Settings Reference

Settings has eight tabs: General, Appearance, Notifications, Database, Security, License, Advanced and About.

General

Setting	Default	Notes
Start at login	Off	Launches FileGriffon automatically when you sign in. Labelled Start with Windows on Windows, where it writes the ordinary per-user startup entry — the same one the installer’s optional checkbox writes, so this toggle just lets you change it later without reinstalling. On Linux it enables the systemd user service the package installs, or falls back to a standard autostart entry where no service is present. Takes effect from your next sign-in
Drive Health	Off	One 3-way choice: Off, Basic, or Advanced (Pro). The choice is the same everywhere; what sits behind Basic is not. On Windows, Basic is a WMI check — off by default due to a known WMI concurrency issue, enable at your own risk. On Linux there is no WMI, so Basic is `smartctl`’s overall-health verdict instead: the same one-bit healthy/failing answer, free, by a different route. Advanced (Pro, both platforms) adds real SMART attributes and temperature through a separate helper service, and needs a one-time privileged approval to set that service up (FileGriffon itself never runs elevated). Only one mode is ever active at a time. Advanced is also what the Drive Info tool needs.
App Logging	Off	When on, writes rotating, redacted log files to disk (app activity and errors) alongside the database — vault names and paths are never written in the clear. When off, nothing is logged outside the database. Takes effect after FileGriffon restarts. This is separate from Diagnostic Logs below: App Logging is ongoing background logging, Diagnostic Logs is the exportable support bundle
Usage Telemetry	Off	Opt-in, minimal usage stats only — never file names, paths, or hashes
Diagnostic Logs	Off	Opt-in logging you can export as a bundle for troubleshooting/support

“Export Diagnostic Bundle” (next to Diagnostic Logs) packages recent logs for sharing when reporting a problem. It’s only available while Diagnostic Logs is on — there’s nothing to export while it’s off.

The exported .zip contains only log text: the main application log and each vault’s scan log. It does not include your database, file list, settings, license key, or encryption secrets. Vault names, file paths, and hashes are redacted twice over — once as they’re written to the log files, and again at export time (vaults are relabeled VAULT_1, VAULT_2, etc.) — so the bundle is safe to send to support without exposing what’s in your vaults.

Appearance

Setting	Default	Notes
Theme	Dark	Light/dark UI theme
Time Format	24h	12h/24h display
Tray Icon	Dynamic	Dynamic changes color with status (idle/scanning/warning/alert/update available); Static keeps one fixed color — white, or dark for light-themed taskbars where a white glyph disappears. A small preview icon is shown next to each option
Show a startup splash	On (Linux), Off (Windows)	A brief window while FileGriffon starts, so a launch is visible before the tray icon appears. Closes when the dashboard is actually ready rather than after a fixed delay, stays up a few seconds minimum so it cannot flicker past, and a click or Escape dismisses it early. Takes effect on the next start
Open the dashboard on every start	Off	Opens the dashboard in your browser each time you start FileGriffon. Starts at login do not count — FileGriffon stays in the background then, which is the whole point of starting it at login. Independent of the one-time welcome guide shown on a brand-new install

Notifications

Setting	Default	Notes
Desktop Notifications	On	Desktop notifications for scan results/events
Automatic Update Checks	On	Periodically checks filegriffon.com for a newer version; shows a dismissible banner and a distinct tray icon color when one’s available. Never downloads or installs anything automatically
Email & ntfy Alerts (Pro)	Off	Notifies you by email (SMTP) and/or ntfy when a scan finds newly corrupt or newly missing files, or when a scan fails. Each event type is an independent checkbox, and each channel has its own “Send test notification” button. Requires a Pro license. SMTP password and ntfy access token are stored in the operating system’s credential store (Credential Locker on Windows, Secret Service on Linux), never in plain text — see Security & Encryption

Database

Controls the automatic retention/cleanup sweeps and backups:

Grace window before a MISSING file is swept from history (default 2 days), settable globally or per-vault.
Event history retention: events older than 90 days are swept automatically.
Event detail redaction: sensitive detail fields on events are redacted after 2 days, independent of full event deletion at 90 days.
Archived TeraCopy manifest cleanup: manifests moved to the archive folder (see TeraCopy sidecar hash ingest under Advanced) are plaintext filename+hash listings, unlike the database itself; deleted after 30 days by default. A warning about this also appears next to the ingest action picker when “archive” or “custom folder” is selected.
Manual “Clean now” with a preview of how many records would be removed before you confirm.
Orphaned parity file cleanup: deleting a MISSING file record (or matching it as moved) that had parity protection removes its database entry but deliberately does not delete its .par2 file automatically. A small orange badge appears in the nav bar when this has happened, linking here — use “Clean now” to review and delete the leftover .par2 files.
Local backups: FileGriffon keeps rolling backups of the database (default 3 copies) at a configurable location.

Security

See Security & Encryption for full detail: Enable/Disable encryption, Lock/Unlock, Change Passphrase, Cross-Machine Recovery Key, and the Lock on sleep toggle (on by default), which auto-locks an encrypted database when the machine suspends or hibernates.

License

See Licensing & Trial: Upgrade to Pro, Activate, Start Trial, Deactivate. The Upgrade to Pro card shows current prices, fetched live rather than built into the app.

Advanced

Setting	Default	Notes
File hash protection	Protected (HMAC-keyed)	Default hash mode offered when creating a new vault: Protected (HMAC-keyed, recommended) or Raw (plain XXH3-64, no keying). Changing this default only affects vaults created afterward; it never touches an existing vault’s mode. Per-vault, this can be upgraded one-way from Raw to Protected later, but never downgraded — see Security & Encryption.
Simultaneous scans	3	How many vaults FileGriffon works on at once (scanning, creating/moving recovery data, repairing, restoring — not just scanning). Vaults that share a physical drive are always handled one at a time no matter what this is set to, since running them together makes a mechanical drive slower rather than faster; this setting only bounds how many different drives’ worth of work can run in parallel. Raise it if you have several fast, independent drives and want them scanned in parallel; lower it if scans are competing for CPU. A manual scan blocked by either rule shows a warning with the option to start anyway.
TeraCopy sidecar hash ingest	On	If you use TeraCopy to move/copy files into a vault, FileGriffon can ingest its verification manifest instead of re-hashing those files from scratch. A second control sets what happens to the manifest file afterward — the default is Leave in place, so your `.xxh3` files are read but never moved or deleted. The other choices (archive, custom folder, delete) are opt-in; picking archive or custom folder also reveals the folder to use
Dashboard & API port	8080	The network port the dashboard and API listen on. Change it if another program on your machine sometimes uses the same port. Saving takes effect after you restart FileGriffon (top-right restart button); if the saved port turns out to be taken when FileGriffon starts, it self-heals by falling back to a free port automatically — check the tray tooltip or Settings → Advanced for the port actually in use.

About

Version and build information, your current plan and its expiry, an update check, third-party license notices, and a Report a Bug link. It also has a Show welcome guide link that reopens the first-launch welcome guide at any time — see Getting Started.

Per-vault settings

See Vaults: label, skip directories, schedule, scan size (Auto/Fixed-GB), Parity Protection, Parity Scope, Redundancy preset, parity storage location, and (Advanced, at creation only) File hash protection — see Security & Encryption.