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Apps window

The Apps window is one place to see every application on your Mac and on your fast drive, launch any of them, and free up space by moving, offloading, or uninstalling the ones you choose.

You never need the Terminal. You never run commands. Storage Studio takes care of everything.

Open the Apps window

From the menu bar popover, click the Apps button (or pick Apps… from the More menu).

All Apps — your app launcher

The window opens on All Apps: a clean grid of every app, with a small badge showing whether each one lives on your Mac or on your fast drive. It works like a launcher:

  • Search — the search box is ready as soon as the window opens.

Start typing and the grid filters instantly.

  • Open with Return — the best match is highlighted; press Return to

open it. A floating "Opening…" card appears while the app comes up.

  • Keyboard navigation — press Tab to jump from the search box into

the grid, use the arrow keys to pick an app, and Return to open it.

  • Esc closes the window.
  • Click any icon to open that app.

Keep it in the Dock

Flip the Show in Dock switch (top of the window) to keep a Storage Studio icon in the Dock. Clicking it reopens this All Apps grid — a fast, Spotlight-style way to launch anything. You can also set a global keyboard shortcut in Settings → Advanced → Keyboard Shortcut (default ⌃Space) to summon it from anywhere.

Tabs

Four tabs across the top, each with a count:

  • All Apps — every app, for browsing and launching.
  • Internal — apps still on your built-in drive that you could move.
  • Moved — apps already moved to your fast drive. Move them back here.
  • Offloaded — apps archived to your fast drive. Restore them here.

What the badges mean

Each row in the Internal tab has a small coloured safety badge:

  • Safe (green) — straightforward to move. No surprises expected.
  • Watch (yellow) — moves fine, but the app's vendor sometimes

reinstalls itself when it updates. Storage Studio watches for that and quietly re-moves the app for you.

  • Review (orange) — the app does something uncommon (a background

helper, an unusual permission). Storage Studio will show a one-time confirmation before moving it.

  • Hold (gray) — Storage Studio recommends you leave this one

alone. These are usually Apple system apps, anti-virus tools, drivers, or apps installed by a system installer that need administrator access. They're left exactly where they are.

Three things you can do with an app

Every app in the Internal tab has its own buttons: Open, Move, Offload, and Uninstall.

Move (keeps it working)

Moves the app to your fast drive but leaves a shortcut behind, so it still launches from the Dock, Spotlight, Launchpad and Finder exactly as before. A typical app finishes in seconds. The app keeps working normally — it just runs from the fast drive.

Offload (frees the most space, reinstallable)

Offload tucks the app and its data safely onto your fast drive and removes it from your built-in drive — like "uninstall, but you can put it back". An offloaded app can't run until you restore it, so it frees the most space of any option. Nothing is deleted: open the Offloaded tab and click Restore to copy it back exactly as it was. If you later decide you don't want it, Remove deletes the archive (to the Trash).

Offload copies everything to the fast drive and checks it before removing the originals, so the app is never left half-moved. If a copy that's already on your Mac is in the way when you restore, Storage Studio tells you instead of overwriting it.

Uninstall (removes it and cleans up)

Uninstall removes the app and the leftover files it scatters around your Mac (preferences, caches, support files, and so on). A confirmation screen lists exactly what will be removed and how much space it frees. Everything goes to the Trash, so you can put it back if you change your mind. The app is quit first if it's open. Apps installed by a system installer ask for your password or Touch ID before they can be removed.

Move or offload several apps

You can act on apps one after another — each operation runs on its own and you can keep using your Mac while they work. A progress card keeps you posted, and if anything can't be completed it tells you why rather than failing quietly.

Move an app back

Open the Moved tab. Each row has a Move back button. Storage Studio restores the app to the exact folder it came from and the fast- drive copy is removed. You can also Offload or Uninstall a moved app from here.

The vendor-reinstall watch

Some apps (Slack, Chrome, VS Code, lots of Electron apps) replace themselves silently when they update. Without help, that would undo your move and you'd end up with two copies — one taking up internal-drive space again, one stranded on your fast drive.

Storage Studio watches for this. When it notices that a moved app has been replaced at its original location, it waits until you quit the app, cleans up the old copy on your fast drive, and re-moves the fresh version for you. You don't have to do anything.

You can see this watch in the Settings → Services panel as Relocated apps watch. It will show Standing by, Watching N apps, Waiting for N apps to quit, or N apps need your review depending on what's happening.

When a moved app asks for your password to update

Apps that update themselves — many browsers, Electron-based editors and chat apps, and anything with a built-in updater — keep working after a Move. But while your fast drive is disconnected, a moved app can't reach its own bundle. If that app is open and tries to install an update or a helper tool, macOS may show a prompt asking for your password or Touch ID to "add a new helper tool."

That prompt comes from the app's own updater, not from Storage Studio, and it can't finish while the drive is unplugged. It's safe to click Cancel. Then either reconnect your fast drive — the app and its updater work normally again — or move the app back to internal storage from the Moved tab.

A code editor is a common example, but the same is true of any self-updating app. Apps that update very often (browsers, Electron apps) are usually happier left on internal storage, so reserve relocation for large apps you update infrequently.

Survives crashes and force-quits

Every move is checkpointed step-by-step. If Storage Studio quits mid-move, your Mac loses power, or you force-quit the app, the next launch picks the move up from where it left off. If something can't be safely resumed, the original app is restored to its original location automatically. You will not lose an app.

Good to know

  • Move relocates only the app itself; its saved data stays where it

is. Offload moves the app and its data to the fast drive (and restores both). Uninstall removes the app and its data to the Trash.

  • A moved or offloaded app needs your fast drive connected. If it's

unplugged, a moved app won't open until you reconnect the drive, and you'll restore an offloaded app once it's back.

  • Storage Studio doesn't migrate apps between Macs.
  • Nothing is ever deleted outright — uninstalled and removed items go to

the Trash, so you can recover them until you empty it.