Moving folders

Storage Studio copies the folder's files to your external drive, checks the copy, removes the originals, and leaves links in their place so everything still opens from the same spot. It's a move, not a copy — nothing is stored twice.

It's a small link at the original location that points to the file's new home on your fast drive. Apps and macOS follow it automatically, so files open from the same place while the drive is connected, and the link itself uses almost no space.

Moving frees the space without losing anything: the files live on your external drive, a link keeps them opening from the same place, and you can move them back any time. Deleting is final for anything that isn't a rebuildable cache.

Big folders of your own that you keep but don't need on the built-in drive every minute: finished projects, video exports, old installers and large parts of Downloads or Documents. What's Using Space puts a Move to fast drive button on the safe ones.

Keep on your Mac anything you need with the drive unplugged, folders an app is still writing to, browser profiles and app data holding sign-ins, and macOS system folders. What's Using Space only offers a move where it's safe.

Almost all of it — the links left behind are tiny, so you get back roughly the folder's on-disk size, which Storage Studio shows before you move. Your Mac's recent snapshots can hold some of that space for a while before releasing it.

Usually your Mac's recent snapshots are still holding the space of the moved files. Storage Studio asks macOS to release it after each move, but macOS decides; it normally returns on its own within about a day, or you can release it in Local Snapshots.

Yes, while the drive is connected. A link is left at every original location, so editors, build tools, backup apps and scripts still find files at the same paths. Just don't move a folder an app is still writing to.

Into Storage Studio's own folder for your Mac on the fast drive — each Mac gets its own, so several can share one drive. Open What's Using Space, click Relocated, and use Reveal in Finder on any row to see the copy.

Yes. Storage Studio keeps each Mac's moved files in a folder named after that Mac, so several Macs can share one drive or one cloud account without their files mixing. Each Mac manages only its own moves.

The fast drive is the external drive — usually an SSD — you picked during setup, where Storage Studio puts moved folders and apps. Move to fast drive, Eject fast drive and similar buttons all refer to that drive.

Partly. Moves that leave a link behind need the fast drive, but Data Parking can still move folders to a connected cloud account or another folder you choose. Cache clearing and other free-up options don't need a drive at all.

It depends on the folder's size, how many files it holds, and your drive's speed; many small files take longer than one big one. The progress view shows speed and time left. Moves give way to your own work, and you can close the window while they run.

Start with What's Using Space: it finds your biggest folders and offers a safe one-click Move to fast drive. Use Data Parking to pick exactly what moves, move subfolders or single files, merge, or move to a cloud account or other folder.

No. A move leaves one copy of your files, on the fast drive, with links on your Mac; a backup is an extra copy kept elsewhere. Moved files depend on that drive, so back the drive up too with Data Backup, Time Machine or another tool.

Move it back first and delete it normally, or delete both the copy on the drive and the link on your Mac. Deleting only the link in Finder leaves the data on the drive; the Relocated panel then offers a Delete chip to clean up the leftovers.

Yes. The links are ordinary parts of your Mac's file system, so moved files open whether or not Storage Studio is running — the drive just needs to be connected. The app is only needed for new moves, rules, auto-sync and one-click move backs.

Yes, the files themselves — they're ordinary files in your Mac's folder on the drive — but the links that show them in their original places exist only on your own Mac. Avoid moving or renaming them from another computer, or your links break.

Nothing happens to them. Moved folders stay where they are with links in place and keep opening while the drive is connected. Only Storage Studio's own work — rules, Data Parking, transfers, Free Up Space — pauses until you re-activate.

Yes. Links are part of your Mac's file system and survive macOS and Storage Studio updates. An update can occasionally drop Full Disk Access, which stops new moves reaching protected folders; Storage Studio tells you, and you can grant it again.

Possibly, depending on the drive. Moved files open at the speed of your fast drive and its connection: a good SSD on a fast port feels close to the built-in drive, while a hard disk or slow hub is noticeably slower. Move things you open occasionally.

For protected folders, yes. macOS keeps Documents, Desktop, Downloads and your Library off-limits to apps without Full Disk Access. Grant it from Settings → Advanced → Permissions; Storage Studio uses it only to find, measure and move space.

Yes. Moves run in the background and are paced so your work comes first. Just avoid editing files in the folder being moved, and don't unplug the drive mid-move. Lowering Parallel transfers makes big moves gentler.

