What gets written.
Whatever the source handed over — exactly as it handed it over. SyncShotdoesn't recompress, doesn't rename, doesn't silently “optimise.” The file that landed on the drive is the file you can open ten years from now and trust.
- Originals
- Files arrive byte-for-byte intact — no recompression, no name mangling, no quiet container changes. What came in is what lives on the drive.
- Folder structure
- The source layout is preserved as-is by default — or apply a workflow path template, something like /YYYY/MM-shoot-name/, and the drive grows the way your archive already thinks.
- Metadata
- EXIF, file times, extended attributes — preserved on disk wherever the destination filesystem supports it. The provenance survives the copy.
- Job report
- Alongside the files (or in a side log, your choice) SyncShot writes a job report — a record of what landed where, when, and which verification check it passed.
What it pairs with.
External drives are the most common destination because they're the most general — anything with a card slot or a cable becomes a drive's source. Your external SSD is one of many destinations, and SyncShot writes to it in parallel with everywhere else.
- SD cards
- The classic offload — slot a card into the Mac, watch every photo and clip land on the drive. Multiple cards in sequence, no manual triage between them.
- CFexpress
- Cinema-grade clips, fast cards, hundreds of gigabytes at a go. The drive on Thunderbolt keeps up; SyncShot doesn't artificially throttle the write.
- iPhone
- Cable in, trust the Mac, and the phone is just another source — its photos and video land on the drive alongside whatever else you offloaded today.
- GoPro
- Action cam, drone footage, a stack of clips named DCIM-style — pulled off the camera (or its card) and written straight onto the drive at full speed.
How it works.
- 01
Plug in the drive
Cable in. macOS mounts it; SyncShot lists it as a destination the moment Finder sees it. No special format, no driver, no companion utility.
- 02
Choose destinations
Pick this drive — and every other place this shoot belongs. Save the set as a workflow if you'll use it again; next time it's one click.
- 03
Hit start
SyncShot reads the source once and writes to every destination in parallel. The drive on Thunderbolt finishes fastest; the NAS and bucket keep going in the background.
- 04
Trust the report
Every byte is hash-checked end to end. When the job finishes you get a report — what landed on the drive, every verification mark. The byte that left the source is the byte on disk.
Common questions.
- 01
Does it work with any external drive?
If macOS mounts it — USB-C, Thunderbolt, an old USB-A hub, a spinning HDD, a fast NVMe SSD — SyncShot lists it as a destination. No format requirement beyond what macOS already understands.
- 02
Can I write to several drives at once?
Yes. Plug in as many drives as your Mac can see and SyncShot writes to all of them in parallel — your external SSD is one of many destinations, fed from a single read of the source.
- 03
What if a drive disconnects mid-copy?
SyncShot pauses that destination, keeps writing to the others, and resumes the disconnected drive when it comes back. Nothing on the other destinations slows down or fails because one cable wiggled loose.
- 04
Will it verify the files on the drive?
Every copy is hash-checked end to end. The byte that came off the source is the byte that lives on the drive — and the job report shows you exactly which files were verified and when.
- 05
Does it preserve the folder structure?
Yes — by default the source layout is mirrored as-is. Or apply a workflow path template (something like /YYYY/MM-shoot-name/) and SyncShot lays the files out the way your archive expects.
Also writing to NAS, S3, or Google Drive? Browse everything SyncShot loves.