Getting your files back is never gated. Restoring your newest backup works on Free, after a license ends, and with the app uninstalled entirely.
If you are in the middle of an emergency, the restore guide is the fastest route, and csctl and the standalone Restore app both work without a license.
Download Copy Shelter, open it, and it asks two things: which folders to protect, and where the backup should go. The destination can be an external drive, a NAS or network share, or a folder inside iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Proton Drive or Google Drive. It warns you if the destination sits on the same disk as the folder you are protecting, because one failure would then take both.
Open Copy Shelter, choose Sign In, and give your email address. A six digit code arrives in that mailbox. Type it back to sign in. If you purchased Pro, use the address you purchased with and Pro turns on. There is no license key. Sign in with the same address on each of your devices. Codes expire after 15 minutes and can only be used once.
Codes are sent immediately, so if one has not arrived within a couple of minutes it is almost always a spam filter. Check the junk folder for mail from copyshelter.com. If it is not there, ask for a new code. The old one expires after 15 minutes anyway. Asking many times in a row pauses new codes for a while, which is there to stop somebody using this to post mail at an address, so leave a few minutes between attempts. If two attempts fail, write to [email protected] from the address you purchased with and we will look at it directly.
Open Copy Shelter, choose Restore, pick the backup location and the snapshot you want, and choose where the files should be put back. You will need the passphrase you set, or the recovery key. Restoring your newest backup works on Free, including after a license ends.
Use the recovery key. It was written when the backup was created and it exists for exactly this. If both the passphrase and the recovery key are gone, the backup cannot be opened, by you or by us. Nothing is escrowed and nothing is transmitted, which is the reason nobody else can read your backup and the same reason nobody can rescue you.
Copy Shelter names the location and tells you when it was last written to and last checked. Plug the drive back in, or remount the share, and it picks up where it left off. Nothing is deleted while a destination is missing. If the drive was replaced, add the new one as a location; the old one stays in the list until you remove it.
That is the check doing its job. A mismatch means the bytes on the destination are no longer the bytes that were written, so that piece is treated as gone. Copy Shelter names what is affected and rewrites it on the next backup. If the same destination keeps producing mismatches, the disk or the share is the thing to suspect, and a second location is the answer.
Yes. csctl is a free command line tool that lists snapshots, verifies a backup and restores from one, with nothing but the drive and your passphrase or recovery key. It is a single file, it needs no installation, and it works whether or not you have ever paid us anything. There is also a free standalone Restore app for anyone who would rather not open Terminal. The repository format is documented in full.
macOS 14 or later, on Apple silicon. Copy Shelter is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens without a warning.
Write to [email protected] within 30 days and we will refund you, with no explanation needed. If you purchased through the App Store, refunds go through Apple. When a license ends nothing is deleted, no old version is removed, and your newest backup still restores.
[email protected]. It is read by the person who wrote the app. Telling us which macOS version you are on and what the app said, word for word, gets you a useful answer faster than anything else.