Help centre

Getting started

Setting up takes a few minutes. Empti walks you through each step the first time it opens, and you can see the steps again any time from Settings → General → Show the welcome steps again.

What you need

• A Mac with Apple silicon, running macOS 26 or later.
• An internet connection for the first set-up.
• An Apple or Google account to sign in with.

Install Empti

1. Open the Empti disk image you downloaded and drag Empti to Applications.
2. Open Empti from Applications. It lives in the menu bar, not the Dock, and opens its welcome window the first time.
3. Click Get Started.

Sign in

Choose Sign in with Apple or Sign in with Google. If Empti asks for an Invite code, type the code from your invitation and click Join Empti (or Join with Google). If someone invited you to their team, open their invite link first and sign in with the email it was sent to.

Your Empti account isn't your vault passphrase. The account signs you in; the passphrase, which you make two steps later, is what unlocks your files.

Turn on the drive in System Settings

macOS asks you, not Empti, to allow a new drive. This is the one step people get stuck on, because System Settings shows two switches for Empti and only one of them works.

1. On the Turn on the drive step, click Open Settings. System Settings opens at General → Login Items & Extensions.
2. Scroll down to By Category.
3. Click ⓘ next to File System Extensions.
4. Turn on Empti in the sheet that opens, then click Done.

When you come back to Empti, the File System Extension row says On and Continue works. If you'd rather do it later, click Later; the menu bar then shows Turn On the Drive… until you do.

Put the drive in Finder's sidebar

On the same step, Drive in the sidebar lets Empti show the drive under Locations in Finder, like a disk. Click Turn On. If macOS asks you to approve it, click Open Settings and, under Allow in the Background, turn on Empti. It's optional: without it the drive still works, in a folder called Empti in your home folder.

Open at login is on by default, so the drive is there whenever you sign in to your Mac.

Make your passphrase

Your files are encrypted on your Mac before they upload, with a key only you hold. On Your key stays here, choose a passphrase of at least 8 characters, type it twice and click Create vault. Empti can't reset this passphrase for you, which is why the next step gives you a recovery key.

Setting up a second Mac? You'll see Welcome back instead: type the passphrase you made on your other Mac and click Unlock. See Signing in on a new Mac.

Save your recovery key

The recovery key starts with EMPTI-. It's the only way back in if you forget your passphrase, and Empti doesn't have a copy. Use Copy, Save as file… or Print…, keep it somewhere safe away from your Mac (a password manager or a printed copy), then click I've saved it.

Anyone with your recovery key can read your files, so treat it like the key to a safe. You can see it again later in Settings → Encryption by typing your passphrase and clicking Show.

The last steps

• Search from anywhere: press ⌥ Space (or click Try it) to open Empti's search. See the launcher.
• Drop on the menu bar: drag files onto Empti's menu bar icon to add them to your drive.
• Make room on this Mac: Empti lists the biggest files in your home folder. Tick the ones you want and click Move, or Not now. See Moving big files.
• Your drive is ready: click Open Empti to open the drive in Finder.

Where the drive appears

• In Finder's sidebar under Locations, named Empti (or the name you gave your main drive). Its path is /Volumes/Empti.
• Without the sidebar helper, it's the Empti folder in your home folder (~/Empti).
• Other drives appear under their own names, and a team's drives as Drive (Team), for example Plans (Acme).
• The menu bar icon lists every drive with Open, Show in Finder and Eject.

Moving files in, and how files open

Ways to add files

• Finder: copy or drag files into the drive, as you would onto any disk.
• The menu bar: drag files onto Empti's icon. A drop zone opens with your drive's folders; rest on a folder to open it, drop on a folder to put the files there, or drop on the icon itself for the top folder. This copies the files: the originals stay where they were.
• The launcher: Move big files to Empti moves files and then offers to put the originals in the Trash. See Moving big files.

What happens when you add a file

A file you copy in is kept on your Mac while Empti encrypts it and uploads it in the background. Once the upload is finished, the local copy is removed and the file takes almost no space on your Mac, though it's still in Finder at the same path. Big files start uploading while they're still being copied in. If you quit Empti or your Mac sleeps, uploads carry on from where they stopped.

To see what's uploading, choose Upload Activity… from the menu bar icon, or open Settings → Uploads. There you can also:

• turn off Wait for Wi-Fi for large uploads (on by default: files over 50 MB wait while you're on a hotspot or in Low Data Mode);
• lower the Upload speed, which leaves room for calls and streaming while big files upload;
• Retry a file listed under Couldn't upload.

With Finder badges on (see the Finder extension), each file shows its state: Uploading, In the cloud, or On this Mac.

