App safety levels

Before Storage Studio offers to move an app, it checks how the app is installed, how it updates and what else on your Mac depends on its location. The result is one of four badges on the Internal tab of the Apps window: Safe, Caveat, Override or Blocked. The badge decides whether the Move button appears.

The four badges

The line under each app's name says why it got its badge, and hovering over the badge shows the same reason. The ? button at the top of the window has a guide to every badge and label.

What leads to each badge

Blocked — Storage Studio won't move:

• Storage Studio itself.
• Apps built into macOS.
• An app you've already moved. Use the Moved tab to bring it back.
• Apps signed by Apple, because macOS or the App Store may update them where they were installed.
• An app that is open right now. Quit it, click Refresh, and the badge is worked out again.
• Apps managed by Setapp, which re-downloads apps it thinks are missing.

Override — you can move it, but only after confirming:

• The app was installed by macOS or an installer as a protected, system-owned app. Moving it needs your administrator password.
• The app's updater is known to reinstall apps where they used to be, or Storage Studio can't tell how its updater behaves.
• The app's own files point to its original location, so parts of it may look in the wrong place after a move.
• The app uses a helper tool or a background item registered at its original location.

Caveat — it moves normally, but:

• macOS may ask again for permissions such as the camera or microphone the first time you open it after the move. Click Allow.
• It's in your Dock, so its icon may briefly show a placeholder after the move.
• You used it in the last few days.
• It updates itself, or was installed in a way that Storage Studio watches so it can redo the move after an update.

Safe — none of the above applies.

%% caption: How an app gets its safety badge, checked in this order
flowchart TD
  A[An app on the Internal tab] --> B{Storage Studio, built into macOS, already moved, Apple-signed or open now?}
  B -->|Yes| X[Blocked]
  B -->|No| C{Managed by Setapp?}
  C -->|Yes| X
  C -->|No| D{Protected install, risky updater, fixed locations or a helper?}
  D -->|Yes| O[Override]
  D -->|No| E{Permissions, Dock, recent use or an updater to watch?}
  E -->|Yes| V[Caveat]
  E -->|No| S[Safe]

What the badge doesn't decide

• Offload and Uninstall are offered for every app, whatever its badge. They work differently from a move: see Offloading and restoring an app and Uninstalling an app completely.
• A badge is worked out again every time the window scans your apps, so it follows the app's current state.
• When a move starts, Storage Studio checks again that the app is still there, isn't already moved and that your drive is ready. If something changed, the move stops and the reason appears at the bottom of the window.

Sort the list by Safety to see all the apps you can move freely together.

See also: Why some apps can't be moved · Moving an app to your external drive · App safety level