Performance & battery · Performance modes
What does the "Performance: Automatic" notice in Storage Studio's notification bell mean?
Short answer: It's a quiet, informational notice showing Storage Studio's current performance level — normal, running light (with the reason), or paused under heavy load. It needs no action and arrives without a banner.
It's an informational notice that tells you how Storage Studio is treating your Mac right now. You'll see one of three:
- Performance: Automatic · Good (or the level you picked) — normal operation; full features are on and it eases off on its own if your Mac gets busy.
- Running light to stay out of your way — it has switched off live graphs and is working gently, with the reason.
- Storage Studio paused itself — your Mac is under heavy load, so background indexing is paused until things settle.
These notices don't add to the attention badge and arrive quietly in macOS Notification Centre, without a banner. Nothing needs doing. See what each mode means.