Unattended Duplicacy setup on macOS

Last Updated Oct 26, 2026

Purpose

To provide a sample of working configurations on macOS.

Download and configure duplicacy

Download the macOS CLI executable for your processor from Duplicacy’s releases. Install it, substituting the downloaded filename below:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin
sudo install -m 755 ~/Downloads/duplicacy_osx_arm64_VERSION /usr/local/bin/duplicacy

Setup repository

We’ll be using ~ as a repository root. Alternatively one can configure /Users as a duplicacy root targeting the same storage with different backup schedules. Some tweaks to the filters file might be required. For other storage backends, see the documentation.

We’ll assume that the storage is on a network server server.com accessible via sftp with public key authentication. To keep things tidy, it is straightforward to keep the private key along in the same folder

cd ~
duplicacy init -e my-repo sftp://[email protected]//Backups/Duplicacy/

Note // to indicate the path is absolute.

You will be prompted for an encryption password. If encryption is not desired - remote -e.

Then edit ~/.duplicacy/preferences and add keys and other options:

[
    {
        "name": "default",
        "id": "my-repo",
        "storage": "sftp://[email protected]//Backups/Duplicacy/",
        "encrypted": true,
        "no_backup": false,
        "no_restore": false,
        "no_save_password": false,
        "keys": {
            "default_password": "<encryption password>",
            "ssh_key_file": ".duplicacy/id_rsa"
        }
    }
]

chmod 700 ~/.duplicacy/preferences

Alternatively, an encryption password can be stored in the keychain but that would complicate the setup. Also, if the attacker has access to your home folder, then there is not much sense in protecting the same files in the backup.

Configure exclusions

Sample .duplicacy/filters optimized for backing up irreplaceable data of a typical macOS user home. The goal is to only backup user-generated content and avoid backing up system, temporary, and derivative data. There is a Time Machine for that.

#### ----------------------- Generic Transients -----------------------  ####

# Caches, logs, and generated developer data
-*/Caches/
-*/Logs/
-*/Cache/
-*/cache/
-*/Code Cache/
-*/GPUCache/
-*/DawnGraphiteCache/
-*/DawnWebGPUCache/
-*/GraphiteDawnCache/
-*/GPUPersistentCache/
-*/ShaderCache/
-*/GrShaderCache/
-*/ScriptCache/
-*/CachedData/
-*/CachedExtensionVSIXs/
-*/CachedProfilesData/
-*/CacheStorage/
-*/component_crx_cache/
-*/extensions_crx_cache/
-*/optimization_guide_hint_cache_store/
-*/AutofillAiModelCache/
-*/Favicon Cache/
-*/DerivedData/
-*/TrafficLogs/
-*.cache/
-*/_cacache/
-Library/Daemon Containers/*/Data/Library/HybridSearch/

# Preferences and old-school shite we don't care about - e.g .dropbox
e:\.(Trash|SynologyDrive|ac6|oracle_jre_usage|pia_manager|stm\w*|eclipse|dropbox)/.*$

# Source cobtrol - .git/.svn/.hg
e:\.(svn|git|hg)/.*$


# Exclude junk/spam and deleted Mailboxes
e:(Deleted Items|Junk( Email)?|Spam|Trash)\.mbox/.*$

# Exclude other well-known shite
-*$RECYCLE.BIN/
e:.*/Envelope Index(-wal|-shm)?$

Library folders: We’ll specifically include certain items and exclude everything else

#### ------------------------- Library Folder --------------------------  >>>
+Library/

# Everything under Messages, Mail and Calendar
+Library/Messages/*
+Library/Mail/*
+Library/Calendars/*

### -------------------- Library/Application Support -------------------- >>>
+Library/Application Support/

# Important apps that seem to keep user data there. Why!?
+Library/Application Support/1Password 4/*
+Library/Application Support/BBEdit/*
+Library/Application Support/Viscosity/*
+Library/Application Support/CampoSanto/*
+Library/Application Support/Transmit/*
+Library/Application Support/minecraft/
+Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves/*

# Nothing else from Application Support
-Library/Application Support/*

### -------------------- Library/Application Support -------------------- <<<

### --------------------------- iCloud Stuff ---------------------------- >>>
+Library/Mobile Documents/

# Entire CloudDocs folder  (iCloud Drive essentially, with Desktop and stuff)
+Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/*

