I got tired of playing "Hard Drive Roulette" with my video projects, so I built a project-based backup app for Mac
Hey everyone! I used to shoot a lot of video and photography. I had multiple external drives and, most of the time, absolutely no idea where each of my projects was saved and if it was safely backed up. For that I built Tusk and opened the free beta today. I’d love to get some feedback and hear whether others have the same kind of problem! The Problem I mostly shot video for Udemy courses and YouTube tutorials. They often take a few days to weeks to shoot with raw footage files that would overflow my Mac's storage before I'm anywhere close to done editing. So I had a “backup system”, which was just me dragging and dropping files to an external drive. And then, because I was scared that the first drive would get corrupted, I did the same process for another external drive. It drove me nuts, because I couldn’t remember which files were safely backed up and which weren’t yet. Whether I’ve only done the camera roll or also the screen recordings etc. etc. When I wanted to find a file, I had to plug in my different drives one by one until I found what I was looking for. This only got worse the more time passed and the more drives I got. So I built Tusk because I wanted an app that automatically backs up all the files from my project folder to specified backup locations. The core features of Tusk now include: The Library: Tusk catalogues your entire project structure. Even when your drives are sitting unplugged on a shelf, you can open Tusk and see exactly where each file lives and whether its backup was successfully verified. One-Click Space Clearing: Once Tusk automatically mirrors your project folder to your target backup locations, you can safely delete the heavy local files to clear space on your Mac. If you ever need them back, you can restore them all with one click. Background Watchdog: If you drop a new B-roll clip into your local project folder or modify an audio track, Tusk instantly detects it and queues it for the backup drives. Safe SD Offloads: You can offload an SD Card from a recent shot to multiple external drives simultaneously while keeping a lightweight local index on your Mac. Meaning your files don’t ever have to touch your Mac’s internal SSD and you’ll still get a reference for each file. How Tusk Compares Time Machine: Perfect for full-system scheduled backups. But no per-file status, no file-watching, no project awareness, no ability to offload files to free local space Carbon Copy Cloner: Scheduled incremental backup to an external drive. No continuous folder watching, no concept of projects, no file tracking when drives are unplugged, no SD card ingest. ChronoSync: Sync tasks between two locations on a schedule. Same gaps as CCC OffShoot: Excellent for SD offloads to multiple destinations. Once the card is ejected, that's it. No ongoing backup or file tracking. Pricing Free during the beta (starts today). After launch: $49 one-time as a launch offer, then $79. About me Apple Developer -> app also notarized through Apple Github: https://github.com/Nickfis LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niklas-fischer-28399294/ Udemy instructor (~4,400 learners): https://www.udemy.com/user/niklas-fischer-2 Privacy Privacy note: local-first by design. I never see your data. The file catalogue lives on your machine only. Cloud connections go directly to your providers using your credentials, nothing hits my servers. Links Website: https://tuskbackup.com Privacy Policy: https://tuskbackup.com/privacy Terms of Service: https://tuskbackup.com/terms
Collected discussion
This looks promising. Please consider contributing your app to the MacApp Comparisons listing in the r/MacApps sidebar by using the appropriate contribution form listed there.
Thank you! Would love to be part of the backup apps comparison spreadsheet, but want to get the beta done first properly. As soon as the first proper version drops, I'll submit it there :)
Sure, and note you can comment on cells in the sheet any time with updates or corrections, or re-submit it and I’ll replace the old info.
It seems interesting, especially for hybrid approach with SSD/Cloud. Maybe it worth to research about some additional protocols (eg samba, WebDAV) to backup files also on NAS.
for sure! I wanted to first make it work with the most used storage solutions and then expand on it. Already have things like FTP connections (for stuff like picdrop but also NAS) on my list for next things to integrate.
Definitely interested in this one. On your site you have an article detailing which cloud provider to use. Does Tusk provide recommendations inside the app? I could see having many different cloud providers available and then based on what kind of project you have it recommends one over the other. Does it allow you to pick and choose which cloud backup providers?
Yes! At the moment there are two providers: Google Drive & S3. However I set it up in a way that I can add rather quickly more providers in the future, depending on demand. I have not built anything yet that recommends one over the other. Now that you say it though, there are a few criteria that could be added lke: - Storage cost per provider depending on the current project size - Space left (for providers like Dropbox/Drive etc.) on the different platforms What I'm already tracking is the speed at which you upload files to any backup location. That's used to decide where to move files first. So it will always pick an external SSD before uploading to the cloud to make sure all files are first safely backed up. So all this is for sure possible, that's exactly why I need beta testers. If you're interested, it would be amazing if you could be part of the beta group!
I'll leave it up to you. My backup needs are very simple so not sure if I am the best candidate. I just use a single SSD (I know, I know) but GitHub serves as my third / cloud backup since I just need code stored. The only reason I mentioned the recommendation engine is because most of my 'backup' needs are writes not really large reads so your article mentioned there might be cheaper alternatives for that. Like I said, I'll leave it up to you.
This looks really useful! I've got stuff spread across a bunch of drives, and something like this would be helpful when it comes to remembering where things got stored...
got tired of earning nothing so I built an ai app but decided to not tell you its ai , please give me money for my bloated ai app that doesn't do anything new or novel , in fact ill price it the same as ones that take literal years of development work.
This first beta version took 9 months in part time and I would assume that when you look at it, you'll see it's not a vibe coded app. I also do think it has novel aspects, as did the videographers/photographers I talked to while developing it. If you do not see any value in it, that's fair enough. It does hurt though to be bucketed with a lot of the AI slop and bad craftsmanship today with all the effort I put into it.
it’s the post that’s written by ai only the. not the app ? if so then. i have wronged you brother
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Thank you for checking it out! I can create that as a feature for sure, but I do think there are already tools out there that do the cataloguing really well, but without the backup. For example NeoFinder is an established app, that reads out your drives and indexes them. In Tusk, I’d have to think how I’d deal with the fact that files on just one external drive are not really safely backed up. But I do already have an idea how to make it work, that was on the product roadmap anyway :)
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thank you!! If you try it out, let me know what you think :)