Chipmunk User Guide

Covers Chipmunk v1.0

What Chipmunk Does

Chipmunk backs up a camera card without a laptop.

You plug a card reader into your iPhone or iPad, choose the card, choose where the copy should go, and tap Copy New Files. Chipmunk copies every photo, video, audio and other file from the card, reads each finished file back from the destination and compares it to what it read from the card, and remembers what it has backed up.

Three things stay true on every run:

The card is never changed. Chipmunk copies only. It never writes to, moves or deletes anything on your card. You erase the card when you decide to.
Every file is checked. A file counts as verified only after it has been read back and compared. You cannot turn this off.
Chipmunk never overwrites. If a file with the same name is already in the folder, the copy gets a number added to its name.

What You Need

An iPhone or iPad running iOS or iPadOS 26 or later.
A card reader that works with your device. Chipmunk reads the card through the Files app, so if the card shows up in Files, Chipmunk can use it.
A place for the copy. This can be:
- an external drive,
- your device's own storage (On My iPad or On My iPhone), or
- a folder in iCloud Drive.

Backing up to an external drive. The card and the drive have to be connected at the same time. That means a device with two USB ports, or a card reader that has a pass-through USB port for the drive. If you only have one port, back up to your device's storage or to iCloud Drive instead.

The drive must be one your device can write to, such as APFS or exFAT. See Drives, Formats and File Sizes.

Getting Started

The first time you open Chipmunk, a short setup walks you through three choices.

Choose your card. Tap Choose Card and pick your card in Files. When you switch to a different card later, pick it again.
Choose where backups go. An external drive, or a folder in Files (your device or iCloud Drive).
Choose a folder. Pick a folder on that drive, or make a new one with New Folder. A folder is required, so your backup never lands loose at the root of a drive. You can choose the drive root if that is what you want.

When you finish, you land on the Main screen with your card and destination ready.

Then:

Check that the numbers on the card look right.
Tap Copy New Files.
Wait for Verified.

That's the whole flow. Everything else in this guide is optional.

The Main Screen

Main is where you work. It shows your card and your destination, a button to start the copy, and two buttons at the top right: History and Settings.

On a wide iPad window, the card and the destination sit side by side.
On iPhone, in portrait on iPad, or in a narrow window, they stack in one column.
Resize a Stage Manager window or rotate the iPad and the layout follows.

Along the bottom is the action bar. It always tells you what is about to happen. When Copy is turned off, it says why.

Choosing a Card

Tap Choose Card and pick your card in the Files picker. Chipmunk reads the card and counts its files by type: RAW, JPEG, HEIF, other photos, video, audio and other files. On a big card, you see scanning progress and the app stays responsive.

Why you choose the card yourself. iOS does not let apps see connected cards on their own. You choose a new card once. Chipmunk remembers it, recognizes it again, and remembers what it has already backed up.

Rescan Card reads the card again. Use it after you add files or swap the card.
Card not connected. If you unplug the reader or the card, Chipmunk says "[card name] is not connected. Insert it, or choose another card." Copy stays off until the card is back or you choose another one.
One card at a time. If two cards are connected, Files shows both. Choose the one you want to back up.
Empty card. Chipmunk shows that there is nothing to copy.
AVCHD. If the card has AVCHD video, Chipmunk 1.0 says it cannot copy it. Your other files on the card are not affected.

The card cannot be the destination. If you try to back up to the card you are copying from, Chipmunk refuses with "This is the card you are copying from. Choose a different drive for the backup."

Choosing Where Backups Go

The destination card on Main shows the drive and the folder where your files will land, and whether it has enough space.

Tap Change to open your list of destinations. It is grouped by drive:

External drives appear by their own name.
On My iPad (or On My iPhone) holds folders on the device.
iCloud Drive holds folders in iCloud.

The folder you are using has an accent outline and a check. Only one folder is active at a time.

Adding a destination. Tap the add button (+), choose a drive or folder in Files, and pick a folder on it. If you pick a drive's root, then pick a subfolder from the list, the subfolder becomes the destination and shows by name.

Removing one. Swipe left on a folder and tap Forget, or use the menu on a drive and choose Forget Drive. Chipmunk asks first: "Forget [name]? This only removes it from Chipmunk. Nothing on the drive is changed." Forgetting removes it from the list only. Your files stay where they are.

Not available. If the drive is unplugged, its row says Not available and the bottom bar says to reconnect the drive. Copy stays off. Plug it back in, and Chipmunk recognizes it again. If it asks, choose the folder once.

Refusals. Chipmunk refuses a destination and says why when:

it is the card you are copying from, or on the same volume as the card,
the location is read-only, or
Chipmunk cannot confirm that the card and the drive are different.

