Comparisons & alternatives · Drives and hardware choices
Should I move my whole home folder to an external drive instead of using Storage Studio?
Short answer: Not for most people. Moving the whole home folder makes your account depend on the drive at login and is hard to undo. Storage Studio moves only large, safe folders one at a time, each reversible.
We wouldn't recommend it for most people. Moving your whole home folder puts everything — settings, sign-ins, app data and caches — on the external drive, so if the drive isn't connected at login, your account doesn't work properly. It's an all-or-nothing change that's awkward to undo.
Storage Studio takes the opposite approach: move only the large things that are safe to move, one folder or app at a time, and leave settings and sign-ins on the internal drive. Each move leaves links in place, is recorded, and can be moved back in one click — and if the drive is unplugged, your Mac still starts and works normally; only the moved items are unavailable.
Storage Studio won't let you pick your whole home folder for Collab Sync either, for similar reasons. See Moving folders.