How files open

Open a file as usual. Empti downloads only the parts the app reads, decrypts them on your Mac and hands them over, so a long video starts in about a second and you can jump around in it without downloading the whole file.

Parts of files you've opened are kept on your Mac so they reopen instantly. You choose how much room that takes in Settings → Cache → Space for recent files: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 or 100 GB (10 GB to start). When it's full, the oldest go first. A new limit takes effect the next time the drive connects.

Free up space in Settings → Cache empties that cache. Every file stays on your drive; files download again when you open them.

Keep on this Mac

Right-click a file or folder in the drive and choose Keep on this Mac. Empti downloads all of it and keeps it, so it opens without a connection. These files aren't removed by the cache limit or by Free up space in Settings, so they use real space on your Mac. To let a file go again, right-click it and choose Free up space.

The right-click items come from Empti's Finder extension. If you don't see them, see The Finder sidebar icon or menu is missing. The launcher has the same actions: find the file, press ⌘K, and choose Keep on this Mac.

Working offline

Your whole library stays visible in Finder when you're offline: names, folders, sizes and dates are all on your Mac. What opens depends on what's already here:

• Files you marked Keep on this Mac open as usual.
• Files you opened recently open too, as far as their parts are still in the cache. A video you watched halfway may stop where you stopped.
• Everything else can't be read until you reconnect. Opening it gives an error rather than a wrong or partial file.

You can keep adding and editing files offline. They wait on your Mac and upload when you're back online. While nothing can upload, new copies can only fill Space for files waiting to upload in Settings → Cache (10 GB to start); after that, a copy pauses and then fails rather than fill your disk. See "Disk full" while copying.

Versions and recovering deleted files

Each time a file is saved, Empti keeps the version before it for 30 days. Deleted files are kept for 30 days too. Both count towards your storage until they go; Settings → Workspace shows how much they use.

Go back to an earlier version

1. Right-click the file in the drive and choose Previous versions….
2. Pick a version by its date and the Mac it was saved on.
3. Click Open a copy to look at it without changing anything, or Restore to make it the current version. Restoring keeps the version you're replacing, so you can change your mind.

A file that's still uploading has no earlier versions yet ("Still saving. Try again once it's uploaded."). Folders don't have versions; the files inside them do.

Bring back a deleted file

1. Open Settings → Workspace.
2. Under Storage, next to Versions use…, click Recently deleted….
3. Find the file (each row says where it was, when it was deleted and on which Mac) and click Restore.

Delete now removes a file for good straight away; it can't be brought back. A deleted drive works the same way: it's listed under Recently deleted in Settings → Drives, with a Restore button, for 30 days.

Share links

A share link lets anyone open files in a web browser, without Empti or an account. The files are decrypted in their browser; the key is in the part of the link after #, which browsers never send to a server.

Make a link

1. Right-click a file, several files or a folder in the drive and choose Copy share link. (Or find it in the launcher, press ⌘K and choose Copy share link.)
2. Choose the options:
   • Expires: 1 day, 7 days (the default) or 30 days. Links never last longer than 30 days.
   • Password: optional. Send it separately from the link.
   • Download limit: optional, from 1 to 1,000 downloads.
3. Click Copy link and paste it wherever you like.

A link is a snapshot: it shows the files as they were when you made it, even if you change or delete them afterwards. Files added to a shared folder later aren't in it. Only files that have finished uploading can be shared. Share links from team drives aren't available yet.

See and turn off your links

Settings → Shared links lists every link with when it was made, when it expires, and how many views and downloads it has had (never who). Click Copy link to copy it again, or Turn off to stop it. Turning a link off stops new visits at once; someone already downloading can finish within about 15 minutes.

To report a link that's being misused, see Reporting a share link.

Teams

A team is a workspace with its own drives and its own key, shared with the people you invite. Your personal workspace stays separate. You switch between workspaces with the chevron next to your name at the top of the Settings sidebar.

Create a team

1. In Settings, click the chevron next to your name and choose New team workspace….
2. Give it a name, like your team or company, and click Create. You're its owner.

Invite people

Open Settings → Team with the team selected (or choose Invite to Team… from the menu bar). Type their email address and pick a role. Then:

• Copy a link with the round button next to the role. They join as soon as they open it. The link carries the team's key, so send it privately, not in a public channel.
• Or click Send by email instead. Empti emails them. When they accept, they appear under Waiting for you in Settings → Team: click Add, and type the six-digit code they read to you from their Empti, on a call or in person. If it doesn't match, click Decline.

