Everything you can do with Cairn

1 · Set up your first backup

A backup job answers three questions: what to back up, where to send it, and how often. The walkthrough that opens on first launch covers all three.

1. Add a destination first. Open Destinations and add at least one place to store backups (drive, cloud, or server). See section 2 for each type.
2. Create a backup. On the Backups page, click New backup, give it a name, and choose the destination you added previously.
3. Pick your sources. Add one or more folders to protect — your documents, a project directory, your whole home folder.
4. Choose a schedule. Manually triggered, Hourly, Every 4 hours, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. {{PRODUCT_NAME}} runs quietly in the background on whatever schedule you pick.
5. Set verification. Leave it on “After every backup” (recommended): {{PRODUCT_NAME}} re-checks the backup and even test-restores a random file to compare to the original, so you can be sure it really works.
6. Pick a retention preset. Standard (1 year) suits most people. Choose Short, Long, or Forever if you need a different history depth.
7. Trim what's excluded. Toggle presets for caches, temp files, and build artifacts so backups stay lean. You can also define your own patterns.
8. Save and run. Click Run now for the first backup, then let the schedule take over.

2 · Destinations & configuration

A destination is a place your encrypted backups live. Add as many as you like and point different backups at different destinations. Every destination is protected by a repository password and a sensitivity tier you choose when you create it.

Local or external drive

The simplest option: a folder on your computer or a connected USB / external drive.

S3-compatible (AWS S3, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, MinIO…)

Works with any S3-compatible object storage. Backblaze B2 and Wasabi are popular, low-cost choices.

SFTP server (institutional / SSH)

Ideal if your department or university gives you SSH/SFTP storage.

Google Drive

Sign in once and {{PRODUCT_NAME}} stores backups in a folder you choose.

1. Pick Google Drive and start the sign-in. A browser window opens for Google's secure consent.
2. Approve access; the authorization is stored locally on your device.
3. Optionally set a subfolder and a label, then test and save.

OneDrive

Supports personal, work/business, and SharePoint document libraries.

1. Pick OneDrive and sign in through the Microsoft window that opens.
2. If your account has more than one drive, choose which one (personal, business, or a document library).
3. Optionally set a subfolder and label, then test and save.

3 · Restoring backups & files

Open Browse to explore everything you've backed up — by destination or by backup — and bring any of it back.

Pick a point in time

Select a snapshot — any past backup — or the live “Current files” view to compare what's on disk now against what's backed up. You can filter to just changed files, show hidden files, and sort by name or date.

Restore a whole backup or a single file

Navigate to any file or folder, then choose Restore. Folders restore recursively, so a single action can bring back an entire project — or your whole source folder.

Original location, or somewhere new

4 · Settings

Tune the app once and forget it. Settings live in three places: the app itself, each backup, and each destination.

Application settings

Per-backup settings

Edit any backup to change its sources, schedule, verification frequency, retention preset, and exclude rules — or pause, run, verify, and delete it. Deleting a backup leaves the snapshots already on the destination intact.

Per-destination settings

Rename a destination, update its repository password (within the same sensitivity tier), and re-test its connection. Reachability is shown live and refreshes when you return to the app.