The Learning Center and notifications

Storage Studio keeps you informed in three places. The Learning Center behind the book icon has tips, guides and what's new. The notification bell on the Home screen collects everything that needs your attention. And a few important things, such as running low on space, also arrive as ordinary macOS notifications.

The Learning Center

Click the book icon in the top bar of the Storage Studio window, just left of More. The Learning Center panel opens — Tips, guides, and what's new — short articles, pictures, videos and guides, grouped by topic, with highlights first. The icon fills in and shows a dot when there's something new. When you've seen everything you'll see You're all caught up.

The Learning Center is fetched from our servers now and then, and the last copy is kept, so it still works when you're offline. To pick the right content for your plan, the request carries your app version and licence or trial details — nothing about your files.

The notification bell

The bell sits on the right of the Home screen's headline. A number on it counts items that need you, and it rings when a new one arrives. Click it to open the notifications, grouped into Needs your attention, Worth a look, Updates and Recent.

%% caption: What you can do with a notification
flowchart TD
  A[A notification appears under the bell] --> B{What do you want to do?}
  B -->|Act on it| C[Click its button, for example Resume or Grant access]
  B -->|Not now| D[Click the x on the row: it returns in 12 hours]
  B -->|Quiet everything| E[Snooze for 8 hours]
  B -->|Clear the list| F[Mark all read]

• Most items have a button that takes you straight to the fix, such as Grant access, Resume, Restart & install or See what's new.
• The × on a row removes it; it comes back in 12 hours if it's still true.
• At the top of the bubble, Snooze for 8 hours quiets it, and Mark all read clears the list.
• When something new and important arrives, the bubble opens by itself once. After you dismiss it, it doesn't keep popping up.

Typical items include Automatic actions are paused, Full Disk Access needed, a note that your external drive isn't connected, and Update downloaded. The same count appears on the menu bar icon, and on the Dock icon if you've chosen to show it there.

macOS notifications

Storage Studio also uses the macOS notification system for a few things you shouldn't miss — for example when your disk is running low (with a See What's Using It button), or when old backups are holding space (Release that space). Urgent warnings arrive as Time Sensitive notifications. No banners appear while Demo Mode is on.

To control them:

• Settings… → Notifications has Notify after every successful auto-action run, off by default, for a banner after each successful automatic run.
• Settings… → Permissions shows whether notifications are allowed, with an Open Settings button. To turn banners off or change how they look, use System Settings → Notifications → Storage Studio.

See also: The Home screen, Background Activity and Job Insights, Keeping Storage Studio up to date.