Lifeboat

Your files, without Lifeboat

Lifeboat stores every backup as a standard restic repository. If Lifeboat is gone one day, does not start, or you are at another computer, restic and your password still get you every file.

You need the emergency sheet Lifeboat made during setup (Destinations › More › Show Emergency Sheet…). It lists where the backup is and the password. Without the password nobody can read the backup, not even me.

1. Install restic

On a Mac with Homebrew:

brew install restic

Without Homebrew, on Linux or Windows: download the right program from github.com/restic/restic/releases. Lifeboat uses restic 0.19.1; any newer version reads the backup too.

2. List your backups

Open Terminal. The first command depends on the destination. restic asks for the password every time.

Disk

Connect the disk. The location is on the emergency sheet, for example /Volumes/Backup/Lifeboat Backup. If the disk has a new name, look under Locations in the Finder.

restic -r "/Volumes/Backup/Lifeboat Backup" snapshots

Network share (NAS)

restic cannot open smb:// itself. Connect to the share in the Finder first (Go › Connect to Server, address from the emergency sheet). macOS mounts it under /Volumes/<share>:

restic -r "/Volumes/Backup/Lifeboat Backup" snapshots

Cloud storage (S3, R2, B2, Hetzner)

For safety, the access keys are not on the emergency sheet. Find them at your provider (or create new ones there). The repository address is on the sheet:

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="…" AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="…"
restic -r "s3:https://<account>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com/<bucket>/Lifeboat Backup" snapshots

For Amazon S3 and some providers also set AWS_DEFAULT_REGION="eu-central-1" (the region is on the sheet as well).

3. Restore

Restore the newest backup into a new folder:

restic -r "/Volumes/Backup/Lifeboat Backup" restore latest --target ~/Restored
  • Only one folder: add --include "/Users/name/Documents".
  • An older backup: use its ID from step 2 instead of latest, for example 4f2a9c1d.
  • Find a single file: restic -r … find "Taxes 2025.pdf".

Prefer browsing in the Finder? With macFUSE installed, restic -r … mount ~/restic shows every backup as a folder. This is optional and needs a system extension.

With Lifeboat it is simpler

After installing Lifeboat again, choose Destinations › Add Destination, pick the same disk, share or bucket and enter the password. Lifeboat finds the existing backup and every version shows up under Restore. Restoring is open on every plan, even without a license.

restic and its license

restic is an independent open source project (restic.net) under the BSD 2-Clause license. Lifeboat ships restic unchanged and shows the full license text in Settings › About. The restic project is not affiliated with Lifeboat.

Stuck? Write to lifeboat@farazfarid.com, even if you no longer use Lifeboat.