Tusk is a Mac app that automatically backs up your project folders to multiple locations and tracks where every file lives — even when your drives aren't connected.
Time Machine is built into every Mac, costs nothing, and runs automatically in the background. For most people, that's enough. But for photographers and video editors who work with multiple external drives, large project files, and footage that can't be recreated, Time Machine has specific gaps that matter.
TL;DR: Time Machine handles whole-Mac recovery well but doesn't track external drives, can't tell you which files are safe to delete before you do it, and has no cloud integration. The alternatives below close those gaps. Most creatives end up using two: one for project-level tracking and one for whole-system recovery.
What Time Machine Actually Does
Before going through the alternatives, it's worth being clear about where Time Machine works well.
You set it up once. It keeps hourly snapshots of your internal drive going back weeks or months. If your Mac fails or you delete something by mistake, you can restore it. For documents, emails, application settings, and your Mac's system, it does exactly what it says it does.
If that's all you need, stop here. Time Machine is free and already running on your Mac.
Where Time Machine Falls Short
The gaps that matter for creative work:
External drives are excluded by default. Time Machine backs up your Mac's internal drive. If your footage lives on an external SSD or spinning drive, Time Machine isn't touching it unless you've specifically configured it as a backup source, which most people haven't.
There's no per-file backup status. You can see when the last backup ran, but you can't ask Time Machine "is this specific folder fully backed up right now?" That question matters when you want to clear local storage.
It backs up to one destination at a time. For a proper 3-2-1 backup strategy (three copies, two different media, one offsite), Time Machine gets you partway there but doesn't handle multiple simultaneous destinations.
There's no cloud integration. Time Machine works with local drives or Time Capsule hardware. Getting footage offsite requires a separate tool.
Restoring large files is slow. Recovering a 400GB project from a Time Machine backup can take the better part of a day.
Best Time Machine Alternatives for Mac
Carbon Copy Cloner
Carbon Copy Cloner ($49.99 one-time) creates bootable clones of your drives. The key difference from Time Machine: you can boot directly from the CCC backup if your Mac fails. No restore process, no waiting. You plug in the drive and keep working.
CCC works with external drives as both sources and destinations, which Time Machine doesn't handle well by default. You configure backup tasks independently: one task for your Mac's internal drive, another for your project drive, another for your archive. Each runs on its own schedule.
What CCC doesn't do: it doesn't track where individual files are across multiple destinations, has no cloud support, and gives you no way to know whether a specific file is safely backed up before you delete the local copy. It's task-based. Once the destination drive is unplugged, CCC doesn't know what's on it.
Best for: people who need a bootable clone for fast disaster recovery, and anyone whose main fear is "my Mac dies and I need to be back up immediately."
ChronoSync
ChronoSync ($49.99 one-time) is more flexible than CCC in how it manages sources and destinations. It can sync bidirectionally, push to a NAS, synchronize folders between two Macs over a network, and handle multiple sync relationships with different rules for each.
Where it pulls ahead is scheduling granularity and multi-location flexibility. You can configure a different sync task for every folder you care about, with different schedules, different exclusion rules, and different destinations per task.
What it doesn't do: no cloud integration beyond NAS, no per-file backup status, and no awareness of what's on disconnected drives. Like CCC, it's task-based.
Best for: syncing project folders between multiple Macs or to a NAS, and anyone who needs fine-grained control over multiple independent sync tasks.
Arq Backup
Arq Backup (~$49.99 one-time, plus storage costs) takes a cloud-first approach. You point it at your folders, pick a cloud destination (Backblaze B2, AWS S3, Wasabi, Google Drive, local NAS, or others), and it backs up continuously in the background.
The thing Arq does that nothing else on this list does: it encrypts everything before it leaves your machine with a key only you hold. The cloud provider can't read your files. For anything sensitive, that matters.
Arq also keeps full version history. Every version of every changed file is stored, not just the current state. If a Premiere project file gets corrupted and you don't notice for two weeks, you can go back to any earlier version. For project files that change constantly, this is genuinely useful.
What Arq doesn't do: no SD card ingest, no per-file backup status across disconnected drives, no way to see what's on which drive without restoring from it.
Best for: anyone who needs encrypted cloud backup with full version history, and who already uses S3-compatible cloud storage as part of their workflow.
Backblaze Personal Backup
Backblaze Personal Backup ($99/year) is the closest thing to set-and-forget cloud backup. It continuously backs up your entire Mac, including external drives that have been connected in the last 30 days. You pay one flat fee for unlimited storage.
The restore options: download through a browser for individual files, or pay extra to have a hard drive mailed to you. For large volumes of footage, the mailed drive is the only practical restore path. Downloading 400GB over a home internet connection takes days.
