Getting started

Storage Studio is one place to manage all your storage from your Mac — your Mac and its drives, your other devices, your cloud accounts and Delta storage — with versioned backups, a clipboard manager and freeing up space built in.

Download the Storage Studio disk image, drag the app into your Applications folder and open it from there. You need macOS 12 Monterey or later, and Storage Studio 4.18 and later need a Mac with Apple silicon.

The first time you open Storage Studio you see, in order, a short loading screen, the terms to accept, a request for Full Disk Access, the free-trial registration and the Setup Wizard. Later launches skip anything you've already done.

Full Disk Access is the macOS permission that lets Storage Studio read the protected folders it measures, moves and clears. You grant it in System Settings, the app notices on its own, and you can skip it and grant it later.

The Setup Wizard runs on first install in four steps — Welcome, External Drive, Install and All Set. It prepares your external drive (or lets you skip it) and installs the background service that runs Storage Studio's automatic work.

Storage Studio lives in the menu bar. A small coloured dot on its icon shows its state and a number shows notifications. Clicking opens the Home window or, in the Advanced view, a popover; right-clicking opens a short menu.

The Home screen is the first tab of the Storage Studio window. It shows how your Mac is doing, lets you ask Tuhi a question, runs Smart Care with one button, charts your storage over time and has a row of cards that open every main feature.

A quick guide to the right part of Storage Studio for what you want — space right now, a Mac that stays tidy, an external drive, cloud accounts, backups or another device — with the article to read for each.

Storage Studio downloads new versions quietly in the background and tells you when one is ready; one click restarts it into the new version. It checks every download before installing, and only insists on updating when your version is too old to keep working.

The Learning Center (the book icon) holds tips, guides and what's new. The notification bell on the Home screen collects everything that needs your attention, and Storage Studio also posts a few macOS notifications, such as low-space warnings.

Contact Support opens a form you can edit completely before anything is sent, with switches for exactly what extra information to include. My Support lists your tickets, shows replies and lets you reply, close or reopen them. Tuhi can open the form for you.

Storage Studio's keyboard shortcuts in one place — the global shortcuts that work from any app (the Apps grid and the Junk Yard), plus the shortcuts inside the Storage Studio window, the Apps grid and the Advanced popover.

Remove Storage Studio from inside the app, not by dragging it to the Trash. Reset Storage Studio puts everything it moved back on your Mac first and then removes only what you tick; Uninstall Storage Studio is a quicker removal that leaves your drive untouched.

Demo Mode is for 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 names and figures instead of your own. Turn it on or off from the menu bar icon or Settings.