Getting started

Create your first project

Walk through the new project wizard from start to finish: name, primary folder, optional offload, and the first sync. After this you have a real project that Tusk is actively tracking.

A project is the unit Tusk works in. One folder on your Mac, a name, and a list of backup destinations. Once it exists, Tusk watches the folder and syncs every change to every destination automatically.

The new-project wizard handles all of this in a few screens. You'll spend most of the time on the first two: the name and the primary folder. The destinations come next and have their own dedicated page if you want to set them up first (Add your first destination).

Click 'Add project' in the sidebar

The button is at the bottom of the left sidebar, right above Preferences. You can also use ⌘N from anywhere in the app.

Name your project

Pick a name you'll recognize a year from now. Wedding_Smith_2026-04-15 beats Saturday wedding. The name is just for your reference inside Tusk and in search. Adding an optional description makes search match more things later.

Pick the primary folder

Click the folder picker and choose the folder you actively work in. For video, that's usually the folder above your raw footage and project files. For photo, it's the folder containing your Lightroom catalog or your raw imports. The folder must be on a local drive (not under /Volumes/...) and must not overlap another project's folder.

Optional: offload directly from a card or external drive

If you're creating a project around footage that's still on an SD card or an external source, flip the offload toggle in the wizard. Tusk will let you pick a source folder and stream the files straight to your destinations on creation. This is the right move when you don't want to fill up your Mac. Full details on the From project creation page.

Add your backup destinations

Choose one or more destinations: a connected external drive, a Google Drive or Dropbox account, an S3 bucket, or any combination. You can add up to five total destinations per project. At least one is required. The destination picker shows everything currently connected and offers to add new ones inline. The Add your first destination page covers the per-provider setup in detail.

Review and create

The last step shows a summary: name, folder, destinations. Click Create project. Tusk indexes the folder, opens the project page, and starts the first sync immediately.

The first sync runs in the background

You don't need to wait on the project page. Tusk queues the initial sync and starts pushing files to every destination in parallel. You can navigate away, work in other apps, or even close the window. The menu bar app keeps going.

What happens after you click Create

Tusk walks the primary folder, registers every file in the index, computes a BLAKE3 hash for each one as it's read for the first transfer, and queues a sync job per destination. Local-to-local transfers are fastest; cloud transfers run as fast as your upload allows. Files appear in the file table immediately with a status that updates per destination as each transfer and verification completes.

From this point onward, Tusk watches the primary folder. New files, edits, renames, moves, deletes. Anything that happens in the folder gets picked up and propagated to your destinations without any further action from you.

Add your first destination →

Step-by-step for an external drive, Google Drive, Dropbox, or any S3-compatible bucket.

Project basics →

What goes inside a project, what stays out, how the auto-watch works.

The offload concept →

When to skip the local copy entirely and stream straight from a card.

Add your first destination →