---
title: "Shortcut (symbolic link)"
url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-shortcut
category: "Glossary"
tags: ["glossary", "external drive", "data parking"]
summary: "A shortcut, or symbolic link, is a tiny file that points to a file or folder somewhere else. Storage Studio leaves shortcuts behind so moved things still open from their old place."
updated: 2026-10-01T05:35:42.000Z
---

# Shortcut (symbolic link)

A shortcut, or symbolic link, is a tiny file that points to a file or folder somewhere else. Storage Studio leaves shortcuts behind so moved things still open from their old place.

A **shortcut** — technically a *symbolic link*, or *symlink* — is a tiny file that points to another file or folder by its location. When you or an app open the shortcut, macOS quietly opens the item it points to instead. Finder marks a shortcut's icon with a small arrow.

A shortcut follows a location, not the item itself. So if the item it points to isn't there — for example because your external drive is unplugged — the shortcut can't open anything until the drive is back.

In Storage Studio, shortcuts are what let your Mac keep working after something moves:

- **Relocate** in Data Parking leaves a shortcut in place of each file it moves.
- Moving an app leaves a shortcut in your Applications folder.
- A move copies shortcuts inside a folder as shortcuts, not as the things they point to.

See also: [The shortcut left behind after a move](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-shortcut-left-behind) · [Relocate](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-relocate) · [Move, Merge or Relocate](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/move-merge-or-relocate)

## What links here

- [Copy, Move, Sync or Two-way sync](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/copy-move-sync-or-two-way-sync)
- [External drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-external-drive)
- [Free Up Space](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/free-up-space)
- [Locked flag](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-locked-flag)
- [Moving an app to your external drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/moving-an-app)
- [Moving with Storage Studio versus dragging in Finder](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/compared-with-dragging-in-finder)
- [Offload](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-offload)
- [Relocate](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-relocate)
- [Rules: moving folders automatically](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/rules-and-automatic-moves)
- [Storage Studio and Time Machine](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/compared-with-time-machine)
- [Storage Studio and macOS Storage settings](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/compared-with-macos-storage-settings)
- [The shortcut left behind after a move](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-shortcut-left-behind)
- [What Storage Studio does](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/what-storage-studio-does)
- [What a move keeps](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/what-a-move-keeps)