Getting started

Storage Studio is one place to manage all your storage from your Mac — Mac and drives, other devices, cloud accounts, Delta storage, versioned backups and your clipboard. Freeing up space is one part of it.

Anyone whose Mac's built-in drive is too small — small-SSD MacBook owners, creators with big libraries and developers with large caches. A simple view suits most people; an Advanced view gives power users full control.

No. Storage Studio frees space by moving big apps and folders to an external drive with a shortcut left behind. It only clears safe, regenerable data like app caches, and personal files are never deleted without asking.

Storage Studio is published by Techtonic Systems Media and Research LLC. It's not an Apple app, but it is signed and notarised by Apple. The About Storage Studio window lists the publisher and support details.

Storage Studio is Mac-only. A free companion app, Storage Studio Bridge, installs on a Windows PC to connect it to your Mac for shared folders and clipboard; other platforms aren't available yet.

Grant Full Disk Access, read the Home verdict, press Run Tuhi for a safe clean-up, check What's Using Space, then connect an external drive and move big apps or folders. Ask Tuhi if you're unsure.

Very little. Moved apps and folders leave a shortcut so they open from the same places, and background work yields to whatever you're doing. Just keep the drive connected for moved items, and eject it from the app.

Storage Studio needs macOS 13 Ventura or later and runs on Sonoma, Sequoia and newer. It needs an Apple silicon Mac; Tuhi's full conversational answers need macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence.

No. Storage Studio is for Apple silicon Macs only. Intel Macs aren't supported and there's no version to download for them; an Intel Mac that already has it is never offered an update it can't run.

Yes. Any Mac model works — MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini or Mac Studio — as long as it has Apple silicon and runs macOS 13 or newer.

Download it from the official site, storagestudio.us. It's a disk image signed and notarised by Apple — open it, drag Storage Studio to Applications, and launch it from there.

Open the disk image, drag Storage Studio to Applications and open it. A short first-launch sequence follows: Terms, Full Disk Access, trial registration and a quick setup wizard.

Yes. If you can't write to the main Applications folder, put Storage Studio in an Applications folder inside your home folder — both work. Keep it in one place so its permissions stay attached.

Storage Studio is signed and notarised by Apple, so this usually means the download is incomplete or altered. Trash that copy and download it again from storagestudio.us rather than overriding the warning.

It lives in the menu bar at the top-right of your screen — click its icon to open it. It has no Dock icon by default; turn one on in Settings → Interface → Show Storage Studio in the Dock.

No — dragging it into Applications needs no admin password. macOS may ask for your password later for protected actions, such as changing Full Disk Access or removing an administrator-owned app.

Yes. After Storage Studio is in Applications and opens, eject the installer and move the .dmg from Downloads to the Trash — updates come with a fresh download.

Download it again from storagestudio.us and drag it into Applications over the old copy; your moves, settings and licence are kept. To repair just the background service, use More → Set Up / Reinstall….

No. Storage Studio is ready when setup finishes, and it picks up Full Disk Access within seconds without relaunching. The background service starts during setup and at every login after that.

A short sequence: a splash screen, accepting the Terms, granting Full Disk Access (skippable), registering your free trial with an email code, then a quick setup wizard. Later launches skip what's done.

It's a few seconds while the app checks for updates and refreshes its settings — about five seconds normally, up to about 20 on a first install. It always dismisses on its own, and works offline too.

You accept the Terms, Privacy Policy and Disclaimer once, on first install, and again only if they change. Reread them any time from More → Legal in the app or on the website.

Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access and switch Storage Studio on. The app notices within seconds, no restart needed. The Home banner and Settings → Permissions can take you there.

Yes. Choose Skip for now and the app opens with limited reach; features that need the permission tell you when you use them, and you can grant it any time from Settings → Permissions.

macOS ties the permission to the exact app copy, so an update can quietly drop it while the switch still looks on. Turn Storage Studio off and on again in Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access.

Your name, email and country register the free trial so it can be set up, supported and reminded about. There's no card and nothing to pay, no spam, and your files never leave your Mac.

Check spam or junk and that the address is spelled correctly, wait a minute, make sure you're online, then request a new code and use the newest one. If none arrives, contact support with the address you used.

The free trial is tied to the Mac, so a reinstall recognises it and skips registration. You continue with any days left, or see your options to choose a plan or activate a licence if it has ended.

Click I have a licence at the bottom-left of the registration screen to jump straight to activation. You can also activate later from your purchase email's Activate button or Settings → License.

Four quick steps: a welcome, picking your external drive (or skipping), installing the small background service that starts at login, and a finish screen. It takes about a minute and everything can be changed later.

It doesn't erase or reformat anything. It adds a small, tidy folder on the drive and marks the drive as yours, so Storage Studio only ever manages the disk you chose. Existing files stay put.

A small helper that runs Storage Studio's scheduled work and notifications, even with the app closed, and starts at login. You can see its status and restart or stop it from Settings → Services.

Choose More → Set Up / Reinstall… (Re-run Setup Wizard… in the Advanced view). It doesn't touch your files or moves; use Verify Setup… first if you only want a health check.

It's a quick self-check of the background service, your drive, permissions and rules, with a one-click fix for anything off. Open it from More → Verify Setup…; it never changes your files.

The background service isn't running. Click Start Service; if that fails, use Restart now on the Background service row in Settings → Services, then Verify Setup… or Set Up / Reinstall….

Home shows a plain-English verdict on your space, the Tuhi Ask box, the one-tap Run Tuhi button, live status and storage gauges, quick stats, a storage-over-time chart and links to the deeper tools.