Relocate (or Move to fast drive) puts files on the fast drive and leaves links so they open from the same place. Move, in Data Parking, transfers files without leaving links. Park is Data Parking's term for storing things elsewhere to free your Mac.

Data Parking is Storage Studio's two-pane mover: your Mac on one side, the fast drive, a cloud account or any folder on the other. Pick folders and Move, Merge or Relocate them yourself, with every copy checked before originals are removed.

Click the Storage Studio menu bar icon and choose Data Parking, or open More (•••) → Data Parking…. It opens as its own window with your Mac on the left and your destination on the right.

Move makes the destination match the source; Merge adds without deleting or overwriting anything at the destination; Relocate moves the file contents but leaves links so everything keeps working. Move and Merge remove the originals after checking the copy.

Relocate moves a folder's file contents to the destination but keeps the folder layout on your Mac, replacing each file with a link. Tools and apps still see the same paths while the data lives on the drive. It isn't available for cloud destinations.

Merge adds what's missing at the destination and keeps what's already there. A same-named file with different contents is renamed with the date and kept, never overwritten; identical files are left alone. No confirmation needed.

Move makes the destination an exact match of the source, replacing anything there with the same name, then removes the original after checking the copy. It leaves no link behind; use Relocate if you need the original paths to keep working.

It means the move would overwrite something with the same name at the destination. Replaced files aren't kept anywhere — not in the Trash or the Recycle Vault — so cancel and use Merge if you want to keep both versions.

Pairing links the two panes at folders with the same name and turns on Move, Merge and Relocate. Until you click Pair (and select something), those buttons stay greyed out. Send here works without pairing.

Yes. Once paired, anything you move lands at the matching place in the destination's folder tree, and missing folders along the way are created for you. Navigating above the paired folders un-pairs them.

Send here puts the selected items into whatever folder the other pane is showing, without pairing. You choose Copy or Move, as an exact mirror or a merge. It's greyed out when both panes have a selection — clear one side first.

Yes. Use Send here and choose Copy — the selected items are copied into the folder shown in the other pane and the originals stay put. For regular, versioned copies, Data Backup is the better tool.

Each folder shows everything inside it at every depth, including hidden files, measured as the room it takes on disk — the same space you'd get back by moving it. A spinner means it's still being counted; refresh re-measures.

It means part of the folder couldn't be read — often an area macOS protects — so the size is a minimum, not the full total. Granting Full Disk Access and refreshing the pane usually lets Storage Studio measure all of it.

The folder is still being counted. Storage Studio measures quietly in the background so your own work comes first, and shows a spinner rather than 0 bytes so an unmeasured folder never looks empty. The footer says how many are still outstanding.

Use the sort control in each pane's toolbar: Name, Size, Date modified or Date created. Pick the same key again to flip the direction. Folders stay above files, unknown sizes sort last, and your choice is remembered.

Use the destination menu in the right pane's toolbar: Fast drive, any connected cloud account, cloud folders on your Mac, or Choose any folder…. Fast drive is greyed out while the external drive isn't connected.

The Recent button remembers pairings you've used, newest first. Click one to restore it, pin the ones you use often so they stay at the top, forget single ones, or Clear recent to remove all unpinned pairings.

The gear opens Data Parking settings: Parallel transfers (1–16, default 5), Verification level (Fast, Thorough or Off), and the recent-write guard with its window (default 12 hours) that holds folders still being written to.

Click the eye button in the pane's toolbar to show or hide hidden files. It only changes what's listed — hidden files are always counted in folder sizes and always move with their folder.

Right-click and choose Delete…, then type DELETE and solve a one-digit sum to enable the button. It's careful on purpose: local deletes here skip the Trash, and cloud deletes may be permanent depending on the service.

The Moves log lists every Data Parking move with its status, destination, start time, progress and any error. Finished moves have Revert (move it back) and Remove (clear the record without touching the data).

Live logs is an auto-scrolling, file-by-file view of what a move is doing right now, with Copy All, Clear and Done buttons. A green dot on its icon means there's something new to see.

Use Pause, Resume and Cancel All in the Moves panel header. Pause lets running copies finish but starts nothing new; Cancel All stops everything cleanly. Originals aren't touched until a move's final step, so cancelling is safe.

They're the stages of a move shown on each row: Queued (waiting its turn), Copying, Checking (verifying before the original is removed), Waiting for the drive (resumes on reconnect) and Failed (with a reason — the original is untouched).

