Settings reference

General

Setting	Effect
Language	Use English, Russian, or the operating system language.
Theme	Use light, dark, or the operating system appearance.
Start at login	Register BorgMate to start with the user session.
Start minimized	Start in the system tray instead of opening the main window.
Wake computer for scheduled backups	Configure the supported platform scheduler to wake and start BorgMate for the next run.
Run scheduled backups only on AC power	Defer scheduled backups while the computer uses battery power.
Check for updates on startup	Fetch BorgMate release information when the app starts. Stable and pre-release versions share one update stream, so a newer alpha, beta, or release candidate may be offered automatically.
Show system notifications	Notify through the operating system after operations finish.

Data

Setting	Effect
Auto-load archive list	Fetch archives when a repository is selected. Disable for slow or metered remotes and use Refresh manually.
Auto-load repository details	Fetch the physical repository size and chunk statistics on selection. For local, SMB, and SSH-backed storage, BorgMate also queries volume capacity and free space for the storage gauge. If that capacity query fails or the URL transport does not expose a volume, the Borg repository details still appear without the gauge.
Auto-load archive details	Fetch size and file count for the selected archive.
Journal retention	Keep completed operation history for the selected period or forever.
Restore defaults	Default handling for flags, ACLs, extended attributes, and sparse files.
Binary size units	Show KiB, MiB, and GiB instead of decimal units.

Advanced

Setting	Effect
Borg 1 binary path	Override automatic detection of the `borg` executable.
Experimental Borg 2 support	Enable Borg 2 repository choices and the separate `borg2` path.
Borg 2 binary path	Override automatic detection of the experimental Borg 2 executable.
SSH keep-alive interval	Seconds between keep-alive messages; `0` disables them.
SSH keep-alive max retries	Failed keep-alives allowed before treating the connection as lost.
Enable debug logging	Write BorgMate diagnostic logs to disk.
Log level	Choose Debug, Info, Warning, or Error verbosity.
Log retention	Control how long old log files remain on disk.

Leave detected binary paths alone when they work.

Use an override only when Borg is installed outside PATH or BorgMate detects the wrong executable.

Configuration, journal, and logs

BorgMate stores its application data in these files:

config.json contains durable application and repository settings.
config.json.bak is the single rolling backup of the previous durable configuration.
state.json contains transient window, sidebar, and last-backup state. Deleting it does not delete Borg archives or repository settings, but resets the remembered state.
journal.db contains operation history, while diagnostic logs are stored in the logs folder.

These files are under the operating system's application-data directory:

Platform	Default directory
Windows	`%APPDATA%\BorgMate`
macOS	`~/Library/Application Support/BorgMate`
Linux	`~/.config/BorgMate` or `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/BorgMate`

Version 1.0.1 cleans up legacy configuration backups.

After configuration and transient state are migrated successfully, BorgMate removes the old config.json.*.bak files and retains only config.json.bak.

Repository and SSH-key passphrases are not stored there. They are kept through macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, or Linux libsecret when you choose to save them.