Backing up to iCloud Drive

Choose a folder in iCloud Drive like any other destination. Chipmunk copies and verifies the files in the folder you selected. After that, Files handles the syncing. If you are offline, files are written on the device and uploaded when you are back online, so the upload may not be finished when Chipmunk says Verified.

Choosing What to Copy

Main lists the types on your card, each with a count: RAW, JPEG, HEIF, Other photos, Video, Audio and Other files. A type appears only if the card has at least one file of that type.

Everything is on by default. Copy everything that is new, or turn some types off.
Tap a type to turn it on or off. Off types read Not copying.
Short on time? Turn off Video and copy only the photos. Chipmunk counts the skipped files as "not selected" and says so in the result. They are not marked as backed up, so a later run with the type on copies them.
If no types are on, Copy is off and the bar says "Choose at least one type to copy."
Other files are files Chipmunk does not recognize, such as camera data. They are copied into their original folders so nothing about your camera's structure is lost.
HEIF photos and RAW files from a wide range of cameras are supported, along with drone and 360 video.

How Your Files Are Organized

Inside the destination folder, Chipmunk can sort photos and videos for you. Choose how with the Organize setting:

Option	What you get
By type, then date	A folder per type, with date folders inside
By date, then type	A folder per date, with type folders inside
By date only	A folder per date
All in one folder	Photos and videos together, no sorting

Two things to know:

Dates come from the file dates on the card. Chipmunk uses each file's creation date, then its modified date. These are not the camera's capture dates, so a file can land in a date folder that differs from the day you took it if the file dates were changed.
Audio and other files keep their original folders. Organize applies to photos and videos only. This keeps multitrack recordings, with one folder per take, together.

If two files would have the same name in the same folder, the second gets a number added to its name, such as -1. Nothing is overwritten.

Copying

Tap Copy New Files. (The button also shows the destination folder when there's room.)

The Copying screen shows where the files are going, how many have finished, how many are verified, the speed, and a time estimate once Chipmunk has enough to judge. Each file is copied, checked, and only then counted.

Stop is always there. Tap it and Chipmunk asks "Stop copying? Files already copied stay on the destination." Choose Stop Copying or Keep Going. Stopping is clean: finished files stay, and no temporary or half-written files are left in the folder.

When Copy is turned off. The bottom bar tells you why:

There is no destination, or it is Not available.
There is nothing new on the card.
No types are chosen.
There is not enough space. A red message says so: "Not enough space on [drive name]. [needed] needed, [free] free." Free some space, choose a different drive, or turn off some types.

Long copies. Chipmunk keeps the screen awake while it copies. If you switch to another app, iOS gives Chipmunk only a limited time in the background. If that runs out, Chipmunk stops cleanly, and running the backup again finishes the job. For a large copy, stay in the app.

The Result

When the copy ends, the result screen leads with the answer.

Verified

Every file that finishes copying was read back from the destination and compared to what Chipmunk read from the card. The screen shows how many files were copied, verified and failed, and ends with:

The card has not been changed. Erase it only when you are sure.

Needs Attention

If some files did not finish, the screen says Needs Attention and lists the files that failed, each with a plain reason, such as the drive was unplugged, there was not enough space, or the copy did not match the card. Files that failed are not marked as backed up. Run the backup again to retry them.

Stopped

If you stopped the copy, the screen shows how many files finished and were verified.

Buttons and details

Show in Files opens the destination folder in Files, so you can see the files for yourself.
View Report lists every file in the run with its status.
Back Up Again returns to Main with the same card and destination.
If any files were skipped because they were already backed up, or because their types were not selected, the screen says how many.
If a name was already taken, the screen says how many files were renamed with a number.

Results describe what happened in that run. They are not a promise about the drive today. If the drive is later changed or a file is deleted, run Chipmunk again and it will notice.

Backing Up the Same Card Again

Chipmunk remembers what it has backed up, so a second run is fast and copies only what is new. Plug in the same card tomorrow and you see what changed.

But Chipmunk does not trust its memory alone. A file counts as already in your folder only on proof:

Chipmunk has compared the whole file to the one on the card, or
it verified that file earlier, and neither the card's file nor the copy has changed since.

A file with the same name and size is not proof. A file of zero bytes is never proof. So:

Delete a copied file from the drive and rerun. Chipmunk offers it and copies it again.
Change a file on the drive and rerun. Chipmunk offers it again.
Copied the card another way, such as dragging in Files? Chipmunk checks those files by full comparison. It shows progress while it does, and does not copy matching files again.
Chipmunk could not check every file in the folder. It says "Could not check every file in this folder. Remembered files will be copied again."

You may see two labels:

In this folder: Chipmunk saw the file there and confirmed it.
Remembered from an earlier copy: Chipmunk backed it up before, but is not claiming it is on the drive right now.