Yes. Moves run as background jobs, so closing Data Parking doesn't stop them, and cloud uploads finish in the background too — check More → Data Transfers to follow them.

Each pane's Home button returns it to the root of the current pairing, and Home both resets both sides at once. Unpaired, Home goes to your user folder on the left and your Mac's folder on the fast drive on the right.

Yes. Tick the checkbox on each row, or use the All toggle in the footer to select everything visible, then use a move button. Each item becomes its own move; folders with recent writes are held while the rest go ahead.

Yes. Data Parking lists files as well as folders, so tick a single file and Move, Merge, Relocate or Send here it. Relocate leaves one link at the original place, so the file still opens from there while the drive is connected.

Click the Pair / Unpair indicator in the middle column, and the panes browse independently again. If the up-arrow says you're already at the pair root, unpair first to go higher. Navigating to a different drive also unpairs.

That's mirror-hover: while the panes are paired, hovering over or selecting an item on one side scrolls the other side to the matching item, so you can compare both copies at a glance.

Yes. Move and Merge work in both directions — use the arrows pointing at your Mac's side — and Send here has a button for each direction. Relocate only goes from your Mac outwards. For Storage Studio's own moves, Move back or Revert is simpler.

Yes. Start the left pane on the first drive with its folder picker, choose the second with Choose any folder… in the right pane, then Move, Merge or Send here between them. To switch your whole fast drive to a new one, use Transfer Drive.

They stay where they are. Relocate keeps the whole folder tree on your Mac and replaces only the files inside with links, so the layout is unchanged. Empty folders are simply left as they were.

Yes, in Data Parking: browse the right pane to the folder you want and use Send here, or pair matching folders and use the move buttons. Moves from What's Using Space and rules go into your Mac's own folder on the drive automatically.

They show the original's fate: ✕ on Move and Merge means the original is removed after the copy is checked; ✓ on Relocate means the original place keeps working through links. The arrow on each button points at the destination.

Storage Studio remembers the pairings you've used and restores them so you can carry on where you left off. Click Unpair or Home both to start fresh, and pin favourites in the Recent list.

No — use the Apps window. It checks which apps are safe to move, leaves a link so they still launch normally, watches for updates that reinstall them, and can offload or uninstall too. Data Parking is for your own folders and files.

Move to fast drive only appears on ACTIONABLE rows big enough to be worth moving. Other rows are informational (like Applications or the Photos library) or deliberately left alone. Use the Apps window or Data Parking for those.

It shows the move's status, a live bar with amount copied, speed, time left and file count, plus a step-by-step log. Hide keeps the move running — the row shows a Moving… pill you can click to bring the sheet back.

Keep both renames the copy already there with today's date and moves yours in beside it; Merge joins them, renaming any different same-named file instead of overwriting it. Replace deletes the existing copy and needs you to type Replace.

Yes. Every move is recorded: use Move back in What's Using Space, Revert in Data Parking's Moves log, or Roll Back Last Batch in Restore Points. The fast drive needs to be connected, since that's where the files are.

They're kept. The Move back sheet counts anything written to the original location since the move and includes it. On a conflict a normal move back keeps the newer file; files that exist only on your Mac are always kept.

Open Data Parking's Moves log and click Revert on the move. It works when nothing has been recreated at the original spot and the same drive is connected; otherwise Storage Studio tells you what's in the way instead of overwriting.

Open More (•••) → Restore Points and choose Roll Back Last Batch. It returns the most recent batch of moves using the safe move back, skipping (and reporting) anything it can't return without overwriting.

Yes. Moving back copies the files onto your built-in drive, so you need about the folder's size free there — the Move back sheet shows it. If the copy runs out of room it stops, and your files stay safe on the fast drive.

Yes. Moving a folder back turns off its auto-sync, and the Move back sheet says so, so new files stay on your Mac afterwards. To stop syncing without moving the folder back, use its badge in the Relocated panel.

No. The files live on the fast drive, so Storage Studio needs it connected to bring them back. It tells you the copy isn't reachable and changes nothing; plug the same drive in and try again.

If the drive is going away, yes — move back what you want on your Mac first. Moved files stay on the drive with links on your Mac and keep working while it's connected, but if the drive leaves for good, its files go with it.

Moved files are ordinary files in your Mac's folder on the drive. Reinstalling and using Move back is easiest; by hand, delete the small links at the original place, copy the folder back from the drive, and check it before removing the drive's copy.

