MareArts Backup

Your folders copied to another disk on a schedule — and everything you changed or deleted, kept.

Free with any MareArts subscription. No subscription? Buy MareArts Gadget.

See the screens and how it works →

All downloads

Windows

Windows 10 & 11 · 64-bit

Download for Windows 64-bit · .msi

On first run, click “More info → Run anyway” if Windows shows a SmartScreen notice.

macOS

Apple Silicon (M1/2/3/4/…) & Intel · macOS 12+

Apple Silicon M1/2/3/4/… · arm64 · .dmg Intel Mac x86_64 · .dmg

Give it Full Disk Access on first run, or it cannot read Documents and Desktop — the app links straight to the setting. Not sure which build? Apple menu → About This Mac: an “Apple M-series” chip means Apple Silicon. If the app bounces once and never opens, you have the other build — these are separate binaries, so the wrong one cannot run, even through Rosetta. Download the other one and drag it over.

Linux

Ubuntu · Linux Mint · Pop!_OS · 64-bit

Ubuntu 24.04 / Mint 22 also Pop!_OS 24.04 Ubuntu 22.04 / Mint 21

Not sure which one? Pick the first (Ubuntu 24.04 / Mint 22).

How to install

  1. Download the file for your system above.
  2. Install it:
    • Linux — double-click the .deb and press Install.
    • macOS — open the .dmg and drag the app to Applications.
    • Windows — run the .msi (if a SmartScreen notice appears, click “More info → Run anyway”).
  3. Open MareArts Backup and sign in — the email and the 16-character signature from your purchase email, or a licence key. Already running another MareArts app? There is nothing to sign in to.
  4. On a Mac, grant Full Disk Access when the app asks. macOS hides Documents, Desktop and Downloads from applications until you do, and a backup that silently skips those folders is worse than no backup. The app shows a banner with a button that opens the right settings pane; switch MareArts Backup on and reopen it.
  5. Choose the folders to protect and the disk to copy them to. The schedule starts itself; you do not have to remember anything after this.
  6. Updates: on Linux they arrive with your normal system updates, because the installer adds MareArts to your software sources. On macOS and Windows the app updates itself and asks first — and never mid-backup. Either way there is nothing to come back here for.

What it does, exactly

  • Copies with rsync — the files on the backup disk are ordinary files in ordinary folders. No archive format, no database, nothing that needs this app to read it back.
  • Keeps what you replaced or deleted. Every run puts the previous copy of a changed or removed file aside under a dated folder, so a mistake made three weeks ago is still undoable.
  • Runs whether or not you are looking. Your own system's scheduler does the scheduled runs — a systemd timer on Linux, launchd on macOS, Task Scheduler on Windows — so backups continue while the window is closed, and keep running even if the subscription lapses. A lapse closes the console, not the protection.
  • Stays on your machine. Your files go to the disk you pointed it at. There is no MareArts server in the path, and nothing about their contents leaves the computer.