# Other iCloud stuff. Documents subfolder only for all other apps, just in case
+Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~*/
+Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~*/Documents/*

# Nothing else from Mobile Documents
-Library/Mobile Documents/*

### --------------------------- iCloud Stuff ---------------------------  <<<

### ------------------------ Library/Containers ------------------------  >>>
+Library/Containers/

# Relevant app state
+Library/Containers/com.culturedcode.ThingsMac/*

# Nothing else from containers
-Library/Containers/*

### ------------------------ Library/Containers ------------------------  <<<

# Nothing else from Library:
-Library/*

#### ------------------------- Library Folder -------------------------  <<<<

We will exclude (what I think is) derivative data and only backup Masters and Live Photo videos. Upon importing these back into the fresh photos library, it figures out that they are related and makes a live photo again. Therefore, this is sufficient to only back up those files.

#### ---------------------------- Pictures ----------------------------  >>>>
+Pictures/

# Only pictures from Photo Booth
+Pictures/Photo Booth Library/
+Pictures/Photo Booth Library/Originals/*
+Pictures/Photo Booth Library/Pictures/*
-Pictures/Photo Booth Library/*

# Only masters from Photos Library
+Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/

# Catalina+
+Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/originals/*
+Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/database/*

# Pre-Catalina
+Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/Masters/*
+Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/resources/
+Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/resources/media/
+Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/resources/media/master/*

-Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/*

# Everything else under Pictures will be included by default.

#### ---------------------------- Pictures ----------------------------  <<<<

#### ------------------------- Re-obtainable --------------------------  >>>>

# Explicitly Exclude other known folders
-Music/
-Movies/
-Downloads/*.dmg
-Downloads/*.pax
-Downloads/*.download
-Box/*

#### ------------------------- Re-obtainable --------------------------  <<<<

# If a match is not found - the item will be included as we have both + and - rules.

Schedule periodic backup via launchd

It’s useful to place actual calls to duplicacy into a shell script e.g. .duplicacy/gobackup.sh - for debugging, manual execution, and for convenience.

#!/bin/bash
set -eu

cd "$HOME"
caffeinate -s nice -n 11 /usr/local/bin/duplicacy backup

# Retention
# After two weeks keep a version every day
# After 90 days keep a version every week
# After one year keep a version every month
caffeinate -s nice -n 11 /usr/local/bin/duplicacy prune -keep 31:360 -keep 7:90 -keep 1:14 -all

Note, caffeinate is not required if it is only launched iva launchd; it is however useful for the initial backup and/or when launched manually. Note, the previous note also applies to nice

The launchd plist can also be placed into the same folder and then symlink created under ~/Library/LaunchAgents.

Make the script executable with chmod 700 ~/.duplicacy/gobackup.sh. Place the plist under ~/Library/LaunchAgents and load it:

plutil -lint "$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/com.somename.duplicacy.plist"
launchctl bootstrap "gui/$(id -u)" \
    "$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/com.somename.duplicacy.plist"
launchctl kickstart "gui/$(id -u)/com.somename.duplicacy"
launchctl print "gui/$(id -u)/com.somename.duplicacy"

The same approach can be used for backing up the entire /Users directory, in this case, the plist shall be linked to under /Library/LaunchDaemons; For more details see man launchd.plist. The filter list will need to be adjusted to allow for a home folder name prefix.

Sample plist for backup every start of the hour.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
	<dict>
		<key>Label</key>
		<string>com.somename.duplicacy</string>
		<key>ProgramArguments</key>
		<array>
			<string>/Users/username/.duplicacy/gobackup.sh</string>
		</array>
		<key>LowPriorityIO</key>
		<true/>
		<key>WorkingDirectory</key>
		<string>/Users/username</string>

                <key>StandardOutPath</key>
                <string>/tmp/duplicacy.stdout</string>
                <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
                <string>/tmp/duplicacy.stderr</string>

		<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
		<dict>
			<key>Minute</key>
			<integer>0</integer>
		</dict>

		<key>Nice</key>
		<integer>11</integer>
		<key>ProcessType</key>
		<string>Background</string>
	</dict>
</plist>

References

• Duplicacy Documentation
• Filters - Setting up Include-Exclude patterns
• Creating Launch Daemons and Agents

History