Moves between your Mac and the fast drive keep file contents, names, modification dates, permissions, Finder tags and other extended attributes. A few special attributes, such as Finder's Locked checkbox and custom access-control lists, aren't carried over today.

Yes. Your original is never removed until the copy has been checked; a failed move cleans up only its incomplete copy; busy folders are held; and every move is recorded so it can be reversed with one click.

It checks the copy on the drive against your original before removing anything, and after a move that leaves links it confirms every link points into the copy and reads correctly. A move either finishes verified or your original stays put.

Fast (the default) compares size, modification time and permissions on both sides; Thorough compares every byte and is much slower; Off skips the separate check. Whichever you pick, the original isn't removed until the copy succeeds.

Your original stays where it was. Storage Studio only removes it after the copy is checked, and if a move fails it deletes just the incomplete copy on the drive. The message tells you the cause and what to do next.

Yes. The original isn't touched until a move's final step, after the copy is checked, so cancelling before then leaves it as it was. Items that already finished stay moved, and you can move them back.

No. Files that only use part of their apparent size — some virtual-machine disks, disk images and pre-allocated databases — stay space-efficient on the fast drive. Shut a virtual machine down before moving its files.

They're carried across as links rather than copies of their targets, so a link that pointed somewhere that still exists keeps working, and links within the same folder still resolve. A link you select directly in Data Parking is skipped.

Yes. Moves between your Mac and the fast drive keep awkward names intact — spaces, punctuation, emoji and non-English characters. Windows-formatted drives and some cloud services restrict certain characters, so a Mac-formatted fast drive is best.

Yes. A Mac-formatted drive (APFS or Mac OS Extended) keeps permissions, Finder tags and other Mac details; exFAT doesn't store Mac permissions, and an NTFS drive is read-only on a Mac so moves fail. APFS suits a Mac-only fast drive.

No. A moved folder is a set of links to its copy on your drive, so Storage Studio recognises it everywhere and never moves it a second time. Turning that protection off in Settings → Rules asks first, and then copies the real files, never the links.

A file in that folder changed recently (within 12 hours by default), so Data Parking holds it to avoid copying a folder that's still being written. Only busy folders are held. Wait, shorten the window, or bypass the guard in the gear settings.

It means an app has files in that folder open, so the move waits. The sheet names the app; you can ask it to quit (it saves first), check again, then continue. Your files don't move until you choose, and closed apps can be reopened afterwards.

Only as a last resort. Force quit appears only after a polite quit is refused, behind a second confirmation, because ending an app mid-write can damage its data. Finish up in the app and press Check again instead where you can.

Some apps — system processes or ones running under another account — aren't Storage Studio's to quit, so it asks you to quit them yourself. An app waiting on an unsaved-changes dialog also won't close until you deal with it; then press Check again.

macOS's own background services, like Spotlight indexing, are deliberately left off the apps-in-use list. They can't be quit and don't interfere with a move, so only apps you can actually close are shown.

It offers to. Storage Studio remembers the apps it closed for you and offers a one-click reopen for each afterwards. Their files are still reachable at the same paths through the links, so they open normally.

Before copying, Data Parking checks each selected folder for recently changed files. Folders with one are held, and the file is named, because something may still be writing to them; the rest go ahead. You can adjust or bypass this in the gear.

The move pauses as Waiting for the drive and resumes when you reconnect it; your original stays on your Mac until a copy has been checked. Storage Studio also confirms it's the same drive before carrying on.

Each move belongs to the specific drive it went to. Storage Studio recognises drives individually, not just by name, and won't continue or revert on a different one so two drives' files never get mixed. Reconnect the original drive.

Your original is safe. Storage Studio records every move in progress and re-attaches to it on relaunch. Originals are only removed after the copy is checked, and a move left half-finished offers Put the link back to complete it.

Let the move finish or cancel it first, then use Eject fast drive. If the drive does go away mid-move nothing is lost — the move waits and resumes on reconnect — but ejecting with files open may fail.

Storage Studio is already copying your drive to another drive, and moving folders at the same time could change what's being copied. The move is held and nothing changed; start it again once the drive transfer finishes.

Move rules move matching files to your fast drive on a schedule, leaving a link so everything still opens. Each rule names a place and an age threshold; you can preview, edit and pause them in Settings → Rules.