History

Tap History to see every backup Chipmunk has run, newest first, grouped by day. Each row shows the card, the destination, the time, how many files and how large, and a status. Tap a run to open its result.

Status labels describe that run: Copied, Verified, Failed, Already backed up. Before you have backed up anything, History says "No backups yet."

History stays on your device.

Settings

Tap Settings (the gear).

Appearance. System, Light or Dark. System follows your device. The change applies right away.
Organize. How photos and videos are sorted. See How Your Files Are Organized.
Verification. Shown for information. Every file that finishes copying is read back and compared to what Chipmunk read from the card. It is always on.
Drive. A reminder to choose a writable folder on a drive separate from the card, and that FAT drives cannot hold files of 4 GB or larger.
Card access. Explains why you choose each new card.
History. Opens the list of past runs.
About. Chipmunk's version and description, and the Ochre Software card with links to our website and to support.

If Something Interrupts a Copy

Chipmunk is built to stop rather than guess.

What happened	What Chipmunk does
You tap Stop	Stops cleanly. Finished files stay. No half-written files are left behind.
The drive is unplugged	Stops and says the drive was disconnected. Reconnect it and run again. The last file or two before the cable was pulled may not have been saved, so the result says Copied or Recorded, never Verified. A rerun copies whatever is missing.
The drive is swapped (a different drive with the same name)	Stops with "The backup drive changed during the copy..." Nothing is written to the other drive, and nothing is recorded after the swap.
The destination folder is deleted, moved or renamed	Stops with "The destination folder was deleted or moved during the copy. Choose a destination and run the backup again."
The card is pulled	Stops with an honest message. No file is marked verified unless it was.
The drive runs out of space	The file in progress fails and is cleaned up. A free-space check before the run usually catches this first.
You lock the screen or switch apps	Chipmunk keeps going while iOS allows, and stops cleanly if not. A rerun finishes the job.
You force-quit the app	Nothing is corrupted. Open it and run again.
You are offline and the destination is iCloud Drive	The copy still works. Files upload when you are back online.

After any interruption, run the backup again. Chipmunk checks what is on the drive and copies only what is missing.

Drives, Formats and File Sizes

APFS and exFAT work well and have no practical file-size limit.
FAT and FAT32 drives cannot hold a single file of 4 GB or larger. Chipmunk says which files are affected, lists them as failed, and copies the others. For big video files, use an APFS or exFAT drive.
Read-only drives are refused with a plain reason.
Free space. Chipmunk checks before it starts, and shows the red message above if the files will not fit. The check uses only the types you chose.
Names. Chipmunk shows an external drive by its own name. If you have two drives with the same name, check the folder shown before you copy.

Good to Know

One card and one destination per run.
You choose each new card in Files once. iOS does not let apps see connected cards on their own.
No Eject button. iPadOS Files does not offer one for this drive. Wait until Chipmunk shows the result, and then unplug.
Dates come from file dates, not the camera's capture date.
AVCHD is not supported in this version. Chipmunk tells you when a card has it.
Cinema-camera clip folders are not rebuilt exactly as the camera wrote them. Chipmunk copies the files into your chosen organization.
Chipmunk never erases your card. It has no delete function at all.
Chipmunk does not view, rate or edit your files. It backs them up.

Privacy

Chipmunk has no account, no ads and no analytics. It makes no network requests and collects nothing. Your history stays on your device. The only permission it uses is access to the folders you choose in Files.

Troubleshooting

My card does not show up in Files. Chipmunk can only use what Files can see. Unplug the reader and plug it in again, check that the card is seated, and try another reader or port.

Copy is turned off. Read the line above the button. It will say that you need a destination, that there is nothing new, that no types are chosen, or that there is not enough space.

It says Not available. The drive is not connected. Plug it in. If it still says so, open the destination list and choose the folder again.

Chipmunk wants to copy files I already have. Chipmunk copies a file again if it cannot prove the copy in your folder is the same file. This happens if you chose a different folder, if the file changed, or if it could not read the folder. Check the destination shown on Main.

A file failed on my FAT drive. Files of 4 GB or larger cannot be stored on a FAT or FAT32 drive. Back up to an APFS or exFAT drive.

My folders are not in the order or on the dates I expected. Folders use the file dates on the card, not the capture date. See How Your Files Are Organized.

It stopped part way. Run the backup again. Chipmunk copies what is missing and does not duplicate what is done.

The Result says Copied, not Verified. The run was interrupted. Run the backup again to finish and verify the rest.

Getting Help

Something not working as expected? We're here.

Support: getochre.app/support.php
When you write, tell us your device, your iOS or iPadOS version, the card reader and drive you are using, and what you saw. The version is in Settings, About.

Chipmunk is from Ochre Software. From one creative to another.