Troubleshooting

Fixes for slow copies, slow indexing, cards and drives that don't show up, and what to do after a crash.

Most problems come down to hardware speed, drive access or a job that was interrupted. Find your problem below. If none of these help, email support@arkeep.app.

Slow copies

A copy can only go as fast as its slowest part: the card, the card reader, the cable and port, the hub, or the drive you're writing to. Arkeep shows you which part is holding it back.

Read the speed line

While a copy runs, the card's page shows a line of live speeds under the drives:

Card: how fast Arkeep is reading the card, for example "Card: 85 MB/s read."
Drive or Drives: how fast the copies are being written, for example "Drives: 240 MB/s write." With several drives, this is the slowest of them, because every drive is written from the same read.
Overall: the real speed of the whole job. It's lower than the other two because it includes reading every copy back to verify it.

When one side is clearly slower, a note under the speeds says which one.

A copy in progress in Arkeep with the speed line showing the card's read speed, the drives' write speed and the overall speed, and a note naming the slower part — The speed line shows the card's read speed, the drives' write speed, and which one is slower.

"The card or card reader is the slower part right now"

The card can't be read any faster than the slowest of the card and the reader. Things to try:

Use a faster card reader. A reader that's slower than the card is a common bottleneck, especially an old USB 2 reader or a reader built into a hub. Use one that's rated for your card type, such as a CFexpress reader for CFexpress cards or a UHS-II reader for UHS-II SD cards.
Plug the reader straight into your Mac instead of through a hub or dock.
Check the card's own speed. Cards have a maximum read speed printed on them or listed by the maker. A card that's older, smaller or cheaper may be slower than your reader.
Use a fast cable and port. A reader on a USB 2 cable or port tops out around 40 MB/s, whatever the card can do.

"The drive is the slower part right now"

The drive, or the connection to it, can't keep up with the card. Things to try:

Spinning hard drives write more slowly than SSDs, often between 100 and 250 MB/s. That's normal. A fast card will out-run them.
Give each drive its own connection. Several drives on one hub or one port share that port's speed. Spreading them across separate ports on your Mac lets them all write at full speed.
Check the cable and port. A USB 2 cable or port slows any drive down.
Let a busy drive finish what it's doing. A drive that's also being used by another app, or by Time Machine, writes more slowly.

Other reasons a copy takes time

Verification reads each copy back. That's what makes a copy trustworthy, and it adds time. Fast copy in Settings, under General, skips it, but those copies are labeled "copied, not verified" and never count as backed up.
Lots of small files copy more slowly than a few big ones, because each file has its own start and finish.
Background work isn't the problem. Indexing and fingerprinting pause while a copy runs.

Adding more drives barely slows a copy down, because the card is read once. If the drives each have their own connection, the extra copies come almost for free.

Slow first index

Indexing a big archive for the first time can take hours, especially the fingerprint pass on spinning drives.

You don't have to wait. You can check cards against any drive that has finished its fast pass.
Each drive's row in Settings, under Archive Drives, shows its progress and the time left.
Indexing runs at low priority, so you can keep editing while it works.
It pauses when you quit Arkeep, put your Mac to sleep or unplug the drive, and picks up where it stopped.
It also waits while Arkeep is copying a card.

Until the fingerprint pass is done, some files show as "matched without fingerprint." See Checking a card and Getting started.

A card isn't checked when you plug it in

Make sure setup is finished. If the Arkeep menu shows Finish Setup, click it. Arkeep doesn't check cards until setup is done.
Check that your Mac can see the card. If it doesn't appear in Finder, the problem is the card, the reader or the cable, and Arkeep can't see it either.
Check your skip list. In Settings, under General, open Skip these cards and drives and remove the card's name if it's there.
Is it one of your archive drives? Plugging in an archive drive refreshes its index instead of checking it.
Some things are never checked: your startup disk, disk images, network drives and Time Machine drives.
No notification? Notifications may be off. Turn them on in System Settings, under Notifications, then Arkeep. The result still appears in the Arkeep window.

You can always check a card by hand: on the Overview page, click Check a Drive and pick it.

A drive isn't showing up

Give Arkeep access to removable drives. If a drive shows "Arkeep cannot read this drive yet" during setup, or Arkeep can't read it later, open System Settings, go to Privacy & Security, then Files and Folders, and make sure Arkeep is allowed to access removable volumes.
Check that the drive appears in Finder. If your Mac can't see it, Arkeep can't either. Try another cable or port, or check the drive in Disk Utility.
"Archive A did not mount." Arkeep shows this alert when an archive drive is connected but macOS can't open it within a minute. Arkeep still remembers everything that was on it. Try another cable or port. If it still won't mount, the drive may be failing. Open its Loss Report to see which files exist only on that drive. See Drives and Drive Memory.
An unplugged archive drive is still there. It stays in the sidebar and on the Overview page, shown as offline with the date it was last seen. Its files still count when Arkeep checks a card.
To add a drive to your archive, plug it in, open Settings, go to Archive Drives, click Plugged In and pick it.

A drive or card won't eject

Press Command-E with the card or drive selected, or eject it in Finder. If Arkeep is reading it, Arkeep stops and lets go first, so the eject can go through.

Ejecting a card during a check stops the check.
Ejecting a card during a copy stops the copy. Files already copied and verified are kept.
Ejecting a drive during a copy pauses only that drive. Plug it back in and its copy picks up where it stopped.

If macOS still says the disk is in use, another app may be using it.

After a crash or a forced quit

A copy was running

The next time Arkeep opens, it shows Copy was interrupted on the Overview page and on the card's page.

Plug in the card and the drives you were copying to.
Click Resume. Arkeep skips the files that were already copied and verified, and copies the rest.

Click Dismiss if you'd rather not finish. Files already copied stay where they are.

Arkeep removes its own unfinished hidden files from the shoot folder (names that end in .arkeep-partial). It never removes anything else.

Indexing or fingerprinting was running

Nothing to do. Indexing and fingerprinting pick up where they stopped, the next time Arkeep opens and the drive is plugged in.

Arkeep says it's using your previous database

If an update couldn't upgrade Arkeep's database, Arkeep goes back to the previous one and says so. Checks still work. Email support@arkeep.app so we can help you finish the upgrade.

If something looks wrong with your history

Arkeep backs up its database before every update, and keeps the last 3 copies. Click Show Update Backups in Settings, under Backups, to see them.
If you've chosen a backup place, Arkeep also keeps the last 10 encrypted backups of your index there. Restore From Backup… brings back the whole history.

See Updates and your backup key.

Getting help

Email support@arkeep.app. Tell us:

what you were doing and what happened;
your Arkeep version and build, from Settings, in the Updates section;
your macOS version;
a screenshot, if there's a message on screen.