Release notes

The third beta of Backup Atlas.

What’s new

• A welcome on the first start: the first time you open Backup Atlas, its main window opens, so you can see right away that it’s running. Later starts, and starts when you log in, stay quietly in the menu bar.
• Packages are tracked as a whole: apps, Photos libraries, virtual machines and documents saved as packages now show a change whenever something inside them changed. Their history, search results and what is not backed up yet include edits inside the package, not just changes to the package itself.
• Search finds more packages: searching by name now also finds a package that was only ever changed from the inside.

Feedback

Something wrong or unclear? Write to support@backupatlas.app.

The second beta of Backup Atlas.

What’s new

• Much faster search: searching for a file by name now answers almost at once, even with a long history.
• More changes you can rely on: Backup Atlas now checks your Mac’s local snapshots to confirm what changed during the day, so far fewer changes are marked as uncertain.
• A smaller index: the history of your changes takes about a third less space on disk.

Good to know

• The first launch of this version converts your existing history to the new format. This runs in the background and can take a minute or two; nothing is lost.

Feedback

Something wrong or unclear? Write to support@backupatlas.app.

The first beta of Backup Atlas. Thank you for trying it.

What it does

• Menu-bar watchdog: the icon gets an orange dot only for real problems: a backup that’s overdue, a backup disk that can’t be reached, backups that keep failing to finish, or a backup that stalled.
• At a glance: the window starts with how far your Mac is backed up, then your week of backups, the documents you deleted and the ones you changed.
• Find and restore: search for a file by name, even one you deleted, compare a version with the one on your Mac, and restore it wherever you like.
• Find in Backups: if you know the folder, it finds every copy in your backups, even from before you installed Backup Atlas.
• Compare: a line-by-line diff for text and code, or the two versions side by side for PDFs, images, Pages and Office documents.
• Last Copy at Risk: deleted documents whose last backed-up copy Time Machine is about to thin away, and when.
• Desktop widget in three sizes.

Good to know

• Backup Atlas needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later and Full Disk Access. The app walks you through granting it.
• Your history starts when you install it. In the background, on power and while the backup disk is connected, it scans your older backups to fill in the past.
• Backup Atlas only reads your backups. It never starts, stops or deletes one.
• From this version on, Backup Atlas checks backupatlas.app for updates. You can turn that off in the menu bar under More › Check for Updates Automatically. Your files, the history of your changes and the index are never sent anywhere.

Feedback

Something wrong or unclear? Write to support@backupatlas.app.