Looking for the iOS version?Go to Parachute for iOS

Keep Your iCloud Data. Forever.

Parachute is a set-and-forget backup companion for iCloud Photos and iCloud Drive. It automatically syncs your memories, photos, videos, and documents to your own storage.

Download on the Mac App Store
Parachute Backup
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iCloud Isn't a Time Machine

Decades of photos, precious moments captured on video, critical documents. All in the cloud, until they're not.

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No Subscriptions. No Lock-In.

One-time setup. One-time purchase. Your files, backed up where you want.

Complete iCloud Backup

Your entire iCloud Photos and iCloud Drive with full fidelity preservation. Originals, edits, and live photos are all preserved. Even your Shared Albums!

Scheduling & Shortcuts

Manual or scheduled runs, with the ability to override the schedule at any time. You can even schedule Shortcuts to trigger during certain backup events.

Your Storage, Your Rules

Works with external drives, mounted NAS, or other clouds like Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive if you have them connected to your Mac.

Smart Offloading

Avoid filling up your Mac's hard drive with intelligent storage management. Parachute will offload items back to iCloud after they have been backed up.

Multiple Backup Modes

Choose from full, incremental, or mirror backups depending on your needs.

Beyond iCloud

Backup any folder or drive on your Mac, not just iCloud. Perfect for safeguarding local documents, downloads, and project files.

What People Are Saying

Real App Store feedback from customers worldwide.

4.8

Based on 1,027 ratings

No brainer, no headaches

Reliable, easy to set up

hamour🇳🇱

Macht was es soll!

Kein weiterer Text.

-LaSer-🇩🇪

Great tool

Searched sooo long. Does exactly what needed

soesoe🇩🇪

Backup of iCloud without a subscription

After reading stories, I became concerned with my entire photo library and document library on iCloud without a reliable “copy” I was looking for cost effective approaches that didn’t have recurring costs. After purchasing a 5TB HDD and hooking it up to my Mac, I bought the software and started a backup. It gives me piece of mind to know that if for some reason Apple loses or something get corrupted, I have my own full resolution copy. Software was easy to setup and seems to work well enough. There are a few minor annoyances but overall seems like a well built piece of software for a weekly incremental backup and provides me piece of mind.

bierhere🇺🇸

Easy cloud backup

I have only recently downloaded this app on my Mac and all works as advertised. Simple interface and very quick to backup.

Talbot Fox🇬🇧

backup van foto’s en schijven

werkt perfect ik gebruik het dagelijks, ik heb een extra ssd aan mijn mac hangen waar de backup’s op worden geslagen. echt een aanrader.

Jettyke🇳🇱

Vraiment utile

Simple d’utilisation, ce programme est le complément nécessaire à Photos iCloud et iCloud drive si vous ne voulez pas être pris au dépourvu, en cas de panne ou d’impossibilité d’accès aux services cloud notamment.

1842TTT🇨🇭

Precise and efficient backup

Thanks to a clean UI it is easy to understand and to use. Two backup types provided, (i) iCloud Drive and (ii) iCloud photos. The initial backup takes quite a time (45k files >24 hours) but once done the incremental backup runs within a few minutes. The downloads from iCloud take some time so the overall amount of time is quite normal. Missed files or files with (temporary) read errors are shown in a log and usually get added to the next backup run; I tested this use case with ca. 10 „missing“ files which were added to the backup in the following run. Overall I am very pleased with the result given a very fair price. Not to forget the excellent email support one receives within a few hours after placing a question. Big thanks to the team - well done!

Mikquadrat🇩🇪

A l’application du disque

Ce serait encore mieux si la sauvegarde pouvait démarrer au branchement du disque (comme CCC)

Mathess_🇫🇷

Wonderful

Thank you for the great app - it works flawlessly even with huge volumes of data and photos. I have been using it for a while now, and it has been a game-changer for me - give me a peace of mind as I know that my data is safe and secure. Finally, the developers are very responsive and helpful, and they are always willing to help me with any issues or questions that I have.

tuanson84uk🇻🇳

Peace of Mind for My Entire Photo Library

I rarely write reviews, but Parachute Backup solved a very real problem for me that nothing else could. My goal was simple: create a true backup of my Apple Photos (iPhoto) library; not just a synced copy that may or may not have the full resolution images. With recent changes to how iCloud works, it became unclear whether services like Backblaze could reliably capture full-resolution photos along with all metadata from a local Photos library. That was a risk I was not willing to accept. Parachute Backup fixed that gap perfectly. It creates a clean, incremental backup of my entire Photos library to an external hard drive. From there, Backblaze treats that external drive like any other and backs it up to the cloud without issue. This gives me a complete, layered backup strategy: iCloud for offsite access and syncing (not a true backup) A local external drive copy created by Parachute A cloud backup of that external drive via Backblaze This is the first time I feel confident that my photo library, including full-resolution images and metadata, is actually protected. The app is straightforward, reliable, and does exactly what it promises. If you care about your photo library and want a real backup, not just synchronization, Parachute Backup is an essential tool.

freyman🇺🇸

Does what it says it does

I accidentally deleted a folder from iCloud. iCloud is suppose to have a 30 day recovery period. After accidentally deleting the folder I immediacy when to iCloud drive to recover the folder and guess what, the folder was not there. After spending over 5 hours with Apple on the phone they could not find my folder nor could they explain why I could not recover the folder. If I had known abut Parachute I would not have lost the folder. By the way, the folder which I stupidly deleted cost me several thousand of dollars. From my experience I don’t trust Apple to secure my data.

CaptainDay🇺🇸

Showing 12 of 198 reviews from customers worldwide

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about Parachute Backup

Parachute is designed to avoid filling up your Mac's disk during backups. When it encounters a file that has been offloaded by iCloud, it temporarily downloads it, creates a local backup to your selected destination, and then automatically offloads it again from your Mac, assuming you have Optimize Mac Storage enabled.

Parachute supports three backup modes:

Full: Backs up all content from the source every time, regardless of whether it has changed.

Mirror: Keeps your backup destination in exact sync with the source, including removing files from the backup if they no longer exist in iCloud.

Smart Incremental: Detects and backs up only new or modified files since your last backup, which saves both time and disk space.

Parachute never deletes content from iCloud under any circumstance. It is strictly a one-way backup.

Yes. Parachute backs up both the original and any edited versions when available.

Parachute stores your backups as regular files and folders. To restore, simply browse to the backup destination in Finder and drag the files back to your desired location.

Parachute will list any items it could not back up in a summary at the end of the run. You may try exporting these files manually from Apple Photos, but they are often not recoverable.

Yes. Parachute supports backing up photos and videos from Shared Albums.

Yes. Parachute supports local folders, network storage, external drives, USB drives, and mounted remote destinations such as SFTP or WebDAV.

Yes. You can add any folder on your Mac as a custom backup source.

Ready to Backup Your iCloud?

Available now on the Mac App Store

Download on the Mac App Store