Data Transfers · External drive and disk space
What does “Needs space” mean on a download?
Short answer: A large download paused because its disk is nearly full — nothing is lost. Free some space and click Try again, or click Move to another drive to carry on elsewhere without downloading anything twice.
A large download paused because the disk it's saving to is nearly full. It isn't a failure: everything downloaded so far is safe. The message tells you roughly how much more room is needed.
You have two ways forward:
- Free some space on that disk, then click Try again.
- Click Move to another drive to send what's already downloaded to a disk with room and carry on there — nothing is downloaded twice.
Storage Studio pauses before the disk is completely full on purpose, so a download never fills your startup disk.
Related: Move a download to another drive · Freeing space