---
title: "Relocate"
url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-relocate
category: "Glossary"
tags: ["glossary", "data parking", "external drive"]
summary: "To relocate is to move something to your external drive and leave a shortcut in its old place, so it still appears, and opens, where it always did."
updated: 2026-10-01T05:35:44.000Z
---

# Relocate

To relocate is to move something to your external drive and leave a shortcut in its old place, so it still appears, and opens, where it always did.

To **relocate** something is to move its contents to your [external drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-external-drive) and leave a [shortcut](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-shortcut) in its old place. It frees the space on your Mac without changing where you — or your apps — find things.

In Storage Studio:

- **Relocate** in Data Parking moves the items and keeps the folder structure where it was: the folders stay as real folders, and each file inside is replaced by a shortcut to its copy on the drive. Tools that look through the folder still find everything they expect.
- **Moving an app** from the Apps window relocates it: the app moves to the drive and a shortcut stays in Applications.
- **Automatic moves** relocate old items from the folders your rules watch.

Relocate only works towards a drive — a cloud account can't hold the shortcuts — so Data Parking offers **Move** or **Merge** for a cloud account instead. A relocated item can be moved back.

See also: [Move, Merge or Relocate](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/move-merge-or-relocate) · [Moving a folder back](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/moving-a-folder-back) · [Moving an app](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/moving-an-app)

## What links here

- [A tour of the Data Parking window](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-data-parking-window)
- [Move](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-move)
- [Move, Merge or Relocate: which to choose](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/move-merge-or-relocate)
- [Offload](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-offload)
- [Shortcut (symbolic link)](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-shortcut)
- [The shortcut left behind after a move](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-shortcut-left-behind)