Backup & Restore

Does MimicScribe back itself up?

Yes. It keeps rotating local snapshots of its database automatically, and it keeps the last ten. Each one is verified after it is written — a snapshot that cannot be opened is not allowed to displace a good one.

Three smaller pools sit alongside it — snapshots taken before a restore, before a batch merge, and before a delete — each rotating on its own, so a messy import or a merge spree cannot push your ordinary daily snapshots out.

Snapshots live in ~/Library/Application Support/app.mimicscribe/Backups/.

What is in a snapshot, and what isn’t?

The database — meetings, transcripts, summaries, action items, speaker profiles, notes. Audio recordings are not included. They are large, they already expire on their own schedule, and copying them into every snapshot would multiply your disk use for no benefit.

How do I make a backup I can take off this Mac?

Settings > Backup, then Back Up To…. That writes a single encrypted .mscbackup file wherever you choose.

The archive is an Apple Encrypted Archive, which means it is not a proprietary format: /usr/bin/aea ships with macOS and can decrypt it with your key, today or in ten years, whether or not MimicScribe is still installed. The exported key file is written alongside a README containing the exact Terminal command.

What is the master key, and what happens if I lose it?

One key encrypts every archive you export. Without it, an archive can’t be opened by anyone, including me. There’s no recovery path and no reset — a key I could reset is a key I could read.

Custody is deliberately spread across independent paths so no single loss is fatal:

1. Your login Keychain. For newly created keys this syncs through iCloud Keychain by default, so it survives losing the Mac. iCloud Keychain is end-to-end encrypted. An existing key stays local until you flip the toggle yourself — nothing migrates silently.
2. An exported key file, which is mandatory rather than optional. This is the path that works when the Mac is gone and the only path if you turn iCloud Keychain sync off.

Keep the key file somewhere other than the machine it protects.

Can it put a copy in iCloud Drive?

Optionally, and it is off unless you turn it on. When enabled, the encrypted archive is copied to iCloud Drive — encrypted before it leaves, so iCloud holds a file it cannot read.

The Backup pane distinguishes “encrypted on this Mac” from “encrypted copy in iCloud Drive” and only claims the second once the upload has actually completed. A pending or failed upload says so rather than implying your data is safe off-machine when it is not.

This is the one place MimicScribe can copy your meeting content off the device without a text-AI provider being involved, so it’s worth knowing it exists and that it’s off by default.

How do I restore?

Settings > Backup > Restore, and pick either a local snapshot or a .mscbackup file. MimicScribe takes a safety snapshot of the current database first, so a restore you did not mean is itself reversible.

After restoring, a reconciliation pass reconnects speaker profiles and meeting links so the restored data behaves like data that was always there.

Is a backup the same as an export?

No, and they solve different problems.

• A backup is the whole application state, encrypted, meant to be restored into MimicScribe.
• An export is one meeting as a document — Markdown, subtitles, JSON — meant to be read by you or another tool.

If you are leaving the app, export what you want to keep as documents. If you are moving Macs or guarding against disk failure, use a backup.