A Private Microsoft Recall Alternative on Your Mac in 2026 (Local AI Reviews Your Day Overnight)
You want a searchable memory of your workday on your Mac, the kind of thing Microsoft Recall does on Windows. But you do not want your screen sent to a cloud service, and you do not want a model reading screenshots while
You want a searchable memory of your workday on your Mac, the kind of thing Microsoft Recall does on Windows. But you do not want your screen sent to a cloud service, and you do not want a model reading screenshots while you are trying to work. Off Grid AI Desktop Pro saves your screen as you work and leaves the heavy part, the AI analysis, for the night. By default it runs from 3:00 to 8:00, it can wake your Mac to do it, and the model runs on the Mac itself. In the morning your Day view has the journal, timeline and to-dos from yesterday.
Microsoft Recall is a Windows feature for Copilot+ PCs, so it is not available on a Mac. This is the closest thing you can run on Apple silicon today.
What you need
- A Mac with Apple silicon. The Mac download is built for Apple silicon only.
- Off Grid AI Desktop 0.0.55 or later. Overnight analysis is in the current stable release. Download Off Grid AI Desktop for Mac.
- Off Grid AI Pro. Screen capture and the Day view are Pro features. Pro is monthly or a one-time lifetime price; the Pro page shows today's price.
- A local vision model downloaded in the app. The capture settings recommend a 16K context window for it.
- Screen Recording permission for Off Grid AI Desktop in macOS. Accessibility permission is optional, but the app reads exact names, URLs and text better with it.
The Day view on a Mac. This is what the overnight pass fills in.
How it works
Capture has two halves. Taking a screenshot and reading the text on screen is light, so it runs all day. Analyzing each saved moment with a local model is heavy: it is one model pass per frame. Overnight mode splits them. Screenshots are saved as you work, the frames wait in a queue, and the model works through the queue inside the window you choose.
Nothing is lost while frames wait. They are saved to disk as pending and stay there until they are analyzed.
Step 1: Turn on capture and choose Overnight
- Open Off Grid AI Desktop and click Replay in the sidebar.
- At the top, the capture status shows Paused. Click Resume capture. If it already shows Capturing, skip to Step 2 and pick Overnight there.
- The first time you turn capture on, the app asks: "When should Off Grid analyze your day?" Two options appear:
- Overnight (recommended): "Your Mac stays fast all day. Analysis runs 3:00-8:00 and can wake it."
- As it happens: "Your day appears as you go, using some power while you work."
- Click Overnight (recommended).
- macOS shows a password prompt from Off Grid AI. Enter your Mac password and click OK. This lets the app set a nightly wake at the start of the window.
If you cancel the password prompt, overnight analysis still runs, but only while your Mac is already awake. The app tells you so: "The password prompt was cancelled, so the computer will not wake on its own."
You are asked this question once. To change your answer later, use Settings.
Step 2: Change the hours in Settings
- Click Settings in the sidebar.
- Scroll to Capture & processing.
- Under Processing, find the Analyze row. If it reads "As it happens.", switch its control to Overnight and enter your Mac password when asked. It then reads "Overnight. Your Mac wakes at 03:00 to do it."
- Two time fields appear next to it: Analysis starts and Analysis ends. Set them to any hours you are away from the Mac, such as 01:00 to 06:00. A window can cross midnight, such as 22:00 to 06:00.
- To go back to analyzing during the day, switch the control from Overnight to As it happens.
When you change the start time, the app moves the nightly wake to match. It may ask for your password again.
Step 3: Leave the Mac on power and the app running
The Mac does the work, so a few things must be true at night:
- Off Grid AI Desktop is running. It can sit in the menu bar. If you quit it, nothing is analyzed.
-
A MacBook is plugged in. The wake is set with the macOS
pmsetscheduler. While frames are waiting inside the window, the app keeps the Mac awake, then lets it sleep again when the queue is empty or the window ends. - The Mac can be locked. A locked Mac stops new screenshots, but it does not stop the analysis of frames already saved. That is the point of the overnight window.
Analysis does wait if you paused capture yourself. The Day view says so instead of promising a run that will not happen.
Step 4: Read your day in the morning
Click Day in the sidebar. The journal, timeline, time spent by app and to-dos are built from what the model read overnight.
During the day, the Day view shows how much is waiting, for example "42 moments waiting ยท analyzed tonight at 03:00". If you want the results now, click the Analyze now button (the play icon) next to that line. It analyzes today's pending frames straight away.
If you work on battery with As it happens selected, the Day view offers the switch once: "On battery. Analyze overnight instead?" Click Overnight to switch, or dismiss it.
Check what happened overnight
The Capture & processing card has a Pipeline health panel with Screen access, Accessibility text, Vision model, Frame queue, Last frame and Last observation. The queue counts update as frames move.
If some frames failed, a panel reads, for example, "3 frames need another pass". It groups them by the real reason, with a count for each, and says how many "will retry on their own" and how many "need you". Frames stay saved, and a retry button sits next to them.
A frame can also be too large for the active model's context. Those show as "frames are waiting for a larger model". There is no retry button for them, because retrying would not help. Raise the context or switch to a larger model, and they are analyzed on their own.
What this does not do
- It does not run when the app is closed. Off Grid AI Desktop must be running at night.
- It does not replace a wake schedule you already set. macOS keeps one repeating wake. If your Mac already wakes at another time, the app says "Your Mac already wakes every day at" that time and does not change it. You can remove that schedule or set the window to start at your existing wake time.
- It does not send your screen anywhere by default. Analysis uses a local model. One exception: if you have no local model installed and you selected a remote chat server in the app, capture analyzes with that server instead. Install a local vision model if you want every frame to stay on the Mac.
- It does not capture everything. Apps you add under Excluded apps in Capture & processing are not saved, and nothing is saved while capture is paused.
FAQ
Is there a Microsoft Recall for Mac?
Microsoft Recall itself is Windows only. Off Grid AI Desktop Pro gives you the same kind of searchable screen history on a Mac with Apple silicon, analyzed by a local model on the Mac.
Does my Mac need to be awake all night?
No. The app asks macOS to wake the Mac at the start of the window, keeps it awake while frames are waiting, then lets it sleep. Keep a MacBook plugged in so the wake and the work are not cut short.
Why does Off Grid AI ask for my Mac password?
Setting a repeating wake with pmset needs administrator rights, so macOS asks. The app only removes a wake it set itself, and it asks again when you turn the wake off.
Can I see my day before the overnight run?
Yes. Click Analyze now next to the waiting count in the Day view, or Re-process today under Today's captures in Settings. Live capture pauses while that pass runs.
Will it slow down my Mac during the day?
With Overnight selected, the model work waits for the window, so daytime use is limited to taking screenshots and reading on-screen text. With As it happens, analysis runs while you work and uses more power.
Related
Originally published by Dev.to AI. Aggregated on AIWithGhost for educational purposes โ full credit and traffic to the original publisher.