Where Tusk stores data

Application Support

Tusk's primary data lives in your Mac's Application Support folder.

~/Library/Application Support/Tusk/
├── tusk.db                         SQLite database (file index, projects, jobs)
├── tusk.db-journal                 SQLite write-ahead log (transient)
├── settings.json                   Non-sensitive preferences
├── logs/                           Rotating log files
│   ├── tusk-2026-05-08.log
│   ├── tusk-2026-05-07.log
│   └── ...
└── crash-reports/                  Crash dumps if any (rare)

The database (tusk.db) is the single most important file. It holds your file index, project metadata, destination configuration, and job history. Back this up if you care about preserving your in-Tusk state across machine moves or wipes.

Logs

Logs are plain text and rotated daily. Each day's log is a separate file. Old logs are pruned after a retention window (default 30 days).

Logs include operation traces, error messages, and timing data. They do notinclude file contents, passwords, or credential values. Paths and file names appear in the log so they aren't safe to share publicly without redaction, but they're fine to send to Tusk support.

From the macOS menu bar, choose Help → Open Logs to reveal the folder in Finder.

Keychain entries

All credentials Tusk stores (S3 access keys, Google Drive OAuth tokens, license keys) live in your macOS login Keychain, encrypted with macOS's built-in safe-storage mechanism. Each entry uses the prefix so.tusk.:

so.tusk.s3.<credential-id>           S3-compatible credentials
so.tusk.googledrive.<account-id>     Google Drive OAuth refresh tokens
so.tusk.license                      License key
so.tusk.machine-id                   Per-Mac install identifier

You can inspect these from Keychain Access (Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access). They're encrypted; opening one in Keychain Access asks for your login password.

Preferences

Non-sensitive preferences live in two places. UI preferences (which page was open last, sidebar state, notification toggles) are in settings.json inside Application Support. macOS-managed preferences (window position, app version) are stored using the standard NSUserDefaults mechanism in ~/Library/Preferences/so.tusk.app.plist.

What lives in your project folders, not in Tusk

Your actual project files (footage, photos, project files, exports) live wherever you put them: in your chosen primary folder for each project, on your backup destinations, on cards. Tusk doesn't copy them into its own data directory; the database only stores metadata about them (paths, sizes, hashes, per-destination status).

The implication: deleting Tusk's Application Support folder doesn't delete any of your actual files. Recreating Tusk on a fresh install would just mean re-adding your projects and re-indexing them. Your backups would be re-discovered against their destinations.

Migrating to a new Mac

The cleanest migration path:

1. Quit Tusk on the old Mac.
2. Copy ~/Library/Application Support/Tusk/ from the old Mac to the same path on the new Mac.
3. On the new Mac, install Tusk and launch it. The app picks up the migrated database immediately.
4. Reactivate your license on the new Mac. A license allows two activations; if you've hit the limit, ask us to reset.
5. Reconnect any cloud accounts under Preferences → Accounts. OAuth tokens and S3 keys are bound to the source Mac's Keychain and don't migrate automatically.
6. Plug in your external drives so Tusk re-stats them against the migrated index.