--- title: "Offloading and restoring an app" url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/offloading-an-app category: "Apps" tags: ["apps", "external drive", "free up space", "offload"] summary: "Offload archives an app and its data on your external drive and removes both from your Mac, freeing the most space. The app can't open until you click Restore, which copies everything back." updated: 2026-10-01T05:31:29.000Z --- # Offloading and restoring an app Offload archives an app and its data on your external drive and removes both from your Mac, freeing the most space. The app can't open until you click Restore, which copies everything back. **Offload** packs an app and its data away on your external drive and removes both from your Mac. It frees more space than a move, because the app's settings, caches and other files go too. The trade-off is that an offloaded app can't open until you restore it. **Restore** copies everything back to where it was. Nothing is deleted along the way. ## Offload or move? | | **Move** | **Offload** | | --- | --- | --- | | The app itself | On your external drive | On your external drive | | Its data and caches | Stay on your Mac | Go to your external drive | | Can you open it? | Yes, as usual | Not until you restore it | | Best for | Apps you still use | Apps you rarely use but want to keep | See [Moving an app to your external drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/moving-an-app) for the other option, and [Offload](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-offload) for a short definition. ## Offloading an app 1. Connect your external drive. **Offload** is greyed out while it isn't. 2. In the [Apps window](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-apps-window), open the **Internal** tab and click **Offload** on the app. (On the **Moved** tab, **Offload** works the same way for an app you've already moved.) 3. Read the message and click **Offload to NVMe** to confirm. 4. A progress panel shows each stage. Keep the window open until it finishes. You can also right-click an app on the **All Apps** grid and choose **Offload to Fast Drive**. From the grid, the offload starts straight away, without the confirmation. ```mermaid %% caption: How an offload works, and why a failure changes nothing flowchart TD A[You confirm the offload] --> B[The app is quit if it's open] B --> C{Is there room on the drive, and can every item be removed safely?} C -->|No| N[It stops. Nothing was changed] C -->|Yes| D[The app and its data are copied to the drive] D --> E{Does every copy check out?} E -->|No| R[The copies are removed. Your originals are untouched] E -->|Yes| F[The originals are removed from your Mac] F --> G[The app appears on the Offloaded tab] ``` *Flowchart — How an offload works, and why a failure changes nothing. Outline:* - You confirm the offload - leads to The app is quit if it's open - The app is quit if it's open - leads to Is there room on the drive, and can every item be removed safely? - Is there room on the drive, and can every item be removed safely? - No: leads to It stops. Nothing was changed - Yes: leads to The app and its data are copied to the drive - The app and its data are copied to the drive - leads to Does every copy check out? - Does every copy check out? - No: leads to The copies are removed. Your originals are untouched - Yes: leads to The originals are removed from your Mac - The originals are removed from your Mac - leads to The app appears on the Offloaded tab **What goes with it:** the app, plus the files it keeps in your Library, such as its support files, caches, preferences, sandbox container, saved window state, logs and website data. A few items are protected by macOS so that no app can copy them. Those stay on your Mac, and [Job Insights](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/background-activity) notes how many stayed behind. If the app was installed by macOS as a protected app, you may be asked for your administrator password. ## Restoring an app 1. Connect your external drive. While it's disconnected, an offloaded app shows **Reconnect your fast drive to restore**. 2. On the **Offloaded** tab, click **Restore**. On the grid, right-click the faded app and choose **Restore to This Mac**. 3. Storage Studio copies the app and its data back, checks every copy, and only then removes the archive from the drive. **Restore won't overwrite anything.** If you reinstalled the app while it was offloaded, or some of its data is already back on your Mac, Restore stops and says what's in the way. Remove the existing copy first (drag it to the Trash or use **Uninstall**), then restore again. Restore also checks that your Mac has enough free space first. ## Removing an offloaded app for good If you don't need the app any more, click **Remove** on the **Offloaded** tab (or right-click it on the grid and choose **Remove from Fast Drive…**), then **Move to Trash**. The archive goes to the Trash, and the app can no longer be restored from the **Offloaded** tab. The drive must be connected. ## Offloaded apps on the grid On the **All Apps** grid, an offloaded app has a faded icon and a small tray badge. Clicking it only selects it; it can't open. Right-click it to restore or remove it. ## If an offload keeps failing If an app can't be offloaded twice in a row, its **Offload** button changes to **Can't offload** and the row explains why, for example "This app can't be offloaded on this Mac." along with the reason. If the reason is data that macOS protects, [Uninstall](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/uninstalling-an-app) is the alternative the message suggests. An offload is made for apps and their data. It doesn't keep everything a folder move keeps. See [What a move keeps](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/what-a-move-keeps) if that matters for your files. See also: [Why some apps can't be moved](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/why-some-apps-cant-be-moved) · [Moved apps when the drive is disconnected](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/moved-apps-when-the-drive-is-offline) · [Uninstalling an app completely](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/uninstalling-an-app) - **How do I move apps to an external drive on a Mac and still launch them?** Dragging an app to another drive can break it, because macOS expects it in /Applications. Storage Studio relocates the app to your external drive and leaves a shortcut in place, so it still launches normally from Launchpad, Spotlight, and the Dock — and you can move it back in one click. (https://storagestudio.us/faq) - **How do I use an external SSD as extra storage on a MacBook?** Plug in a USB-C or Thunderbolt SSD and let Storage Studio pair it with your internal drive as one workspace. It moves big folders, libraries, and apps to the SSD with a shortcut left behind, so your MacBook behaves like it has a much bigger disk — fast enough to work directly off the external drive. (https://storagestudio.us/faq) - **Can I move my Photos or Final Cut library to an external drive?** Yes — large Photos, Final Cut, and iMovie libraries are common space hogs. Storage Studio relocates them to an external drive while keeping them usable, leaving a shortcut so your apps still find them. Moving a folder to your fast drive keeps its files' modified and created dates, permissions,… (https://storagestudio.us/faq) - **Will moving files to another drive break my apps or Spotlight?** Not the way Storage Studio does it. It leaves a shortcut (symlink) at the original location, so apps, Finder, and Spotlight resolve everything as if it never moved — and the move is fully reversible. (https://storagestudio.us/faq) ## What links here - [App safety levels](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/app-safety-levels) - [Freeing up space: the options](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/freeing-up-space-overview) - [Letting another AI assistant read your storage](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/ai-access) - [Moving an app to your external drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/moving-an-app) - [Offload](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-offload) - [Restore Points](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/restore-points) - [Storage Studio and macOS Storage settings](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/compared-with-macos-storage-settings) - [The Apps window](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-apps-window) - [The Home folder in the Finder location](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-home-folder-in-finder) - [Uninstalling an app completely](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/uninstalling-an-app) - [Uninstalling an app versus dragging it to the Trash](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/compared-with-dragging-an-app-to-the-trash) - [What a move keeps](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/what-a-move-keeps) - [Why some apps can't be moved](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/why-some-apps-cant-be-moved)