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 26 ratings

First-class Backup Program

Fantastic backup program and so easy to use. I recommend it highly!

PalmettoBirder🇺🇸

Simple and straightforward peace of mind

Understanding that iCloud is not an actual backup is the first step in realizing that extra steps need to be taken to preserve one’s files and photos. I have a local NAS and was looking for a way to keep a backup there in the event that something were to happen to my iCloud account. Parachute checked all the boxes. It was easy to set up, and is a simple way to ensure that I can recover my data should an unexpected issue ever occur. I love that it is not a subscription and that it works so seamlessly with my Mac.

Kmilleriowa🇺🇸

Does what it says on the tin

Great app, I was always a little concerned about the photos I had stored in iCloud especially the shared albums as I would not always have the originals but Parachute is dead easy to use and allows me to get a backup copy of everything.

Lynchey🇬🇧

On the way to solving my lingering backup niggles

I’ve been looking for a way to reliably backup iCloud files and photos for the whole (5 people) family. Parachute has solved most of the issues I experienced with other solutions. With more features in the works, I can only see the experience improving.

Haruki Zaemon🇦🇺

It just works, and it works well.

Great software, a must have for backing up your stuff.

jbstrick🇺🇸

Simple and effective

I really enjoy Parachute as a set it and leave it solution. You can easily have two destinations fixed and use have periodic backup scheduled for one of those. It works just fine for mine needs.

Nithador🇨🇿

Just great!

Finally an app to sync easy to other cloud servers

JustOleg🇳🇱

Superbe application avec un petit manque

Super application mais il manque deux fonctions : 1.Ejecter automatiquement le disque apres sauvegarde et 2. Une option miroir pour photos !

Raymond Troulez🇫🇷

Great app

Works perfectly!

grisi007🇨🇭

Reassuring

Very useful app to provide the reassurance of a backup of your iCloud and Photos data. I used it to back the data up to a local NAS. If you have a large photo library, and already have storage optimisation enabled, then first backup will take a while as each item is downloaded (I found iCloud to be the bottleneck here). I like the fact it re-offloads files it downloads. I’ve used a Photos backup app before that downloaded the entire library. MacOS offloaded in due course, but this app handles that immediately.

ChoongMoo🇬🇧

You can never have too many backups

Good app to have a extra backup from your cloud photos

Uncle DD🇮🇹

Easy to use

Simple and easy to set up regular backups. Great addition to my MacBook

Guido100UK🇬🇧

Showing 12 of 138 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