Where apps hide your files

Finding Drafts' database and backups

Updated 2026-10-28 · 6 min read

Drafts does not store each draft as a file. Your text sits in a database in a Group Containers folder, and the backups that actually matter go to iCloud Drive as .draftsExport files.

Two places to know

The live data, as Greg Pierce (agiletortoise), Drafts' developer, described it on the Drafts forum in 2020:

~/Library/Group Containers/GTFQ98J4YG.com.agiletortoise.Drafts

That folder holds the app database, which contains most of your data: drafts, actions and workspaces. A smaller folder holds basic preferences and settings:

~/Library/Containers/com.agiletortoise.Drafts-OSX

And backups, per Drafts' documentation, go to the Drafts/Backups folder in your iCloud Drive. In Finder that is iCloud Drive > Drafts > Backups.

To open the database folder, press ⇧⌘G in Finder, paste the path and press Return. From Terminal:

open ~/Library/Group\ Containers/GTFQ98J4YG.com.agiletortoise.Drafts

If you are not sure the identifiers match your build, list what exists:

ls ~/Library/Group\ Containers | grep -i agiletortoise

That answer is a 2020 forum post rather than a documentation page, so the layout inside the folders is not promised. Drafts' documentation says nothing about file names in there.

It is a database, not a folder of notes

Drafts stores drafts in a SQLite database. Other tools can technically read it, but the developer's advice is to export if you need your text in other apps, and a user who browsed it on the forum warns to work on a copy, never the original. Do not open or edit the live file. Quit Drafts before copying anything out of the container, because a copy made mid-write can be unusable.

If what you want is your writing in plain files, use Drafts' export: select drafts, right-click, and choose Export > as JSON (Drafts' backup page describes this partial export for the Mac). JSON keeps text and metadata, and any text editor opens it.

Backups in iCloud Drive

Drafts' backup page describes the feature like this:

• Backup files use the .draftsExport extension and hold their contents as JSON, so other tools can read them. Action groups and workspaces are saved as separate files in a compressed native format.
• You turn on periodic backups and choose an interval, and Drafts runs them in the background once that interval has passed. Use Backup Now before a big clean-up or a move to a new Mac.
• You can limit how many backups are kept, and older ones are removed automatically.
• On the Mac, the settings are at File > Preferences > Backups, as Drafts' documentation names them. On newer builds the menu wording may differ, so if you do not see it, look for a Backups pane in the app's settings.

Backups do not appear in the app's database folder. They are ordinary files in iCloud Drive, which means ~/Library/Mobile Documents/ holds the real folder on disk, and Finder's iCloud Drive sidebar entry is the friendly view of it. With Optimise Mac Storage on, an older backup may show as a download placeholder until you open it.

Restoring from a backup

From Drafts' docs, on the Mac: in Finder go to iCloud Drive, then Drafts, then Backups, and double-click the file. Drafts opens an import dialog. Choose Update Existing or Import as New, then Import Now. Imported action groups are added as new groups and do not replace the ones you have.

Choose Import as New first if you are unsure. It adds copies, so nothing existing is overwritten, and you can delete the duplicates afterwards.

Space

Backups can grow, since each one is an export of your drafts. To see the size, select the Backups folder in iCloud Drive and press ⌘I. To list the backup files from Terminal without opening any:

find ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents -maxdepth 4 -name '*draftsExport*'

If you reduce the number of backups kept in Drafts' Backups settings, Drafts prunes old ones for you, and that is safer than deleting files by hand.

Moving to a new Mac

Sign in to iCloud on the new Mac, install Drafts and let it sync, and check that your drafts, actions and workspaces are all present. Backups come across with iCloud Drive. If you do not use sync, take an export first, or restore a .draftsExport file with the steps above. Do not copy the Group Containers folder from one Mac to another by hand.

Why a Finder search misses all of this

The database sits under ~/Library, which Spotlight and Finder searches leave out. The drafts are rows in a database, so there is no file name to search for even if the folder were visible.

Finding the files when you need them

Typing agiletortoise into Everywhere lists the Drafts folders in both Containers and Group Containers, and typing draftsExport lists your backup files by name, including ones in iCloud Drive. Those protected places are indexed once Everywhere has Full Disk Access. It searches file names only, not the text of drafts, and ⌘↵ reveals the result in Finder.

Common questions

Where does Drafts store its data on a Mac?

In ~/Library/Group Containers/GTFQ98J4YG.com.agiletortoise.Drafts, as a database, with settings in ~/Library/Containers/com.agiletortoise.Drafts-OSX. Both come from the developer's answer on the Drafts forum.

Where are Drafts backups saved?

In the Drafts/Backups folder in your iCloud Drive, as .draftsExport files, per Drafts' documentation.

How do I restore a Drafts backup on a Mac?

In Finder open iCloud Drive, Drafts, Backups and double-click the backup. In the import dialog choose Update Existing or Import as New, then Import Now.

Can I read my drafts without the app?

Export as JSON from the right-click menu, or open a .draftsExport backup, which is JSON. The live database is best left alone.