The 30-day rule is the catch. Drives disconnected for more than 30 days are dropped from coverage. If you archive a drive over winter and don't plug it back in by spring, that data falls out of the Backblaze backup. It's designed for active working drives, not long-term archives.
Best for: whole-Mac continuous cloud backup as an offsite layer. Works well alongside a local backup tool. Not a replacement for local backup because large restores are slow.
SuperDuper
SuperDuper ($27.95 one-time) does what CCC does at a lower price with a simpler interface. It creates bootable clones and keeps them current with a Smart Update that only copies changed files. Pick a source, pick a destination, set a schedule.
It lacks some of CCC's advanced features (more complex scheduling, sandboxing, detailed restore options), but for straightforward bootable backups it does the job reliably.
Best for: people who want a simple bootable clone without the additional complexity of CCC.
Tusk
Tusk ($79 one-time) fills the gap that all of the above leave open for creative work.
The difference is file-level tracking across all destinations, including drives that are currently disconnected. If a project's footage is split across an external SSD and an S3 bucket, Tusk shows you which files are on which location and whether they're verified, even when neither destination is connected right now. You can ask "which drive is the January shoot on?" without plugging in any drives.
For SD card ingest, Tusk reads directly from the card and fans out to all backup destinations simultaneously. No intermediate local copy needed. BLAKE3 checksum verification on every file before the card is considered safe to reformat.
For clearing local storage, Tusk runs a preflight check before you delete anything. It verifies each file is physically present on every connected backup destination before letting you remove the local copy. Files that aren't confirmed stay put.
What Tusk doesn't do: it's not a bootable clone tool (use CCC or SuperDuper alongside it for that), and it doesn't do continuous whole-Mac backup the way Backblaze does. It's focused on project files and creative workflows.
Best for: photographers and video editors managing footage across multiple drives and cloud who need to know exactly where every file lives and whether it's safe to delete the local copy.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Time Machine | CCC | ChronoSync | Arq | Backblaze | SuperDuper | Tusk | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backs up external drives | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes* | Yes | Yes |
| Bootable clone | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Cloud destinations | No | No | No | Yes | Backblaze | No | S3, GDrive |
| Per-file backup status | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Tracks disconnected drives | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| SD card ingest | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Safe delete preflight | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Price | Free | $49.99 | $49.99 | ~$49.99 | $99/year | $27.95 | $79 |
*Backblaze requires the drive to be connected within the last 30 days.
Which Combination to Use
Most photographers and video editors end up with two tools:
One for project-level backup and file tracking (Tusk), and one for whole-Mac bootable recovery (CCC or SuperDuper). Time Machine can run alongside both for free. Add Arq or Backblaze Personal as an offsite layer if you want cloud coverage without managing S3 yourself.
Time Machine is worth keeping enabled. It's free, handles your internal drive automatically, and covers the scenario where you accidentally delete a file from your Mac. What it can't do is manage your creative workflow or tell you what's on which drive. That's what the tools above handle.
FAQ
It depends on what Time Machine is missing for you. For bootable clones that let you boot directly from a backup drive, Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. For encrypted cloud backup with version history, Arq Backup. For continuous whole-Mac cloud backup with unlimited storage, Backblaze Personal. For photographers and video editors who need to track where footage is across multiple drives, know what's safe to delete, and handle SD card ingest, Tusk is built specifically for that workflow.
Not by default. Time Machine backs up your Mac's internal drive. External drives are excluded unless you configure them as a source in Time Machine's settings. Even then, the backup goes to a single destination drive, and Time Machine gives you no visibility into whether individual files from that external drive are safely backed up before you decide to clear space.
For most use cases, yes. CCC creates bootable clones, works with external drives as both sources and destinations, and handles scheduled backups. The main thing CCC doesn't do that Time Machine does is automatic snapshot history — CCC copies the current state of your files on a schedule, whereas Time Machine keeps hourly snapshots going back months. If file version history matters to you, keep both running. If you just want reliable backup you can boot from, CCC is the stronger choice.
You have a few options. Carbon Copy Cloner and ChronoSync both support external drives as sources and can back them up to another external drive or NAS. Arq Backup can back up specific folders on external drives to cloud storage. Tusk is built around the external drive workflow for creative work: it tracks footage across multiple drives, handles SD card ingest, and verifies backups at the file level before you delete anything locally.
The workflow most creative professionals end up with: Tusk for managing project files, SD card ingest, and knowing what's on which drive (including disconnected ones). Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper for bootable whole-Mac backup. Arq Backup or Backblaze Personal as an offsite cloud layer. Time Machine can run alongside all of these for free — it handles the internal drive recovery case that the others don't focus on.