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Alter stores your chats, transcripts, and related data on your Mac.
Private and local-first: Alter does not use cloud sync to keep a backup of your chats, meeting transcripts, or local history.

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What stays on your Mac

  • Chat history
  • Meeting transcripts and recordings
  • Saved speaker voiceprints (~/Library/Application Support/Alter/SpeakerIdentity/)
  • Saved Memory facts and their local provenance links
  • Local workspace data
  • Other app data that Alter keeps for your account on that Mac
If you use cloud models for generation or cloud transcription for a specific task, that request is sent to the provider you selected. That is separate from cloud syncing your Alter history.

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Optional web sharing (explicit upload)

When you choose Share on a Hub conversation, Alter uploads that discussion — messages plus attached context — to Alter’s servers and returns a public read-only link on alterhq.com.
  • Sharing is opt-in per conversation; nothing is published unless you confirm
  • Anyone with the link may view the shared content without an Alter account
  • Remove unpublishes the link; Alter also stores the last URL locally so menus can offer Copy / Update / Remove
  • This does not back up or sync your full chat history — only the conversations you explicitly share
See Share conversations on the web.

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Task trace uploads (support only)

Share trace in the Tool Inspector uploads a diagnostic bundle to Alter support after a Computer Use, Flow, or other task run. It does not create a public alterhq.com link and is separate from web conversation sharing. See Share and export task traces.

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What this means in practice

  • Your data stays private to your Mac by default
  • Reinstalling Alter does not restore old chats or transcripts from a cloud backup
  • Moving to another Mac requires your own backup or transfer process

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Before you reinstall, downgrade, or troubleshoot

Do not uninstall Alter if you want to keep your existing data.
If you need to try another version:
  1. Download the version you want from the Alter changelog.
  2. Quit Alter.
  3. Drag the downloaded app into your Applications folder.
  4. Choose Replace when macOS asks.
This replaces the app without doing a cleanup-style uninstall. See Reinstall or downgrade Alter safely.

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Why uninstall tools can remove your data

Utilities such as CleanMyMac often remove the app and its support files in ~/Library/Application Support. That can delete the local Alter database and transcript files at the same time.

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If you want a backup first

  • Open Alter settings and use the data-location shortcut if available
  • Copy your Alter data folder to another safe location
  • Keep a normal Mac backup such as Time Machine before major changes

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If your data is already missing

See Data missing after reinstall or cleanup.