Where apps hide your files

Finding Final Draft's Backup folder

Updated 2026-10-28 · 6 min read

Final Draft makes a timestamped copy of your script in a Backup folder inside your Library every time it saves, and its Settings window can open that folder for you. Here is the path for the direct and App Store builds, the defaults, and how to restore an older draft safely.

The location

For the version you buy from Final Draft's own site, the backup folder is:

~/Library/Application Support/Final Draft/Final Draft 13/Backup

Swap 13 for the version you run. Final Draft's help centre lists the same pattern for versions 9 to 13. If you installed from the Mac App Store, the app is sandboxed and the folder sits inside a container instead. The help centre gives this route for those builds:

~/Library/Containers/com.finaldraft.finaldraftappstore.v12/Data/Library/Application Support/Final Draft/Final Draft 12/Backup

The help centre's list of App Store versions stops at 12 (the identifiers run v8 to v12, with a matching Final Draft 12, Final Draft 11 folder and so on inside), so for any other App Store build list the containers with ls ~/Library/Containers | grep -i finaldraft and look for the matching name.

Open it

The easiest route is inside the app. Choose Final Draft > Settings (Preferences on macOS 12 and earlier), open the Autosave/Backup tab (newer help pages spell it Auto-Save/Backup) and click Open Backup Folder. Those are the labels in Final Draft's help centre, and the button opens the folder the app is really using, which matters if someone changed it.

By hand, choose Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G in Finder), paste the path and press Return. From Terminal:

open ~/Library/Application\ Support/Final\ Draft

~/Library is hidden in Finder by default. Final Draft's own instructions use the other route: click the Desktop, hold ⌥ and choose Go > Library, then open Application Support/Final Draft.

What a backup looks like

Final Draft's help centre says it makes a date-and-time-stamped copy every time you save or autosave saves, with the stamp in front of the script's name. Its main example is 202312250800Casablanca.fdx: year, month, day and a 24-hour time, then the title. A newer article writes its example with a space before the title, so match on the title rather than the exact pattern.

Sorting the folder by name puts the backups in date order, newest last, with every script's copies mixed together. Each backup is an ordinary .fdx script file that Final Draft opens like any other.

How many backups are kept, and how often

Final Draft's current help article on the Auto-Save/Backup tab gives these defaults:

• Auto-Save Every is on, every 15 minutes. Ask Before Auto-Save adds a confirmation first.
• Auto-Backup Enabled makes a copy every time the script is saved.
• Backup Folder File Count is 1,000 by default, with a maximum of 10,000.
• Once the folder holds that many, the oldest backup is deleted the moment a new one is made.

Your copy may differ if you or an older version changed them, so read the tab. Because every autosave also makes a backup, a long writing day with a small file count can push out older copies sooner than you expect.

Restore a script from a backup

1. In the Backup folder, find the newest copy of the script you want, judging by the timestamp.
2. Copy that file to your Desktop in Finder: hold ⌥ while you drag it, or select it, press ⌘C, click the Desktop and press ⌘V. Both copy rather than move.
3. Open the copy from Final Draft with File > Open, check it is the version you wanted, then use File > Save As to give it a proper name and place.

Work on the copy, not the file inside the Backup folder. That keeps the originals as a safety net if the first backup you pick turns out to be the wrong one.

Change where backups go

The same tab has a Select New Folder button. Final Draft's steps: create the new folder first (outside Final Draft), click Select New Folder, choose the folder and click Open, and the tab then shows the new path. The help centre says the folder can be on another drive, a network drive or a cloud storage sync folder, and suggests an external drive as the safer place. If you choose an external drive, keep it connected, because Final Draft can only back up to a drive it can reach.

The help centre also describes a File > Backup command that saves a dated copy of the open script to any drive you pick, which is handy before a big rewrite.

Space and clean-up

Script files are usually small, but a thousand copies of a long script add up. Do not treat the Backup folder as a cache. It is your history, and nothing in it is re-created once deleted. If you must reclaim space, quit Final Draft, move the oldest copies to the Trash in Finder rather than deleting with a command, and keep at least the last few days of each active script. Lowering Backup Folder File Count on the same tab is the app's own way to cap the folder.

Backing up or moving to a new Mac

Your scripts are separate from this folder: they live wherever you saved them (often Documents or Desktop). Time Machine backs up both unless you have excluded them. To move to a new Mac, copy your script files and, if you want the history, the whole Final Draft folder inside ~/Library/Application Support. Install the same Final Draft version first and start it once so the folder exists, then quit and copy the contents across.

Why a normal search misses them

The Backup folder is inside ~/Library, which Finder and Spotlight leave out of ordinary searches. Backups also start with a timestamp, not your title, so alphabetical browsing in the app's Open dialog does not group them the way you expect.

Finding a backup next time

Type your script's title into Everywhere and the timestamped backups turn up alongside your working copy, wherever the Backup folder has been moved to. Type .fdx alone to list every Final Draft script on the Mac, and press ⌘↵ on one to reveal it in Finder. It matches file names only, not the dialogue inside a script, and the App Store container is covered once Everywhere has Full Disk Access.

Common questions

Where does Final Draft save backups on a Mac?

In ~/Library/Application Support/Final Draft/Final Draft 13/Backup for the version sold on Final Draft's site (use your own version number). Mac App Store builds keep theirs inside ~/Library/Containers, in a folder named like com.finaldraft.finaldraftappstore.v12.

How do I open the Final Draft backup folder?

Choose Final Draft > Settings (Preferences on macOS 12 and earlier), open the Autosave/Backup tab and click Open Backup Folder. Or press ⇧⌘G in Finder and paste the path.

How do I recover an older version of a Final Draft script?

Find the latest timestamped .fdx copy in the Backup folder, copy it to your Desktop, open the copy in Final Draft and save it under a new name.

How many backups does Final Draft keep?

Final Draft's help centre gives a default Backup Folder File Count of 1,000 and a maximum of 10,000. When the limit is reached, the oldest backup is deleted as each new one is made.