PureRef stores each board as a single .pureref file. Everything on that board—the images, their positions, notes, colors—lives inside that file. When you delete an image from the board, it is removed from the file immediately. There is no trash, no undo across sessions, and no recovery mechanism. If you need that image back and you did not save a backup of the board before the deletion, the image is gone.
This is a design consequence of how PureRef works: boards are self-contained files, which makes them portable and shareable, but it also means the board is the single source of truth for what is on it. Lose the file or lose unsaved changes, and you lose the work.
When this becomes a problem
The risk is highest in two scenarios:
You delete an image by accident. You are arranging a board, you click delete instead of drag, and the image vanishes. Undo works if you catch it immediately, but only within the same session. Close PureRef, reboot, or restart your Mac, and the undo history is gone.
The file is corrupted or lost. A crash during save, accidental deletion of the .pureref file, or storage corruption means the board is unrecoverable even if you remember what was on it. There is no auto-recovery file, and no backup unless you made one.
For boards that took hours to assemble—collecting reference images, arranging them, annotating—this vulnerability is significant. Unlike a Photoshop or Figma file, where cloud backups and version history are standard, a PureRef board has only what you saved.
Why the design works this way
PureRef's whole point is portability. A single .pureref file is easy to email, share, or move. You do not need the app to manage a library; the file manages itself. That design choice makes boards lightweight and shareable, but it also means the file is fragile in a way a library-based app is not.
An app like Eagle or Coii Ref maintains a central library that backs up to one place. If a single image is corrupted or lost, the app's database survives and you can re-import that image. A .pureref file is the database. Corruption or loss means the entire board is at risk.
What to do if a file is lost
Check Time Machine or your backup system. If the .pureref file lives in a location your backup system protects (Documents, Desktop, or a synced folder), you may be able to restore an older version. Time Machine keeps hourly backups for 24 hours and daily backups for older files.
Check recent files. macOS keeps a list of recently opened files. In some cases, if PureRef crashed or you force-quit, the file might be in a temp location. This is rare and usually does not help, but it is worth checking Finder's Recent if the file is not where you expected it.
Treat it as a learning moment. If recovery is not possible, the work is gone. The lesson is to establish a backup routine for boards that matter.
Prevention: how to protect a PureRef board
Enable Time Machine or backups. Store .pureref files in a location your backup system monitors. Time Machine works well for this; so do services like Backblaze or Arq that back up your entire Mac to cloud storage.
Save frequently. PureRef has autosave, but it only triggers on normal app closure. Manually saving (Cmd+S) after adding or arranging significant content ensures changes are written to disk.
Keep a duplicate. Before making large changes to a board you have spent time
building, export a copy with a dated name: board-v2-september-11.pureref.
This is manual versioning, but it works.
Back up the folder. If you keep all your boards in one folder, that folder is easy to back up as a unit. Many users sync it to Dropbox, iCloud Drive, or Google Drive as a layer of redundancy.
Understand the risk. A PureRef board is a file you own, and files can be lost. The app does not offer cloud backup or automatic versioning, so the responsibility is entirely yours.
The structural difference: files vs. database
PureRef's strength is independence: a board is a file that lives anywhere and requires no app infrastructure to understand it. The weakness is fragility: if the file is lost or corrupted, the entire board is lost.
A reference manager like Coii Ref distributes risk. Your originals stay on disk where they belong. Tags, ratings and notes live in a database that is backed up with the rest of your workspace folder. Deleting a tag does not delete the image. The app is one way of viewing your files, not the container they live in.
For a single board that represents a few hours of work, the difference may not matter. For boards that represent weeks of collecting and arranging, or for workflows where you maintain a library of dozens of boards, the fragility of a single-file format becomes the limiting factor.
Moving from PureRef to a safer approach
If you have lost a board and you want to make sure it does not happen again, the move to a folder-based approach makes sense.
Coii Ref stores work in a workspace folder. Canvases—the equivalent of PureRef boards—are .coii-canvas files, which are plain JSON text files in your own folders. The entire workspace is one folder on your disk, and backing up that folder backs up everything: images, database, thumbnails, canvases and all.
