diff --git a/bin/quak.ts b/bin/quak.ts
index 4ac077a..1d9e48d 100644
--- a/bin/quak.ts
+++ b/bin/quak.ts
@@ -340,23 +340,26 @@ program
         "Dump all decrypted account metadata to a directory of JSON files",
     )
     .argument("<dir>", "Output directory")
-    .option(
-        "--ml",
-        "Include ML data (face detections, CLIP embeddings) from the Ente server",
-    )
+    .option("--no-ml", "Skip ML data (face detections, CLIP embeddings)")
     .option(
         "--exif",
         "Download each file and extract full EXIF/IPTC/XMP metadata (slow)",
     )
-    .action(async (dir: string, opts: { ml?: boolean; exif?: boolean }) => {
-        await init();
-        const client = requireSession();
-        await runMetadataBackup(client, dir, {
-            mlData: opts.ml,
-            exif: opts.exif,
-            onProgress: (msg) => stderr.write(msg + "\n"),
-        });
-    });
+    .option("--all", "Alias for --exif")
+    .action(
+        async (
+            dir: string,
+            opts: { ml?: boolean; exif?: boolean; all?: boolean },
+        ) => {
+            await init();
+            const client = requireSession();
+            await runMetadataBackup(client, dir, {
+                mlData: opts.ml,
+                exif: opts.exif || opts.all,
+                onProgress: (msg) => stderr.write(msg + "\n"),
+            });
+        },
+    );
 
 program
     .command("backup")
diff --git a/src/metadata-backup.ts b/src/metadata-backup.ts
index 26034cd..b44f47f 100644
--- a/src/metadata-backup.ts
+++ b/src/metadata-backup.ts
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ export const runMetadataBackup = async (
     opts?: MetadataBackupOptions,
 ): Promise<void> => {
     const log = opts?.onProgress ?? (() => {});
-    const wantML = opts?.mlData ?? false;
+    const wantML = opts?.mlData ?? true;
     const wantExif = opts?.exif ?? false;
 
     mkdirSync(outDir, { recursive: true });
diff --git a/test/cli/metadata-backup.test.ts b/test/cli/metadata-backup.test.ts
index c6aae7a..09cc746 100644
--- a/test/cli/metadata-backup.test.ts
+++ b/test/cli/metadata-backup.test.ts
@@ -587,8 +587,8 @@ describe("quak backup-metadata", () => {
         expect(fileMeta.mlData.clip.embedding).toEqual([0.5, 0.6, 0.7]);
     });
 
-    it("does not include ML data when --ml is not set", async () => {
-        const outDir = join(testDir, "no-ml");
+    it("includes ML data by default", async () => {
+        const outDir = join(testDir, "ml-default");
         const client = await Client.login({
             email: TEST_EMAIL,
             password: TEST_PASSWORD,
@@ -597,6 +597,28 @@ describe("quak backup-metadata", () => {
 
         await runMetadataBackup(client, outDir);
 
+        const collDirs = readdirSync(join(outDir, "collections"));
+        const vacDir = collDirs.find((d) => d.includes("Vacation"))!;
+        const fileMeta = JSON.parse(
+            readFileSync(
+                join(outDir, "collections", vacDir, "100.json"),
+                "utf-8",
+            ),
+        );
+        expect(fileMeta.mlData).toBeDefined();
+        expect(fileMeta.mlData.face.faces[0].faceID).toBe("face-abc");
+    });
+
+    it("excludes ML data when mlData: false", async () => {
+        const outDir = join(testDir, "no-ml");
+        const client = await Client.login({
+            email: TEST_EMAIL,
+            password: TEST_PASSWORD,
+            apiOptions: { fetch: buildMetaFetch(mock) },
+        });
+
+        await runMetadataBackup(client, outDir, { mlData: false });
+
         const collDirs = readdirSync(join(outDir, "collections"));
         const vacDir = collDirs.find((d) => d.includes("Vacation"))!;
         const fileMeta = JSON.parse(