How Storage Studio keeps every change reversible

Storage Studio is built so that the changes it makes can be undone. It copies before it removes anything, puts what it removes into a recoverable bin rather than deleting it, keeps a record of every batch of moves so you can roll it back, and stops to ask before the few actions that can't be undone. This page shows how those safety nets fit together, and where to go for each one.

The safety nets at a glance

%% caption: The safety nets that make Storage Studio's changes reversible
mindmap
  root((Reversible by design))
    Moving
      Copy first
      Check the copy
      Remove the original last
      Cancel at any time
    Removing
      Recycle Vault for six months
      Your Mac's Trash as a fallback
      Type a word before deleting for good
    Undoing
      Revert a move in the Moves log
      Roll back a batch with Restore Points
      Restore from the Recycle Vault
    Guard rails
      Never overwrite on the way back
      Deletes limited to its own areas
      Self-healing checks
    Stopping
      Pause automatic actions
      Stop or Cancel a single run

When something moves

Every move follows the same order: copy, check, then remove the original. The original is never removed until the copy has finished and been checked, so if a copy fails, is cancelled, or your drive is unplugged part-way, your original is still where it was. How carefully the copy is checked is up to you — see How copies are checked: Fast, Thorough or Off and Moving folders safely.

What a move keeps — dates, permissions, tags and so on — is explained in What a move keeps.

When something is removed

When Storage Studio removes something for you — a duplicate, an app you uninstall, files cleared in an emergency — it goes into the Recycle Vault rather than being deleted. It stays recoverable there for about six months. In a few situations it goes to your Mac's own Trash instead, which you can also restore from.

App caches are the exception: they're cleared for good, because apps rebuild them. See Clearing app caches safely and How Storage Studio deletes things.

When you want to undo

None of these overwrite anything. Revert refuses if something new has appeared at the folder's original location; a rollback skips any item whose original spot is now taken and tells you why; and a restore from the Recycle Vault lands alongside an existing file with "(restored)" added to its name.

More detail: The Moves log, Moving a folder back, Restore Points, Restoring something from the Recycle Vault and Moving an app to your external drive.

Before anything permanent

The few actions that can't be undone — such as deleting something for good from the Recycle Vault, or removing duplicates from a cloud account that has no Trash — ask you to type a word first, usually Delete. The sheet says "Nothing has happened yet." until you do, and pressing Return alone won't confirm it.

Guard rails you don't see

• Deletes are limited to Storage Studio's own areas. When it clears up after itself, Storage Studio checks that the place it's about to clear is one it manages, and refuses anything else.
• Rolling back and restoring never overwrite. If the way back is blocked, that item is skipped and you're told why.
• Self-healing. Storage Studio checks its own working parts regularly and repairs them quietly, without touching your files. See Self-healing.

Stopping

Every long-running job can be stopped part-way, and doing so is safe. To pause Storage Studio's automatic actions, or stop everything, see Pausing or stopping everything.

What isn't covered

Storage Studio's safety nets cover what Storage Studio does. They're not a backup of your Mac: if a drive fails, the Recycle Vault and restore points on it go with it. For a copy of your files, use Data Backup, and see Storage Studio and Time Machine.

See also: The Recycle Vault · Restore Points · Privacy: what stays on your Mac