Location of Drafts on macOS

Drafts for Mac
1

Does anyone know where the location of every draft is on macOS?

I have Drafts on some Macs synced via iCloud and Drafts on other Macs saved locally without syncing to iCloud. Eventually, I’ll want to delete the Drafts saved locally without formatting macOS. I know there are always miscellaneous files floating around the hidden library on macOS, so I’m wondering if deleting the Drafts app does the job or if I have to do some digging to delete various files.

2

If you are wanting to complete remove Drafts from a Mac, e.g. make it like it was never installed, you would need to delete the following:

  • /Applications/Drafts.app - obviously, the app itself.
  • ~/Library/Group Containers/GTFQ98J4YG.com.agiletortoise.Drafts - this is where the app database is stored, so this is the lion’s share of the actual app data, including drafts, actions, workspaces, etc.
  • ~/Library/Containers/com.agiletortoise.Drafts-OSX - Not a lot here, but some basic preferences, user settings, etc.
  • ~/iCloud Drive/Drafts - May or may not, depending on settings and usage, have backups, exported data and resources used by the app.
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3

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for. Also, can the drafts be read without the app or is an export needed?

4

They are not files, but they are in a SQLite database that could, technically be opened and the data viewed by tools other than Drafts, if that makes sense. If you were looking to get the data out into a useable form for other apps, it would be better to export.

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5

I’ll definitely be exporting from Drafts and thank you for confirming how the files are handled. I was guessing it was an SQLite database, so it’s good to know it’s accessible even though the approach is not ideal. I appreciate the prompt responses!

6

Helps a lot! I like Drafts~

7

I was browsing a copy of my Drafts database (not the original database) today with DB Browser for SQLite from GitHub as another option to grab my data in case something were to go wrong with exports in the future. Anything is possible when it comes to software. It works great! I’m not familiar with SQL, so it took a bit of clicking around and selecting different areas in the app to find my drafts, and they’re all there! I love plain text. :slight_smile:

Use with caution and do not mess with your original database as a best practice! :smiley:

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