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Elephas stores your documents, what it reads from them, its search index and your chats on your computer. The extracted text, the index and your chats are kept in an encrypted database, and its keys are kept in your operating system’s secure credential store: Keychain on Mac, Credential Manager on Windows.

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Where the folder is

Your data folder:
To open it, in Finder choose Go › Go to Folder, paste the path, and press Return.Downloaded models (search, private-information, OCR and Local AI models) are kept in the same folder.
The folder is named “Elephas Next” on both systems. You do not need to open it in normal use. Moving or editing files inside it can break your Brains.

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What is inside

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The copies of your files

When you add a file, Elephas keeps its own copy, so your Brain still works if you move or delete the original. These copies are stored in your data folder as ordinary files. Elephas does not encrypt them: like your originals, they are protected by your computer’s user account and by disk encryption if you turn it on (FileVault on Mac, BitLocker or Device Encryption on Windows). The extracted text, the index and your chats live in the encrypted database.

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How it works

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Indexing happens on your computer. Always.

Reading your files, extracting text, OCR, building the search index and finding the passages that answer your question all run on your computer, whatever AI you choose. Your documents are not uploaded to be indexed. If you turn on sync, your files are encrypted on your computer before they are uploaded, and each of your other computers builds its own search index. See What syncs. What happens when you ask a question depends on the AI you chose. See What data is sent to AI.

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Encrypted database

Elephas stores its databases with SQLCipher, an encrypted form of SQLite. Each database has its own random 256-bit key. Without the key, the file cannot be read.

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Keys in your operating system’s credential store

The database keys are stored in:
  • Mac: Keychain
  • Windows: Credential Manager
Entries appear under the name “Elephas Next”. The same store holds your sign-in session, any API keys you add for your own API key, and, if you use Personal Sync, your device’s sync keys. None of these are written to settings.json or to the log.
Deleting the “Elephas Next” entries from Keychain or Credential Manager makes your local Elephas databases unreadable. Only do this if you intend to delete your data.

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Logs

The log file is designed to contain event names, IDs, counts and technical error details, never the text of your documents, questions or answers. You can open it from Settings › Support › Log file with Show in Finder (Mac) or Show in Explorer (Windows), and you choose whether to attach it when you email support.

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Uninstalling does not delete your data

Removing the app leaves the data folder and the credential store entries in place. See Delete your data and account.

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Troubleshooting

Check that your user account can write to the folder listed above, and that your disk is not full. Then restart Elephas. See Elephas won’t start.
The Library folder is hidden by default. Use Go › Go to Folder in Finder and paste the full path.
There is no setting to move the data folder today.

What data is sent to AI

Privacy overview

What syncs

Delete your data and account