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.

idrive-backup