An imported PureRef board can become a Coii Ref canvas with a few clicks. Create
a workspace, index the folder where your reference images live, and Coii Ref
reads your images and metadata. Then create a new canvas, add the images you
want, and save it as a .coii-canvas file in your workspace. It is a few minutes
of work, and you get a canvas that is verifiable—you can cat the JSON and see
everything in it—and that travels with the rest of your library.
When to accept the risk and when to move on
If you use PureRef for occasional boards—a mood board for a project, a reference sheet you assemble and forget—the risk is acceptable. The boards are small, and losing one is an inconvenience, not a disaster.
If you maintain a library of dozens of boards, or if your boards represent the collected visual thinking for a project that lives for months, the risk is too high. A single file format that requires manual backups to be safe is not a pattern that scales. At that point, a folder-based approach where your backup system takes care of everything for you is rational.
The portability advantage of plain-file formats
One silver lining of PureRef's file-based format is that .pureref files are portable in a way database libraries are not. A single file is easy to email, back up, or archive. The problem is the other side of that coin: portability and fragility go hand in hand. A database library distributes risk across multiple files and redundancy; a single-file format concentrates all risk in one place.
For work that matters, the file-based approach requires discipline. Frequent saves, backups, and version control are not optional—they are the price of using a single-file format. Most users forget this until the loss happens.
Coii Ref's workspace approach trades the ease of a single file for the robustness of many. Canvases are portable JSON files, but they live alongside your images in a workspace folder that is easy to back up as a unit. A deleted tag does not destroy the file; a workspace is a folder, not a database you have to trust to stay consistent.
For a more thorough comparison, read the comparison with PureRef, or explore what happens to your library if the app shuts down for context on app longevity and data preservation across tools. Do you need a reference manager addresses whether a dedicated app is worth it. Best reference apps that don't copy your files covers the broader landscape. How to share a moodboard without a cloud account explains the differences in sharing approaches. Or download the trial and create a canvas from your own images to see how it works—thirty days, free, no card.
Why this matters more in a long-term creative practice
If you make reference boards as a one-time project and then forget them, the risk of losing a board is low. You will not build a library of dozens of boards, each representing weeks of collecting and arranging. The loss of one board is an inconvenience, not a disaster.
But for a creative practice that accumulates reference over years, the picture changes. You might have boards for past projects that you revisit. You might have boards in progress that represent the current thinking for a project that will run for months. A corrupted board file means starting over on work you have spent significant time building.
For those workflows, a single-file format that requires manual backups is a liability. It is not that PureRef is poorly designed; it is that its design assumes a different use pattern than the one accumulating libraries face. If you are building a long-term archive of visual reference, the risks of a single-file format compound over time.
The main lesson: your library is only as safe as the backup strategy you have in place. PureRef does not provide that strategy for you. Coii Ref's folder-based workspace means your backup system—Time Machine, Backblaze, whatever you already use—backs it up automatically. The difference is not about which app is better; it is about whether the app makes it easy to keep your work safe and to accumulate a library across years without constant worry about losing a file to corruption or accidental deletion.
For a one-off board, either app is fine. For a practice that builds reference over time, the distinction becomes the most important decision you will make about which tool to use.
This is not a weakness of PureRef's design in isolation; it is a consequence of how single-file formats work. The format has real strengths: a .pureref file is portable, shareable, and easy to understand. But those strengths come with a cost. The file is the entire library. If the file is lost or corrupted, the entire library is lost. There is no backup, no redundancy, no escape hatch.
For users whose entire reference practice lives in a few boards—a mood board for a project, a reference sheet you create and forget— the risk is manageable. You update Time Machine regularly, you save frequently, and you understand that boards are files that need protection. For users who are building an archive, a library that will grow to hundreds of boards, that risk becomes unacceptable. At that scale, a folder-based approach where backup is automatic and distributed is not just convenient; it is necessary.
The real choice is not between PureRef and Coii Ref. The choice is between a single-file format that requires constant manual vigilance and a workspace that fits into your existing backup system without any extra thought. Once you understand that distinction, the answer is clear.