What stays on your Mac, and what doesn’t.
Screenshots are among the most sensitive files on a computer — banking, messages, medical results, client work. This page states precisely what SnapTree does with them, in the order that matters.
Your screenshots stay on your Mac. SnapTree processes screenshots, text recognition, search, and organization locally. There is no account, no analytics, and no tracking code in the app at all. If you choose to enable optional AI features, recognized text and limited context needed to complete your request may be sent to the AI provider you connect — your screenshot image itself is not. Local by default. Connected only when you choose.
What never leaves your Mac
None of the following is uploaded, synced, or transmitted anywhere, in any mode, at any time — including when optional AI features are switched on:
- Screenshot images
- Screen recordings
- Recorded audio
- Thumbnails
- File paths
- Folder names
- Search queries
- Notes
- Markdown exports
- Usage counts
- Your library as a whole
What does leave your Mac
Exactly three values, only for checking your trial or subscription, and only against SnapTree’s own entitlement server:
| Value | Why | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Installation ID | Ties your trial and subscription to this install | A random identifier generated on first launch. It is not a hardware fingerprint, serial number, MAC address, or account ID, and nothing about you or your Mac is used to produce it. On its own it identifies nobody. If you subscribe, it becomes linked to your Lemon Squeezy customer record so we can tell which installation a subscription belongs to — so for paying customers it is connected to the email you bought with. |
| Device name | So you can tell your Macs apart when deactivating one | Whatever your Mac is called in Sharing settings. |
| License key | Only when you type one in to activate | Never generated, guessed, or read from anywhere by the app. |
That is the complete list for SnapTree’s own server. No screenshots, no recordings, no file paths, no folder names, no search queries, no usage counts, no crash reports — there is no analytics or crash-reporting code in the application at all.
Optional AI features are the one other thing that sends anything anywhere, and they go directly to a provider you choose, on your own account, never through us. That path is described in full below and in the AI Disclosures.
What is stored on your Mac
Your library — images, recordings, thumbnails, OCR text, tags and notes — lives in the folder you chose, in ordinary files you can open, move, or delete with Finder. SnapTree does not lock your files into a proprietary container.
Subscription material is kept in the macOS Keychain rather than in preferences, so deleting preferences or reinstalling does not consume a fresh trial: the installation ID, the signed entitlement statement, a license key and instance ID if you activated one, a trusted-time marker used to notice an obviously altered clock, and a marker that a trial was issued.
Optional AI features
SnapTree’s AI features are off by default and run under your own API key with your chosen provider. Nothing is sent to any AI provider unless you turn them on and confirm.
When you process an item, exactly five things are sent, directly from your Mac to that provider: the text recognised from that screenshot(first 6,000 characters), the item’s current title, the source application name, the capture date, and your category names so the model picks an existing one.
The screenshot image itself is never sent. Nor are recordings, audio, thumbnails, file paths, notes, search queries, or any other screenshot — each request covers one item, with no surrounding or historical context.
- A confirmation appears before sending, on by default, naming the provider and how many items.
- Automatic processing is a separate switch and is also off by default.
- A monthly cap limits how many items can be processed — 300 by default.
- Every generated field carries a badge showing its origin: on device, cloud provider, or edited by you. Values you wrote are never overwritten.
- Your API key is stored in the macOS Keychain and is never written to logs, exports, or source.
Because screenshots often contain sensitive material, satisfy yourself that your provider and account configuration are appropriate before enabling this for confidential work. Their handling of what you send is governed by their terms, not ours.
SnapTree is fully usable forever without ever enabling these. They are an enhancement, not a gate.
Permissions
Only access to the folder you pick is required, and SnapTree is useful with nothing else granted. It requests no Accessibility access and no control of other apps.
Screen recording is optional and requested only when you actually start a recording. Capture runs strictly between an explicit start and stop, with a floating indicator visible the entire time — it is never used to observe your screen in the background. Recordings are written straight into your visible SnapTree folder and are never uploaded. If you decline, macOS’s own ⌘⇧5 recorder still works as a fallback.
Deleting and exporting
- Deleted items go to Recently Deleted and are recoverable for 30 days.
- A permanent delete removes everything associated with an item — original file, thumbnail, database row, OCR result, revisions, Markdown, notes, search index entries, and project, tag and stack memberships. An automated test asserts that nothing is left orphaned.
- Settings includes “Delete all application data”, which wipes the managed library and settings.
- You can export everything as JSON metadata plus a copy of your originals folder.
Payment and billing
Purchases are handled by Lemon Squeezy as merchant of record. SnapTree never sees your card details — they do not pass through, and are not stored on, any server we operate. Our server holds only the subscription and license records Lemon Squeezy reports back.
Being straight about what that implies: those records carry your Lemon Squeezy customer id, and they are joined to your installation id. So for a paying customer we can tell which installation belongs to which purchase, and Lemon Squeezy holds the email attached to it. We are not going to pretend otherwise — that link is what makes “restore my subscription” work at all. What does not exist on either side of that join is any of your content: no screenshots, no recognised text, no filenames, no search history. Trial users are not in this picture at all, because there is nothing to join them to.
If your subscription lapses
When access ends, SnapTree stops working — it does not touch your files. Nothing is deleted, moved, encrypted, or held hostage: no screenshots, no recordings, no notes, no tags, no folders, no database. Everything stays exactly where it was, readable in Finder, and returns untouched the moment access is restored.
Security
Entitlement statements are cryptographically signed by the server and verified on your Mac; the app ships only a public key and cannot mint its own. License keys and tokens are redacted from all logging. Traffic to the entitlement server is encrypted in transit. The app is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple.
No software is free of risk, and we will not claim otherwise. What we can say precisely is what is exposed to risk in the first place: not your screenshots, because they are never transmitted.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes in a way that affects what leaves your Mac, the change will be noted here and in the app’s release notes. Questions are welcome at hello@snaptree.app.