Keep Screen Time history past four weeks
A Markdown file for every day, long after macOS deletes the history.
Steps
- Press “Connect” beside Screen Time on Exporter’s home, then “Open Knowledge Folder”. The panel opens in the Knowledge folder where macOS keeps Screen Time: press “Select This Folder”.
- Choose where the files go and press “Use This Folder”. For a folder like
~/Documents/screen-time, press “Change…” beside “Saves To” on the card. - Tick the days you want before the first sync: on the free allowance, the 10 newest days ticked at that first sync are your free days, and they stay fixed.
- Press “Sync Now”.
- Unlock Screen Time so every new day is written, and turn on Settings > “Open at Login”. While Exporter runs it adds the new days, at most once a minute.
What you get
~/Documents/screen-time/
2026-08-31.md
2026-09-01.md
summary.md
One file per day, with the totals in the front matter and four tables: apps used for a minute or more, websites, notifications per app, and when the screen was on.
total_screen_time: "3h 51m"
apps_used: 4
domains_visited: 2
summary.md adds up top apps and daily totals over the recent weeks. Exporter never deletes a day file, so the folder keeps growing after macOS forgets the old days.
Pitfalls
- The folder is the only copy of the days macOS deleted. Back it up, and never press “Full Resync” on it: that removes the day files Exporter wrote and exports only what macOS still has.
- Days macOS deleted before you exported them cannot be exported.
- Without the unlock, new days stop after the free ten.
The fields and the fixes are in the Screen Time docs.