Data Parking & moving folders

Data Parking moves folders between your Mac and your external drive or a cloud account. The original is never removed until the copy has finished and been checked, and a finished move can be reverted.

The Data Parking window shows your Mac on the left and a destination on the right, with the move controls between them. Pair two folders with the same name, tick what you want to move, then press an action.

Move replaces whatever has the same name on the other side, Merge combines with it without overwriting anything, and Relocate frees the space but leaves shortcuts so apps still find your files. All three remove the original only after the copy is checked.

A folder move between your Mac and an external drive keeps contents, names, created and modified dates, permissions, Finder tags, Locked and hidden flags, hard links, sparse files and shortcuts. Access lists are kept where the drive supports them; file ownership is not kept.

Bring a moved folder back to your Mac with Revert in Data Parking's move history, the ← Move and ← Merge buttons, or Move back in Storage Inspector for relocated folders. Your drive must be connected, and the copy on the drive is removed only after the folder is safely back.

Data Parking keeps two records of your moves — the live Moves list for what you started in this window, and a move history with every recorded folder move, where a completed move can be reverted.

Before a folder move removes your original, Storage Studio checks the copy. Fast compares every file's size, date and permissions, Thorough reads every byte on both sides, and Off checks only the total size.

Moving a folder while an app is writing to it can damage the app's data. Storage Studio checks which apps are using a folder before moving it, offers to quit them politely, and in Data Parking holds back folders that changed recently.

Data Parking can move folders into a connected cloud account instead of an external drive. Each item is uploaded and then removed from your Mac; Relocate isn't available, and the account keeps only the file details it supports.

When you Relocate a folder, it stays where it was but each file in it becomes a shortcut pointing to the real file on your external drive. Apps keep working, the space is freed, and the files can't be opened while the drive is unplugged.