A backup destination is a folder where your footage is copied to. o/PARASHOOT never copies anything itself. It only verifies. Before it will let you erase a card, it scans your configured destinations for files matching the card by name and size. It doesn't matter which app made the copy, only that the files are there.
How many destinations
You can configure several destinations and set the minimum number that must hold your footage before a card can be erased. We strongly recommend always having at least three backups before a card leaves your hands.
On the Destinations page, Erase requires backup on decides how that minimum is applied:
All destinations (default): every configured destination must be online and hold a complete copy before a card can be erased. This is the strictest, safest setting.
N or more destinations: a card can be erased as soon as at least your minimum number of destinations each hold a complete copy. Destinations that are offline or only partially copied are simply not counted. They don't block the erase. This is useful when you rotate which drives are in use between cards, for example because an internal NVMe RAID fills up, so a card ends up on only some of the configured destinations while still being safely backed up on enough of them.
With N or more destinations selected, you can also mark an individual destination as Required. A Required destination must always be online and hold a complete copy, exactly like the strict rule, even when enough other destinations already meet the minimum. Use it for the one backup you never want to skip.
Note: All destinations is the default and the safest choice. N or more destinations deliberately lets you erase while some destinations are offline or incomplete. Only switch to it if you understand those copies are not being verified.
Adding a destination
Open the Destinations page and click Add, then pick the backup folder. A few rules apply:
A whole drive root works, or a specific subfolder on it.
You can't use
/or/Volumesdirectly.Two destinations can't be on the same drive or mount point (that wouldn't be two independent backups).
A destination can't be on the card you're trying to erase.
Tip: You normally only need to set a destination once at the start of a project. Point it at the root of the backup drive or project folder. o/PARASHOOT searches a destination intelligently: it looks for the current card's files first (matching the card name and the folders changed most recently) and stops as soon as everything is verified, so it doesn't matter that other footage lives there too. The exceptions where you should point the destination at a more specific subfolder are a large shared RAID holding many unrelated projects, or if a backup check ever times out. Narrowing the path keeps checks fast.
Auto-adding shuttle drives
If you regularly hand off footage on a shuttle or transfer drive, turn on Auto-add shuttle drives. Any connected volume whose name contains one of your keywords is added as a destination automatically. Matching is case-insensitive, and the default keywords are shuttle and transfer (you can edit the list).
Auto-added drives are marked Auto-added and are temporary: they are not saved to your settings. They count as a destination only while the toggle is on and the volume's name still contains a keyword. Rename the drive out of keyword range, or turn the setting off, and it stops being treated as a destination.
Why is my backup drive listed under "Ignored disks"?
This is expected and harmless. The filesystems o/PARASHOOT treats as a camera card are ExFAT, FAT32, FAT16 and UDF (see Card detection). You'll mostly hit this with cross-platform transport or shuttle drives. We strongly advise against ExFAT for real backups, as it has no journaling and corrupts easily, but it's sometimes unavoidable for handoff. If your backup or transport drive uses one of these filesystems, o/PARASHOOT would otherwise offer it for erase, so it gets marked with a hidden .no_card file (the Ignore action, also creatable with touch /Volumes/YOUR_DRIVE/.no_card). That marker is what moves it from the card list into Ignored disks, and it stays on the drive.
A configured destination is hidden from all of these lists automatically, as long as it's connected and o/PARASHOOT can match it (by its exact path or its volume's mount point). A working destination will not show up under Ignored disks at all. The realistic reason a backup drive appears there is simpler: it's on one of those card-like filesystems and you explicitly Ignored it, so it isn't offered for erase. Auto-added shuttle drives only count as destinations while the toggle is on and the name still matches a keyword; if that stops being true the drive is classified normally again: shown as a card if it's on one of those filesystems, or under Ignored disks only if it still carries a .no_card marker. See Card detection for the exact rules and how to ignore a disk.