---
id: freeing-space.what-is-the-red-badge-next-to-the-bell
url: https://storagestudio.us/faq/freeing-space/what-is-the-red-badge-next-to-the-bell
category: "Freeing up space"
subcategory: "Emergency Space"
question: "What is the red badge next to the bell on the Home screen?"
alt_questions:
  - "Red alert icon on Storage Studio Home"
  - "Warning badge beside notifications"
  - "When does the red badge appear?"
  - "Why is there a red triangle on Home?"
  - "Red badge disk 95 percent"
short_answer: "It's the shortcut to Emergency Space, shown only when your built-in drive is at least 95% full — a share of the drive rather than a fixed number of gigabytes."
tags: ["emergency space", "home screen", "low space"]
related: ["https://storagestudio.us/faq/freeing-space/how-do-i-open-emergency-space", "https://storagestudio.us/faq/freeing-space/what-is-emergency-space"]
applies_to: "all"
last_reviewed: 2026-10-01
---

# What is the red badge next to the bell on the Home screen?

It's the shortcut to Emergency Space, and it only appears once your built-in drive is at least 95% full. Tap it to open Emergency Space.

It's measured as a share of your drive's size rather than a fixed number of gigabytes, because 25 GB free is comfortable on a 2 TB Mac and nearly fatal on a 256 GB one. A warning that's always on screen stops meaning anything — so when you see this one, it's real. See [What is Emergency Space?](https://storagestudio.us/faq/freeing-space/what-is-emergency-space)