Each invite works once, for one email, and is valid for 7 days. You can Resend or Revoke an invite that hasn't been used. Only the owner and admins can invite or remove people.

To join a team, open the invite link, or choose Join a team… from the workspace switcher and paste it.

Roles

Owners and admins change someone's role from the menu next to their name in Settings → Team. To remove someone, click ⋯ on their row and choose Remove from and the team's name. They lose access straight away; copies they already made stay theirs. To leave a team you don't own, click Leave at the bottom of that pane. An owner can't leave until they've handed the team to someone else.

Seats

On a Teams plan, members, admins, viewers and open invites each take a seat, and each seat adds 1 TB to the team's shared storage. The owner adds or removes seats in Settings → Plan & Storage (Add seat, Remove seat). An added seat is charged straight away for the rest of the billing period. If the team is full, an invite asks you to add a seat first.

Hand a team to someone else

A team has one owner. To hand it over, for example before you leave:

1. Make the person an Admin first, from the menu next to their name in Settings → Team. Only an admin can become the owner.
2. Click ⋯ on their row, choose Make owner…, and click Send offer.
3. They see the offer in Settings → Team and click Accept (or Decline). Your Empti hands the team over the next time it opens.

Until they accept, you can take the offer back with Withdraw owner offer on the same menu. Once it's done, they manage the team's plan and people and can delete it, and you stay on as an admin, free to leave. If the team has a Teams plan, yours carries on until the end of the period you've paid for, with no refund; the new owner starts their own plan to keep the team writable after that. Everyone in the team needs a current version of Empti before a handover can go through.

Private drives

By default everyone in a team can open its drives. A drive can instead be for Only some people:

• When making one: Settings → Drives → New drive, then choose who can open it.
• For an existing drive: click ⋯ on the drive in Settings → Drives and choose Make private…. Empti re-encrypts everything in it with a new key, on your Mac. It shows its progress in the menu bar and picks up again if you quit. Until it finishes, everyone in the team can still read the drive.
• People… on the same menu adds or removes people from a private drive.

Owners and admins manage private drives. An admin who isn't on a private drive can see that it exists and who's on it, but can't open it.

Comments

Right-click a file or folder in a team drive and choose Comments… (or press ⌘K on it in the launcher and choose Comments). Type @ to mention someone. A file with comments shows a speech-bubble badge in Finder, filled in when it mentions you. Comments stay with a file when it's renamed or moved. They're encrypted like your files, so Empti's service sees who commented and when, never what was said.

Choose which teams notify you in Settings → Notifications. Email when you're away sends at most one email an hour about anything unread for 15 minutes, without file names or text. Settings → Team → Activity shows recent changes in the team's drives.

Drives, forks and the launcher

More than one drive

A workspace can hold several drives, each its own disk in Finder. Make one in Settings → Drives → New drive. Every drive is listed there with Connect or Eject, and, under ⋯, Fork…, Rename…, Show in Finder and Delete drive…. A renamed drive shows its new name the next time it connects. Your personal workspace holds up to 3 drives on the Individual plan; Teams has no limit.

Forks

Fork… makes a new drive with everything on another drive, instantly: nothing is copied or uploaded. Use it to try a different edit, hand a project over, or keep a drive as it was on a given day. Changes in the fork don't affect the original, and the other way round. Comments aren't copied: a fork starts clean.

The launcher

Press ⌥ Space in any app to open Empti's launcher, or choose Search from the menu bar. Change the shortcut (⌃⌥ Space, ⇧⌥ Space, or off) in Settings → General → Search shortcut.

• Type part of a name and press ↵ to open the file, or ⌘↵ to show it in Finder.
• Press ⌘K for a file's actions: copy its path or a share link, keep it on this Mac, free up space, and more.
• Search also finds photos and videos by what's in them, like "cat" or "beach". New uploads are labelled as they upload; to label what's already on your drive, use Settings → Search → Label existing photos and videos.
• Type a command, such as Upload activity, Connect drive or Fork drive, and press ↵.
• Press esc to go back.

Collections

A collection is a saved search with a name and a note, such as "Pictures with the cat, for the calendar". Search for something, press ⌘K and choose Save as collection. New files that match join it on their own. Nothing is moved or copied, and deleting a collection never touches a file. Collections are on the launcher's first screen and on every Mac you use.

Moving big files

Type Move big files to Empti in the launcher. It lists files over 200 MB in your home folder, biggest first. Press Space to select files, then click Move. Each file is copied into the drive, uploaded, and checked against the copy in the cloud. Only then does Empti offer Move originals to Trash (⌘⌫), and the Trash keeps them until you empty it. A file that changed during the move is left alone.

