Demo Mode

Demo Mode is for when you're recording your screen or showing Storage Studio to someone. While it's on, nothing on your Mac is really moved, removed or emptied, and the app shows stand-in folder names, app names and figures instead of your real ones. Buttons still behave as they normally would, so what you record looks like the real thing.

Turning it on and off

You can switch it from three places:

• Right-click the menu bar icon → Turn On Demo Mode… (or Turn Off Demo Mode).
• Settings… → Advanced → Demo Mode → the Demo Mode — safe for recording switch.
• Right-click the Dock icon, if you show Storage Studio in the Dock.

Storage Studio asks you to confirm either way. Turning it off matters most: until you do, actions only pretend to happen, so a file you "delete" is still on your disk.

%% caption: What happens when you click a button in Demo Mode
flowchart TD
  A[You click a button that would change files] --> B{Is Demo Mode on?}
  B -->|No| C[The action really happens]
  B -->|Yes| D[You see the usual confirmations and progress]
  D --> E[Nothing on your Mac is changed]
  E --> F[The action is counted as shown, not performed]

While it's on

• Nothing changes on your Mac. Moves, removals, emptying and clear-ups are shown, not performed, and background tidying is paused. Settings → Advanced keeps count, for example "Nothing on this Mac is really being changed — 3 actions were shown, not performed."
• Your details are hidden. Folder names, app names and figures are replaced with believable stand-ins, so your own names don't appear on screen.
• You can tell it's on. The menu bar icon changes to a record symbol, the Home screen shows a Demo Mode badge, and Storage Studio doesn't post macOS notification banners.
• Your own safety settings come back. Demo Mode temporarily switches on Storage Studio's own "never delete" safeguard for its background work, and restores your previous choice when you turn it off.

Check for leaks before recording

With Demo Mode on, Settings… → Advanced shows Check for Leaks. It searches everything Demo Mode prepared — and what an AI assistant connected to Storage Studio would be told — for your own name, folders, drives, email and Mac details, and tells you plainly if it finds any. Checking changes nothing.

Good to know

• Demo Mode stays on after a restart, so a recording session isn't interrupted. Remember to turn it off when you've finished.
• It's not a way to try features safely on your real files: in Demo Mode you see stand-in data, not your own.

See also: The menu bar icon and popover, Letting another AI assistant read your storage, Privacy: what stays on your Mac.