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

1. 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.
2. Only modify User Specified exclusions. The other four maps (Default, Partial File, User Profile, Propagated) are system-managed and will be overwritten by iDrive.
3. 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.
4. Never modify IDLoginDetails.plist, Sync.plist, LDB_NEW/*.ib databases, or anything under Operation/ (root-owned daemon files).
5. Exclusion values are always int(1). Presence in the map means excluded. Never write a 0 value; delete the key instead.
6. 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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.