Giving an agent one folder

An agent, such as a build server, a script or an AI coding agent on another computer, can be given one folder of your drive and nothing else. It gets keys that open that folder only: it can't see your other files, or even their names. Its changes come into your drive through your Mac, while your Mac is on.

1. Open Settings → Agents and click Give a folder….
2. Pick the Drive and Folder, give it a Name, choose what It can do (Read and write or Read only) and when Access ends (never, in a day, in a week, or in 30 days). Click Make join token.
3. Within the hour, run the command it shows, empti agent join …, on the agent's computer (Copy command copies it). That computer needs Empti's command-line tool, but no sign-in: the token lets it in once.
4. When it joins, Empti shows the computer's key. Check it matches the key the computer printed, then click Let it in. If it doesn't match, someone else used the token: revoke it.

Every folder you've given is listed in Settings → Agents with when its changes last came in. Revoke cuts a computer off: its last changes are brought in first, and it can't fetch anything after that. Files it has already read, it may have kept.

Plan & Storage

Everything below is done in Settings → Plan & Storage. Payments are handled by Stripe; Empti never sees your card. For prices, see Pricing.

Starting a trial

Under Choose a plan, pick Monthly or Yearly and click Start trial. The trial is for your first plan: it lasts 14 days and holds up to 100 GB. It needs a card, and your card is charged when the trial ends unless you cancel before then. Each person gets one trial; after that the button says Start plan. A Teams plan is started from the team's own workspace, by its owner.

Changing your storage size

Pick a new size from Storage size (1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, 50 or 100 TB), and confirm. Going up is charged straight away for what's left of the current period; going down credits the difference to your next invoice. You can't go below what you already use. Storage counts every drive in the workspace plus 30 days of versions and deleted files.

Switching between monthly and yearly

Click Switch to yearly (or Switch to monthly). Switching to yearly charges the yearly price today, less what's left of this month. Switching to monthly starts monthly billing today and credits what's left of the year to your next invoices. Extra storage moves with the plan.

Cancelling

Click Manage billing. It opens Stripe's billing page, where you can cancel, change your card and download invoices. After you cancel:

• uploads keep working until the end of the period you've paid for;
• then your files are read-only for 30 days: they still open and download, but nothing new uploads;
• after those 30 days the files are deleted. We email you before that happens. Starting a plan again before then makes everything writable again.

If a payment fails, uploads carry on for 7 days while Stripe retries the card, then the workspace becomes read-only until the card is updated. Plan & Storage says which state you're in.

Refunds

Your first payment can be refunded within 7 days, once per person. To ask for a refund, email support@getempti.com within 7 days of that payment. A refund cancels the plan straight away, and the 30 read-only days follow. The full terms are in Refunds and cancelling.

Passphrase and recovery key

Your passphrase unlocks the key that encrypts your files. It never leaves your Mac; your account keeps only a locked copy of the key that your passphrase opens. Your recovery key is a second way to open it.

Change your passphrase

1. Open Settings → Encryption.
2. Next to Passphrase, click Change….
3. Type your current passphrase, then the new one twice (8 characters or more), and click Change.

Your files stay as they are; nothing is re-encrypted or re-uploaded. Your other Macs are signed out and unlock with the new passphrase next time.

See your recovery key again

In Settings → Encryption, under Recovery key, type your passphrase and click Show. Your recovery key doesn't change when you change your passphrase, and there's no way to make a new one yet, so keep the one you have safe.

If you forget your passphrase

On a Mac that asks for it, click Forgot your passphrase?, enter your recovery key (EMPTI-…), choose a new passphrase and click Restore. The new passphrase works on all your Macs from then on.

If you lose both

On a Mac that's still unlocked, your files still open there. Use it to change your passphrase and show your recovery key before you do anything else.

Lock this Mac

Settings → Encryption → Lock this Mac removes the key from this Mac's Keychain. Files won't open until you unlock with your passphrase (the menu bar shows Unlock Vault…).

Your account

Sign in another computer or a server

A Linux server, or any computer without a browser, signs in with a code you approve from your Mac.

1. On that computer, run empti login (on a Mac, empti login --device). It prints a code like BDFH-KMNP. See the command line for installing it.
2. Within 10 minutes, open Settings → Account on your Mac. Under Sign in a computer, type the code and click Look up.
3. Check the computer's name and where it's asking from, then click Approve (or Decline).

Only approve a code you started yourself: approving signs that computer in to your account. It still needs your passphrase (empti unlock) to open any file. It's listed with your Macs in Settings → Account, where you can sign it out.

