anyway. I'll relink the media in these projects.
Arkeep only looks in the shoot's own folder and the folder around it. For example, for a card folder inside Clients/Morgan & Ellis wedding, it looks through the whole Morgan & Ellis wedding folder. It never searches a whole category folder or the whole drive, so a project kept somewhere else won't be found.
Resolve projects stored in Resolve's own project database, rather than exported as .drp files, can't be seen at all. If you edit in Resolve, check your project list before you tidy a shoot.
One shoot at a time
Arkeep only tidies one shoot at a time. While a tidy runs, every other Tidy into My Layout… button is off, and its tip says "Another shoot is being tidied. One at a time."
Keeping drive records
In Settings, under Archive Drives, choose how long to Keep records of old drives for: 1 year, 2 years, 5 years or Forever. Forever is the default.
Drives you still use are never removed. Failed, missing and retired drives are removed once their status is older than the period you choose.
To remove one old drive's record yourself, open its More menu and choose Delete Record…. Arkeep always asks first, because you would no longer be able to see what was on that drive. Nothing on the drive itself is touched.
Related: Backup history and search, Updates and your backup key.