# Retrace - Folder History Retrace is a native macOS app that keeps a local version history of the folders you choose, saving a copy of each file seconds after you stop editing it - or waiting for a snapshot, on the folders you would rather it left alone - so you can rewind an entire folder to any moment and undo the rewind if it was not the one. - URL: https://swiftfox.studio/apps/retrace - Price: $6.99 (list price $8.99, sale ends 2026-12-31) - Category: utility (Version History) - Platform: macOS 14.0 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel - Version: 1.0.8 - Publisher: Swiftfox Studio (https://swiftfox.studio) ## Rewind a folder, not a file. Retrace keeps a quiet local history of the folders you choose. A few seconds after you stop editing a file it saves a copy - or, for a folder you would rather it left alone, it waits until you ask. Because those copies share their data with the original they start out costing nothing. When something goes wrong you put the whole folder back to how it was - and back to now again if that was not it either. ### How it works 1. Right-click any folder in Finder, choose History, and switch it on. There is nothing else to configure. 2. Keep working. Retrace saves a copy whenever a file settles, and skips it when the contents did not change. Set a folder to record only when asked and it waits instead - for a snapshot from the folder itself, from the Finder, or from a keyboard shortcut wherever you happen to be. 3. Open the history to compare any two versions, then rewind the whole folder, or one file, to the moment you want. 4. When a file is not edited but replaced - dragged over, unzipped onto, synced down - Retrace says so, and keeps what it replaced. ## Features - Saves a copy seconds after you stop editing a file - Or record only when you ask - one snapshot, one moment - Rewind a whole folder to any moment, then undo it - Snapshot from any app with a global shortcut - Right-click in Finder to start, snapshot or restore - Compare two versions side by side: text, images, PDFs - Knows an overwrite from an edit, and keeps both - Nothing leaves your Mac and no account is needed ## When to use it ### You saved over the good version Undo is gone the moment the app closes, and the file on disk is now the wrong one. Retrace has been keeping copies the whole time - open the file's history, look at what changed between any two, and put the right one back. ### Something was put on top of your file A file dragged onto the wrong name in Finder, an unzip landing on a document, a sync client writing the server's copy down. The name is the same and the contents are somebody else's. Retrace tells that from an edit - it marks the version that landed and keeps the one it buried for thirty days, whatever else retention thins away. ### It is not one file that broke, it is the folder A find-and-replace across a project, a script that renamed everything, a sync that half-finished. Per-file history makes you repair that one file at a time. Retrace rewinds the folder to a single moment, and because it captures the current state first, the rewind is itself undoable. ### Your work does not live in Git Design files, spreadsheets, writing, recordings, scans. Nothing to commit, nothing to remember, no repository to set up. You right-click the folder once and history happens without you. ### Version history that eats the disk Retrace's copies are APFS clones, so a saved version starts out sharing every byte with the original and costs nothing at creation. Disk pressure is handled by retention rules and a budget you set, not by capturing less often. ### The folder is too big to record every save Renders, video projects, export folders, anything measured in tens of gigabytes. Capturing every intermediate save there is expensive and almost none of it is worth keeping. Tell that folder to wait and it records nothing until you ask - one snapshot before a pass, from the folder's own screen, from the Finder, or with a keyboard shortcut from inside whatever you are working in. Everything the snapshot stores lands on the timeline as a single moment. ### You would rather not upload your work Everything stays on the Mac. No account, no sync, no server holds a copy of anything, and the app works with the network off. ## Frequently asked questions ### How is this different from Time Machine? Time Machine backs up the whole disk on a schedule, to another disk, and restores from the last hourly snapshot. Retrace watches a handful of folders you name, captures a few seconds after each save, and keeps everything on the same disk. They answer different questions - one is 'my Mac died', the other is 'I broke this an hour ago'. ### How much disk does it use? A new version costs effectively nothing: copies are APFS clones that share their data with the original, so only what you actually change adds bytes. You set a budget in Settings and old versions retire against it. ### What if I rewind to the wrong moment? A rewind captures the folder as it is first, so the moment before the rewind is itself in the history. Undo is just rewinding back to it, and that is undoable too. ### How do I find a file that was overwritten? The folder list marks each folder with how many of its files something was put on top of, and the file list has a switch that narrows it to only those. On the timeline the moment says the file was replaced rather than edited, and the version underneath it is the one you want back. ### Which folders does it watch? Only the ones you ask for. There is no default folder and no picker to hunt through - you right-click a folder in Finder, choose History, and switch it on. Right-click again to switch it off. Each folder can also be told to wait rather than record on its own, in which case it only captures when you ask for a snapshot. ### Does it work with iCloud Drive or Dropbox folders? Files that are only in the cloud are skipped rather than downloaded, so turning history on cannot quietly pull gigabytes back onto the disk. Files that are actually present are kept like any other. ### How much does Retrace cost? $8.99 as a one-time purchase with a 30-day free trial. No card and no email are needed to start the trial.