Auto Rules are rules Storage Studio builds to fit your Mac. The safest regenerable caches are applied automatically; anything less obvious is suggested, tagged Move or Delete, and waits for your approval. Your own rules are never changed.

Open the Auto rules tile on the Home screen and press Approve or Dismiss on each suggestion. Dismissed items move to Dismissed — reclaim anytime, where Restore brings them back, and they won't nag you unless they grow a lot.

Turn on "Suggest only — never apply automatically" in the Auto Rules window, and everything waits for your approval. You can also Pause or Resume the background optimisation any time; Pause in the popover stops all automatic actions.

Click Dry Run in the menu bar popover, or Run preview in the Rules window. It lists exactly what your rules would move or clean, with sizes, without changing anything.

Open Settings → Rules and edit the age field on the rule; it saves as soon as you click away. The floor sliders under Global overrides set a minimum age for every rule and can only raise it, never lower it.

No. Move by age rules also check macOS's own record of recently opened files and leave those in place even if they're old. If macOS has no record, the rule falls back to the age alone — it only ever moves less, never more.

Usually the fast drive isn't connected, Full Disk Access is missing, the files are in use, they're not old enough (or were opened recently), or automatic actions are paused. A Dry Run and Job Insights show what's happening.

Usually Full Disk Access is missing: macOS protects Documents, Desktop, Downloads and Library. Grant it in Settings → Advanced → Permissions and try again. If nothing still moves, the rule's age may be higher than the files' age.

Click Pause in the menu bar popover to stop automatic actions until you resume; your rules are kept. Stop Service halts everything automatic until you start it again. Files already moved stay moved either way.

Run Rules Only runs your move rules immediately — relocating matching folders to the fast drive with links left behind — without the cache clean-up that Free Up Space Now also does. Use Dry Run first to preview it.

With "Never delete personal files — only move them" on (in Settings → Rules → Global overrides), every delete rule is skipped and only rebuildable app caches are cleared. Auto Rules only move personal files, and only after you approve.

No. Every rule has an age threshold and nothing changed recently is touched automatically. The floor sliders in Global overrides can only raise the minimum age, and Move by age rules also keep files you've opened recently.

Rules run on a daily schedule, shown in the popover, and only when Quiet Hours allows. In Smart mode Storage Studio holds off while you're active, on low battery or in a meeting. Run Rules Only runs them now.

Only what you've set up or approved. Your own rules run on schedule, Auto Rules apply only rebuildable caches automatically, and anything touching personal files waits for your approval. Manual moves only happen when you press the button.

It shows when Storage Studio last reviewed your Mac for Auto Rules; click it to re-scan now and refresh suggestions. It also optimises quietly in the background while your Mac is idle, and can be paused.

Open More → Job Insights for a plain-English card showing when automatic moves last ran, their status and any issues. The Log window lists every move in detail, and Settings → Notifications can alert you after each successful run.

Default & Manual Rules are the baseline for every Mac plus any rules you add, and the optimiser never changes them. Auto Rules are generated for your Mac from its apps and caches, and you can fine-tune their ages. Both live in Settings → Rules.

Moving a browser's folder would take your cookies, sign-ins, history and sessions with it, and break whenever the drive is unplugged; some browsers even delete the link. Storage Studio leaves them alone. Clearing the browser's cache is the safer fix.

An app's data folder holds its settings, sign-ins and live state, so moving it whole would sign you out and break when the drive is unplugged. Storage Studio only moves the part an app rebuilds by itself, and leaves the rest in place.

Emptying the Trash is the one thing Storage Studio can't undo, so What's Using Space shows its size but offers no button. When you've decided, use Free Up Space or empty it in Finder.

Yes. Downloads appears in What's Using Space with a Move to fast drive button; its files move to the drive and links keep the folder working. Turn on auto-sync so new downloads follow it. Storage Studio needs Full Disk Access for this.

Yes. Both appear in What's Using Space, and Data Parking lets you move just the big subfolders. Links keep files showing and opening in the same place while the drive is connected. Storage Studio needs Full Disk Access to reach these folders.

Yes — use Relocate in Data Parking. It keeps the folder layout on your Mac and replaces each file with a link, so editors and build tools still see the same paths while the data lives on the drive. Don't move a project mid-build.

Data Parking's loop detection stops it copying a file onto its own link, which would otherwise destroy the data the link points to; links in a selection are skipped. To re-arrange, move the folder back first, then move it again.