Delete your account

1. Open Settings → Account and click Delete account….
2. Read what will go. Empti lists each team you own and each team you'll leave.
3. Type your email address to confirm and click Delete account.

Troubleshooting

Start with Settings → Permissions. It lists everything macOS has to allow, with its live state and a Show me button that opens the right place in System Settings. Settings → Advanced shows the drive's status and has Re-check.

The drive doesn't show in Finder

1. Check the menu bar. Click Empti's icon. It tells you what's missing: Turn On the Drive…, Sign In…, Unlock Vault… or Connect Drive. Click it.
2. Check the drive extension. In Settings → Permissions, The drive should say On. If it's off, turn it on as in Turn on the drive: System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions → By Category → File System Extensions ⓘ → Empti. macOS can switch it off after an Empti update, so check this first after updating.
3. Look in your home folder. Without the sidebar helper, the drive is at ~/Empti, not under Locations. In Finder, choose Go → Home. To move it to the sidebar, turn on Drive in the sidebar in Settings → Permissions.
4. Make sure Empti is running. If the icon isn't in the menu bar, open Empti from Applications. Turn on Open at login so it's there after a restart.
5. Still nothing? In Settings → Advanced, click Copy next to Last mount output and send it to support.

The Finder sidebar icon or menu is missing

Empti's icon in Finder's sidebar, the badges on files and the right-click items (Keep on this Mac, Copy share link, Previous versions…) all come from Empti's Finder extension. The drive works without it. To turn it back on:

1. Open Settings → Permissions. Next to Finder badges, click Show me.
2. Turn on Empti under Finder.

macOS sometimes switches this extension off after Finder restarts or after an update; turn it back on the same way. If the drive itself is missing from the sidebar's Locations, that's the sidebar helper instead: see The drive doesn't show in Finder. Until the Finder extension is back, the launcher has the same actions: find a file and press ⌘K.

Uploads are stuck

Open Settings → Uploads. Files are grouped by what they're waiting for:

• Waiting for Wi-Fi: you're on a hotspot or in Low Data Mode and the file is over 50 MB. Click Upload anyway, or turn off Wait for Wi-Fi for large uploads.
• Couldn't upload: each row says why ("The network dropped", "The connection timed out") and when Empti will try again. Click Retry to try now.
• Uploads are paused: the plan has ended or a payment failed. Files still open and download. Fix it in Plan & Storage.

Also check:

• A file that's still open in an app, such as a project being exported, uploads after the app closes it.
• Uploads need you signed in and your vault unlocked. If the menu bar shows Sign In… or Unlock Vault…, do that first.
• A lower Upload speed in Settings → Uploads slows big files on purpose.
• In a team that's just changed its key, uploads can wait for the change to be confirmed ("Waiting for Acme's new key to be confirmed"). They're saved on your Mac and go up once it's done.

"Disk full" while copying big files

A file copied into the drive sits on your Mac until it's uploaded. To stop the drive filling your disk, Empti limits this in two ways:

• Space for files waiting to upload (Settings → Cache, 10 GB to start). When other files waiting to upload fill it, a copy pauses until uploads make room. A single file bigger than the limit still copies in.
• 2 GB free on your Mac. Empti never lets the drive take your Mac below about 2 GB free. Big files upload while they're being copied, and Empti frees the parts already uploaded, so a large copy usually pauses rather than fails.

Finder reports the disk is full when a copy can't wait any longer: when nothing has uploaded for a minute (you're offline, or signed out), or when your Mac is nearly full and uploads haven't moved for 3 minutes. To fix it:

1. Check you're online, signed in and unlocked, and that Settings → Uploads isn't waiting for Wi-Fi.
2. Let what's already uploading finish, then copy the rest.
3. Free some space on your Mac, or raise Space for files waiting to upload if you have room.
4. For a lot of big files, use Move big files in the launcher: it copies one file at a time and waits for room by itself.

A file whose copy failed isn't on your drive. The original is untouched, so copy it again.

Signing in on a new Mac

1. Install Empti and sign in with the same Apple or Google account.
2. Turn on the drive (see Turn on the drive).
3. On Welcome back, type the passphrase you use on your other Mac and click Unlock. Forgotten it? Click Forgot your passphrase? and use your recovery key.

Your drives appear with all their files; nothing downloads until you open something. Don't choose Create a new vault or Replace vault here: a new vault replaces your old one on every Mac and can't open the files already on your drive. Your Macs are listed in Settings → Account → Your Macs, where you can sign out one you no longer use. It's signed out within the hour.

Still stuck

Contact support. It helps to say which version of Empti you're on and what you've tried.