Everything is in the More (•••) menu at the top of the window, grouped into Storage, Automation & Cloud, Drives, Activity & Maintenance and Help & Support, with Settings, Uninstall, Restart and Quit at the bottom.

Plain means healthy, a green pulse means a clean-up is running, yellow means Full Disk Access is missing, orange means space is low, red means the drive is disconnected or space is critical, and a minus means paused.

Right-click or Control-click the menu-bar icon for Settings…, Eject (with your drive's name and a confirmation), Restart Storage Studio, Quit Storage Studio and About Storage Studio.

It shows a status header, a status block, free-space cards for both drives, the Free Up Space Now button, paired actions such as Pause, Dry Run and Rollback Last Batch, a licence card and a footer with Log, Rules and Help.

Another shortcut probably already uses it — ⌃Space is also macOS's switch-input-source shortcut. Pick a different combination in Settings → Shortcuts, or turn off the clashing one in System Settings → Keyboard.

No. Storage Studio deliberately always uses a light appearance so every screen stays consistent. The rest of your Mac still switches to Dark Mode as normal.

Your menu bar is probably full — macOS hides icons that don't fit, especially around the notch. Quit some menu-bar apps, reopen Storage Studio from Applications, or turn on its Dock icon in Settings → Interface.

Last clean-up shows when the latest clean-up ran (click to see what happened); Next clean-up shows when the next scheduled one is due (click to change the schedule in Quiet Hours).

It's a live, plain-English line showing what Storage Studio is doing right now, such as All systems normal. Tap it to open Background Activity for every job's status and history.

No external drive is set up or connected, so moving big apps and files isn't available yet — clearing caches still works. Plug in a drive and set it up from More → Set Up / Choose External Drive….

Open More → Background Activity… for a plain-English card per background job, or More → Activity Log… for the detailed log. In the Advanced popover, ⌘L opens the Log window.

Open Settings → License and use the Updates card's Check Now and Download buttons. Open the downloaded disk image while Storage Studio is running and it updates itself in place and relaunches.

No. Open the newer version's disk image while Storage Studio is running and it updates itself in place and relaunches. It only accepts a genuinely newer, Apple-verified build, so an old copy can't downgrade it.

No. An update replaces only the app; your moved items, shortcuts, rules, accounts and settings carry over. If macOS drops Full Disk Access after the update, Storage Studio tells you and switching it off and on restores it.

See the release notes page on the Storage Studio website, or click Release notes on the Updates card in Settings → License. New features also appear in the Learning Center.

If your Mac has an Intel chip, it isn't offered updates, because Storage Studio is for Apple silicon only. On Apple silicon, click Check Now in Settings → License while online.

The manual is built into the app's Help window — it works offline and matches your installed version. The same guides are online in the Storage Studio manual on the website.

It's a panel of tips, guides and what's new, opened from the book icon just before More. Cards can include videos and pictures, some jump to the right screen, and it has highlights for every feature even offline.

Ask Tuhi to "contact support", or choose More (•••) → Contact Support…. A pre-filled, editable ticket form opens and nothing is sent until you tap Send; follow replies in My Support.

Use Share Your Experience: verify your email, pick Bug, Suggestion, Question, Praise or Other, and write your message. It attaches your Mac model, macOS and app version. For help with a problem, Contact Support is faster.

Reply to the verification email from when you sent it — the team sees your reply on the same record. Quote the reference ID shown after sending if you write in another way.

Use the Storage Studio website, storagestudio.us, or email the support address listed there, including your Mac model, macOS and app version and what you see. Re-downloading the app fixes most launch problems.

In the app's notification bell and, matching it, in macOS Notification Centre as "Storage Studio". Informational items arrive quietly, warnings show a banner, important ones can break through Focus, and each clears once resolved.

Only notices marked important can break through Focus. To stop that, turn off Time Sensitive Notifications for Storage Studio in System Settings → Notifications; the in-app bell still keeps everything.

Quitting stops the app and its working helpers at a safe point. The scheduled background service keeps running by design — stop it in Settings → Services — and an update that's mid-install is left to finish.

Choose More → Uninstall Storage Studio…. A three-step wizard can bring relocated folders back, remove its settings and move the app to the Trash. Files on your external drive are never touched.

Nothing is deleted. Moved files stay on your external drive unless you ask the uninstaller to revert them, and Reset Storage Studio puts everything back on your Mac before it removes anything.

Reset puts everything Storage Studio moved back on your Mac first, then removes only what you tick — to the Trash — and gives you a data-erasure code. Connect your drive first; cloud backups are left alone.

It's a code that asks us to erase the personal details we hold for that Mac. Send it from the reset screen or email it to support; purchase records are kept because the law requires them.

Dragging to the Trash removes only the app and leaves the background service, settings and relocated items behind. Use More → Uninstall Storage Studio… or Reset Storage Studio… to clean up properly.

Optional but tidy. macOS keeps permission records after an app is removed; select Storage Studio in Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access and click – to remove it.

Yes. In More → Uninstall Storage Studio…, untick the option that removes config and logs. The app goes to the Trash but your rules and history stay, ready for a reinstall.

No. Uninstalling doesn't touch billing. Cancel from Settings → License (which opens the billing portal) or the Manage subscription link in a receipt email; access lasts to the end of the paid period.

Uninstall is a quick three-step removal that can revert folders and trash the app. Reset puts everything it moved back on your Mac first, removes only what you tick, and gives you a data-erasure code.