| name | idrive-backup |
| description | Use this skill whenever the user wants you to manage, discuss or diagnose iDrive Backup configuration on macOS |
| allowed-tools | Read Edit Write Bash Glob Grep |
| disable-model-invocation | true |
iDrive Backup for macOS
iDrive stores all configuration at ~/Library/Application Support/IDriveforMac/. The username is the iDrive account email (e.g. user@example.com), detected from the top-level key in appDefaultSettings.plist.
The Tool
This skill bundles scripts/idrive_tool.py which handles all iDrive operations with correct matching semantics, symlink resolution, and safety backups. Run it with:
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/idrive_tool.py <command> [args...]
Commands
| Command | Description |
|---|
check-exclusion <path> | Check if a path is excluded and by which rules. Reports backup scope too |
check-scope <path> | Check if a path falls under any backup reference path |
list-exclusions [--category <name>] | List exclusion entries. Categories: Default, Partial File, User Profile, User Specified, Propagated |
add-exclusion <path> | Add absolute path to User Specified exclusions (auto-backups config first) |
remove-exclusion <path> | Remove path from User Specified exclusions |
show-settings | Display all scalar settings with current values |
set-setting <key> <value> | Modify a setting (auto-detects type from existing value) |
account-status | Show quota, usage, encryption type, plan, app version |
last-backup | Parse recent LOGXML files and show backup status/results |
find-redundant | Find exclusion paths made redundant by a parent path in any map |
clean-redundant | Remove redundant entries from User Specified exclusions |
list-backup-paths | List all online backup reference paths |
add-backup-path <path> | Add a directory to backup reference |
remove-backup-path <path> | Remove a directory from backup reference |
backup-config | Create timestamped backup copies of config files |
Safety Rules
- Back up before modifying. The tool does this automatically. Manual changes must copy both
appDefaultSettings.plist and <username>/backupReferenceFile.plist to ~/.idrive-backup/backups/ with timestamps first.
- Only modify User Specified exclusions. The other four maps (Default, Partial File, User Profile, Propagated) are system-managed and will be overwritten by iDrive.
- Preserve plist key quirks exactly. Two keys have trailing spaces:
ShowHiddenFilesKey and PowerAfterScheduledJob . One has a typo: NotifyFaiulreValue. The editable exclusion map key is User specified Exclusion (lowercase 's'). Getting any of these wrong creates orphaned keys.
- Never modify
IDLoginDetails.plist, Sync.plist, LDB_NEW/*.ib databases, or anything under Operation/ (root-owned daemon files).
- Exclusion values are always int(1). Presence in the map means excluded. Never write a 0 value; delete the key instead.
- All User Specified paths must be absolute. No tildes, no trailing slashes, no relative paths.
Five Exclusion Maps
| Map | Plist Key | Count | Matching | Editable |
|---|
| Default | Default Exclusion | ~24 | Exact/parent path | No |
| Partial File | Partial File Exclusion | ~41 | Substring of full path OR exact filename | No |
| User Profile | User Profile Default Exclusion | ~7 | Exact/parent path | No |
| User Specified | User specified Exclusion | 100-2000+ | Exact/parent path | Yes |
| Propagated | Propagated Files Exclusion | Usually 0 | Exact/parent path | No (web console) |
Partial File Exclusion is substring-based. This is the trickiest map. A pattern like .cache matches both /Users/foo/.cache and /path/to/download_cache. Patterns are relative names (never absolute paths), including dotfile dirs (.git, .venv), filename patterns (fp16.bin, safetensors), and one with a separator (pkg/mod).
Key Gotchas
- Mixed boolean types. Some settings use
<true/>/<false/>, others use <integer>0</integer>/<integer>1</integer> for the same concept. The tool handles this; if modifying manually, match the existing type.
- Symlinks/firmlinks.
~/Desktop may resolve to ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Desktop when iCloud Desktop is enabled. Always resolve with os.path.realpath() before comparing paths.
- CDP log filenames have a leading space. iDrive bug: Continuous Data Protection logs in
SessionLogsNew/Backup/ are named MM-DD-YYYY-00-00-00 (note leading space). Account for this when globbing or reading.
- Some files are root-owned.
Operation/Backup/IBThrottle, LDB_NEW/*.ib, and some plists are written by the iDrive daemon as root. Reading is fine; writing requires elevated privileges you shouldn't use.
- The appDefaultSettings.plist can be large. User Specified Exclusion alone can have 1,800+ entries (mostly auto-populated
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.* paths). The plist file can exceed 170 KB.
Detailed Reference
For detailed file format information, all 22+ scalar settings with types and descriptions, secondary file formats (logs, size files, sync config), or the complete directory layout, read references/idrive-config.md.
