Guide · Mac and Windows 11

Mirror your photos without losing what you delete by mistake

You cull hard, so you want a backup that matches your shoots folder, not one that keeps every frame you've rejected. But a backup that matches also copies your mistakes. Delete the wrong shoot, and the next time the backup drive goes in, it's gone from there too. Here's how to keep a matching backup and still get back what you deleted by mistake.

Setting it up

This uses Stow™. Plug in your backup drive first.

1. Open Stow and click New sync.
2. Under From, choose your shoots folder. Under To, choose (or make) a folder on the backup drive. Choose folders, not the drives themselves: a drive also holds the system's own hidden files, which can't be copied.
3. Choose the first option, which reads like Make Shoots on Backup match Shoots on this Mac (on Windows, …on this PC). New and changed files are copied, and anything you delete from your shoots folder is removed from the backup too.
4. Under When should it run?, choose Whenever Shoots on Backup is plugged in.
5. Click More options…. The Safety net is already on: anything a run removes or replaces goes into a dated folder on the backup drive instead of being deleted. Next to it, click Change and set how long to keep things and how much space to give them. Make the space bigger than your biggest shoot. When it fills up, the oldest go first, even if their days aren't up.
6. Click Save and preview results. Stow lists every file it would copy before anything moves. Click to run it.

Getting a photo back

1. In Stow, click Safety net in the sidebar. If you have more than one sync, choose your backup drive at the top.
2. Search for the file's name, or the name of the shoot's folder.
3. Click the file. Stow lists every copy it has kept, when, and why, like Removed, because it was gone from Shoots on this Mac (or on this PC on Windows).
4. Click Put it back. The photo goes back where it was in your shoots folder, and the next run copies it to the backup again.

If a file with that name is already there, nothing is overwritten. The kept copy comes back beside it with the date it was kept in its name, like IMG_2005 (kept 2026-10-09 20-06).CR3.

Getting a whole shoot back

Put it back works one file at a time. For a whole folder, use Finder or File Explorer instead:

1. On the safety net screen, click Show the safety net in Finder (in File Explorer on Windows). It opens your folder on the backup drive, with a folder called _kept selected.
2. Open _kept. Every run that removed or replaced something has its own folder, named for when it ran, like 2026-10-10T03-06-33Z. That time is in UTC, not your local time, so a run late in your day (or early, depending on where you are) can carry a different date. Open the first one after you deleted the shoot.
3. Inside, the shoot's folder is just as it was. Drag it back into your shoots folder.

The next run copies the shoot to the backup again.

When a run would remove too much

If a run would remove more than half of what's on the backup, Stow stops before removing anything. You'd see that if the drive holding your shoots came up empty, or you'd moved the shoots folder somewhere else. The sync shows Safety stop and how much would have gone. Click Try again to see the list. If you meant it, click Yes, I'm sure. Go ahead.

Things worth knowing

• The safety net only lasts so long. Once a removed shoot has been in the safety net longer than you chose, it's cleared, and from then on it's gone from both drives.
• It's kept on the backup drive. The safety net is for your mistakes, not the drive's. If the backup drive dies or is stolen, its safety net goes with it. Keep another copy somewhere else.
• Replaced files are kept too. Save over a JPEG export and the next run puts the old version in the safety net, where Put it back works the same way.