Not the moved folders themselves: links on your Mac point to those exact places, so renaming or moving them on the drive breaks the links. Edit files through the links as usual; to reorganise, move the folder back first, change it, then move it again.

Yes. Open and edit them as usual — the link leads to the file on the fast drive and changes save there. New files you add stay on your Mac unless auto-sync is on for that folder. The drive just needs to be connected.

We don't recommend it. Your home folder contains your Library — every app's settings and sign-ins — which Storage Studio never moves wholesale. Move the big folders inside your home folder instead; that frees most of the space without the risk.

Not as a whole-folder move. Xcode's simulators, archives and build data live in your Library next to its settings, so Storage Studio only clears or moves the part Xcode rebuilds itself. Clear developer caches with Free Up Space and remove unused simulators in Xcode.

Not by moving its folder — Docker's data sits in an app container and would break whenever the drive is away. Use Docker Desktop's own disk image location setting to put it on another drive, and prune unused images and volumes in Docker.

Yes. In What's Using Space, under Space held by backups, choose Move to fast drive… — the backups are copied, checked and only then removed from your Mac. Keep the drive connected when you back up a device; Move back… returns them.

We recommend not. Cloud apps sync what they find in their folder, and replacing files with links can confuse them. To save space there, make those files online-only instead — they stay in the cloud and download when opened.

Working out a cloud folder's size would mean a long series of requests to the provider for every row, which would make browsing crawl. So Storage Studio shows a dash instead of guessing. Local and fast-drive folders are measured in full.

Yes. Choose a connected cloud account as the destination, pair, and Move or Merge upload through it into a folder named after your Mac. Relocate isn't offered, so the files leave your Mac; any file that fails is parked in Data Transfers to retry.

A link on your Mac can only point somewhere your Mac can open directly, and a path inside a cloud account isn't one. For cloud destinations Data Parking offers Move and Merge, which upload the files without leaving links.

It depends on the service. Most keep the modified date, and Google Drive also keeps the created date, but Mac-specific details like Finder tags and permissions generally aren't stored by cloud services. Moves to your fast drive keep them.

The failed file stays on your Mac and is parked in Data Transfers with a plain-English reason, while the rest of the move continues. Fix the cause — reconnect or sign in again — then retry it from More → Data Transfers.

Storage Studio couldn't get that cloud folder's contents — usually a dropped connection, an account that needs signing in again, or a slow provider. Press Try again; if it keeps failing, check your connection and sign in again in Remotes & Accounts.

It's a moved folder whose link and data no longer match — the data is missing, the link is missing, or the drive folder is empty. Reconnect the drive first; if it's genuinely broken, the Relocated panel's Delete chip cleans up the leftovers in one step.

The folder's original location no longer exists on your Mac — usually deleted or renamed after the move — so there's nowhere for the link. Your files are safe on the drive; move them back to recreate the folder, or rename it back first.

After the move, Storage Studio found a link at the original place that doesn't lead into the new copy — something else replaced it, or it was already linked elsewhere. Nothing was deleted. Check the link with Show Original in Finder before doing anything else.

The copy reached the drive, but the originals couldn't be swapped for links — usually because macOS doesn't allow links in that spot — so they're still on your Mac and no space came back. Nothing was lost; check Full Disk Access and try again.

The fast drive stopped answering mid-copy, often from a loose cable, an underpowered hub or overheating. Your original is safe. Reconnect it directly to your Mac, try another cable or port if it repeats, and start the move again.

Something new now sits where the moved item used to be, and reverting would overwrite it, so Storage Studio refuses. Rename, move or delete what's there now, then click Revert again.

Storage Studio can't see your fast drive, so the move has nowhere to go and nothing changed. Plug the drive in, wait for it to appear in Finder, confirm it's the drive chosen in setup, then try again.

A finished move reports Move complete (or Move failed with a reason), based on checking the disk. You can also see it in What's Using Space's Relocated panel, Data Parking's Moves log, or More → Job Insights.

The drive couldn't read back part of the new copy, so Storage Studio couldn't confirm it and kept your original in place. Reconnect the drive and retry; if it repeats, run First Aid in Disk Utility — the drive may be failing.

Storage Studio checks the folders it has moved and tells you if their files on the drive go missing. Put it back restores a folder from the drive's Trash; the Moved files window offers Check now, Repair links or Remove broken links. An unplugged drive is never a problem.