Backup & Sharing

Your library, portable.

Gelato Maestro can produce two kinds of export: a data backup that can be re-imported, and a PDF archive for printing or sharing. Individual recipes and ingredients can also be shared as standalone .gmaestro files.

The Backup sheet with data and PDF options. — The Backup sheet — choose Data or PDF before exporting.

Open it from: Sidebar toolbar › Backup.

Data backup (.gmaestro)

A JSON file containing every recipe, every custom ingredient, every batch freezer profile and every production batch in your library. It's the only format that can be re-imported into Gelato Maestro to restore your work.

Small file size, even with large libraries.
Restore by double-clicking the file or dragging it onto the Gelato Maestro icon.
Recommended cadence: weekly, before major changes, and before switching machines.

The data backup options. — Data backup options on macOS.

Even with iCloud sync, keep a local backup iCloud sync keeps devices aligned but is not a substitute for backup — an accidental delete propagates to every device. A weekly .gmaestro on a USB drive or your Time Machine gives you a real undo for a bad afternoon.

PDF backup

A readable PDF archive of every recipe in your library: names, ingredients, ratios, KPIs and notes. Perfect for:

Printing a binder for the production team.
Sending a complete library to a colleague who doesn't have Gelato Maestro.
Archiving a snapshot of your library at a particular date.

PDF backups cannot be re-imported — they're read-only.

Sharing a single recipe or ingredient

Use the Share action on any recipe or ingredient (toolbar or context menu). Gelato Maestro produces a small .gmaestro file you can send via Mail, Messages, AirDrop, or any file-sharing service. The recipient double-clicks the file to add it to their own library.

Importing

To import a backup or a shared file:

Double-click the .gmaestro file in Finder, or drag it onto the Gelato Maestro icon.
Gelato Maestro detects whether the file is a single recipe, a single ingredient, or a full library backup.
On success, you'll see an alert with a shortcut to the imported item.
If the file is malformed or from an unsupported version, an Import failed alert appears.

Importing a full backup merges, not replaces Importing a full-library .gmaestro adds its content to your library; it does not wipe your existing recipes and ingredients. To start from a clean slate, delete first, then import.

File naming

Backups are auto-named with the date — for example Gelato_Maestro_Recipes_2026-05-16.gmaestro. Keep the timestamp in the filename when you save manual backups so you can roll back to a known good state.