---
title: "My cloud accounts list is empty after signing in"
url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/cloud-account-list-is-empty
category: "Troubleshooting"
tags: ["troubleshooting", "cloud accounts"]
summary: "If you signed in to an account but Remotes & Accounts shows \"No accounts yet\", Storage Studio may simply have been unable to read the list at that moment. Refresh it, check for a missing-engine banner, and restart Storage Studio before adding the account again."
updated: 2026-10-01T05:41:12.000Z
---

# My cloud accounts list is empty after signing in

If you signed in to an account but Remotes & Accounts shows "No accounts yet", Storage Studio may simply have been unable to read the list at that moment. Refresh it, check for a missing-engine banner, and restart Storage Studio before adding the account again.

An empty account list right after a successful sign-in usually means Storage Studio couldn't *read* the list just then — not that your account is gone. Click the refresh button in **Remotes & Accounts**, look for a banner about a missing engine, and restart Storage Studio if needed. Add the account again only if it still doesn't appear.

## Reading the list versus having no accounts

Storage Studio treats "couldn't read the list" and "you have no accounts" as different things. If a read fails, it keeps showing the list it had before rather than replacing it with an empty one — an out-of-date list is more useful than a wrong one. The one time you can see an empty list after a failed read is when it's the first read since Storage Studio started, because there's no earlier list to fall back on.

## What you might see

- **No accounts yet** — "Add a Google Drive, Google Photos, or other cloud account to use as a transfer source or destination."
- An orange banner: **The cloud transfer engine is missing**.
- During sign-in: **Could not add account** or **Authentication canceled** ("The sign-in was canceled. No account was added.").

## Likely causes

- The list was read at a bad moment, such as just after launch.
- The sign-in didn't actually finish. A finished sign-in ends on **Account added**.
- The part of Storage Studio that talks to cloud accounts is missing from this copy of the app.

```mermaid
%% caption: What to do when the account list is empty after a sign-in
flowchart TD
  A[Account list is empty after signing in] --> B{Is there a missing-engine banner?}
  B -->|Yes| C[Reinstall Storage Studio, then click Re-check]
  B -->|No| D[Click the refresh button]
  D --> E{Account listed?}
  E -->|Yes| F[Done - use Test connection to be sure]
  E -->|No| G[Restart Storage Studio and open the window again]
  G --> H{Account listed?}
  H -->|Yes| F
  H -->|No| I[Add the account again and wait for Account added]
```

*Flowchart — What to do when the account list is empty after a sign-in. Outline:*

- Account list is empty after signing in
  - leads to Is there a missing-engine banner?
- Is there a missing-engine banner?
  - Yes: leads to Reinstall Storage Studio, then click Re-check
  - No: leads to Click the refresh button
- Click the refresh button
  - leads to Account listed?
- Account listed?
  - Yes: leads to Done - use Test connection to be sure
  - No: leads to Restart Storage Studio and open the window again
- Restart Storage Studio and open the window again
  - leads to Account listed?
- Account listed?
  - Yes: leads to Done - use Test connection to be sure
  - No: leads to Add the account again and wait for Account added

## How to fix it

1. Open **Connect Accounts…** from the **More** menu (in the Advanced view, **Cloud Accounts…**). The window is **Remotes & Accounts**; stay on the **Accounts** tab.
2. Click the round-arrow **Refresh** button at the top. The list is also read again each time the window opens.
3. If you see **The cloud transfer engine is missing**, follow [Moves or transfers say a component is missing](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/engine-missing) and then click **Re-check**.
4. Restart Storage Studio — right-click the menu bar icon and choose **Restart Storage Studio** — and open the window again.
5. If the account still isn't there, click **Add Account** and sign in again. Wait for **Account added** before closing the sheet; if you see **Could not add account**, use **Try Again**.
6. Once it's listed, select it and click **Test connection** to confirm it works.

Your files in the cloud aren't affected by any of this. The list only shows the accounts Storage Studio is connected to.

See also: [Cloud accounts](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/cloud-accounts) · [Testing, editing and removing an account](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/testing-editing-and-removing-an-account) · [When an account needs signing in again](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/when-an-account-needs-signing-in-again) · [Connecting Google Drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/connecting-google-drive) · [Something's not working: start here](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/troubleshooting-start-here)

- **Can I see all my cloud accounts in Finder on a Mac?** Yes. Storage Studio adds a "Storage Studio" location to Finder's sidebar, with each connected cloud account and paired device as a folder inside, and a Finder button in the app's main window opens it. Files stay in the cloud until you open them. Folders you have visited open straight away and… (https://storagestudio.us/faq)

## What links here

- [Cloud accounts](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/cloud-accounts)
- [Connecting Google Drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/connecting-google-drive)
- [Something's not working: start here](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/troubleshooting-start-here)
- [Testing, editing and removing an account](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/testing-editing-and-removing-an-account)
- [The cloud folder browser](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-cloud-folder-browser)