--- title: "Reviewing, stopping and checking a clear-up" url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/reviewing-a-clear-up category: "Freeing up space" tags: ["free up space", "dry run", "restore points", "recycle vault", "emergency space"] summary: "How to see what a clear-up will do before it starts, stop one safely part-way, and find out afterwards exactly what was moved or removed and how to put it back." updated: 2026-10-01T05:35:09.000Z --- # Reviewing, stopping and checking a clear-up How to see what a clear-up will do before it starts, stop one safely part-way, and find out afterwards exactly what was moved or removed and how to put it back. Every clear-up in Storage Studio can be looked at before it starts and checked after it finishes, and the bigger ones can be stopped part-way without leaving anything half-done. This page shows where to do each of those, tool by tool. ```mermaid %% caption: The three moments you can step in during a clear-up flowchart LR A[Before: preview or review] --> B[During: watch, and stop if needed] B --> C[After: summary, records and undo] C --> D{Want something back?} D -->|A move| E[Move back or Restore Points] D -->|Something removed| F[Recycle Vault or the Trash] ``` *Flowchart — The three moments you can step in during a clear-up. Outline:* - Before: preview or review - leads to During: watch, and stop if needed - During: watch, and stop if needed - leads to After: summary, records and undo - After: summary, records and undo - leads to Want something back? - Want something back? - A move: leads to Move back or Restore Points - Something removed: leads to Recycle Vault or the Trash ## Before: see what will happen - **Your rules.** Open the More menu (•••) → **Automatic Moves…** and click **Run preview** under **Dry run preview**. Each line says what the next run *would* do, such as *WOULD MOVE* or *WOULD KEEP (you've opened it recently)*, and nothing changes. See [Dry run](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-dry-run) and [Rules: moving folders automatically](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/rules-and-automatic-moves). - **Emergency Space.** Clicking **Free up space** first opens **Review what will move**, which shows everything you selected, opened up one level, and lists separately anything that will be removed rather than moved. Nothing has happened yet; **Cancel** takes you back. See [Emergency Space](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/emergency-space). - **Smart Care.** The run starts with a planning step, *Reviewing and optimising the plan — nothing changed yet.*, and the checklist shows every step, with skipped ones marked **Not needed**. Duplicate files are only ever offered at the end, with **Review first…** to open the Duplicates window. See [Smart Care](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/smart-care). - **Auto Rules.** Rules that aren't the safest kind wait under **Suggested — needs your approval** until you approve them. Turn on **Suggest only — never apply automatically** if you want to approve every rule yourself. See [Auto Rules](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/auto-rules). ## During: stopping safely | Tool | How to stop | What stopping leaves | |---|---|---| | Emergency Space | **Stop**, in the progress view or on the main screen | It finishes the folder it has started, then stops. Nothing is left half-removed. **Carry on** resumes where it stopped | | Free Up Space | **Cancel** in the progress window | Work already finished stays done. A file part-way through moving keeps its original, because originals are only removed after the copy is checked | | Smart Care | No stop button; closing the window doesn't stop it | Each step finishes on its own | To halt Storage Studio's work more generally, see [Pausing or stopping everything](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/pausing-and-stopping). Closing a progress window never stops the work. Free Up Space and Emergency Space both carry on in the background, and you can reopen their progress from the popover's running pill or **Show progress**. ## After: check what happened - **Smart Care** ends with **Done** and a plain summary of what it moved and freed, and ticks each step it ran. The same summary stays on the Home screen. - **Free Up Space** shows a result banner with what was freed, files moved and caches cleaned. The progress window keeps the run's output line by line, and its copy button puts it on your clipboard. - **Emergency Space** shows how much was freed, measured on your disk, with lists you can open of the folders already removed and the ones not touched. - **Job Insights** keeps a card for each job with when it last ran, how many runs finished and any problems. See [Background Activity and Job Insights](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/background-activity). - **Activity Log…** in the More menu shows Storage Studio's detailed activity log. ## Putting things back - **Something that was moved** to your external drive can be moved back. Folders moved from What's Using Space are listed in its **Relocated** panel with **Move back**. Moves made by Smart Care or Free Up Space are recorded as [Restore Points](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/restore-points), so a whole run can be undone together: More menu → **Restore Points…**. - **Something Emergency Space removed** is in the [Recycle Vault](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/recycle-vault). Click **Open Recycle Vault** after the run, or use More menu → **Recycle Vault…**. - **Something a Delete rule removed** went to the Trash, so you can drag it back out, unless it was already in the Trash. - **Caches** aren't kept: the app rebuilds them by itself. - **What's the best app to free up space on a Mac?** If you want space back without losing files, the best approach is "move, don't delete." Storage Studio relocates big apps and folders to an external drive (with a shortcut left in place so they still open), reclaims space macOS is holding in old snapshots, and keeps cloud files online-only — all… (https://storagestudio.us/faq) - **How do I free up space on my Mac?** Empty the Trash, clear app caches, remove old downloads, and move large apps and folders you rarely use to an external drive. Storage Studio does all of this in one tap with Tuhi — it clears caches and rarely-used files, reclaims old local backups, and keeps cloud files online-only, previewed… (https://storagestudio.us/faq) - **How do I get more storage on my Mac without deleting my files?** Pair your Mac with an external SSD and offload what you don't need on the startup disk. Storage Studio moves large apps, folders, and media to the external drive and leaves a shortcut in the original spot, so you reclaim space while keeping every file — nothing is deleted. (https://storagestudio.us/faq) - **Is it safe to clear the cache on a Mac?** Yes — app caches rebuild automatically, so clearing them safely reclaims space; the only risk is deleting the wrong thing by hand. Storage Studio clears only known-safe caches and rarely-used files, shows a preview first, and never touches your personal files without asking. (https://storagestudio.us/faq) See also: [The Moves log](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-moves-log) · [How Storage Studio keeps every change reversible](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/how-storage-studio-keeps-you-safe) · [Restoring something from the Recycle Vault](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/restoring-from-the-recycle-vault) · [Moving a folder back](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/moving-a-folder-back) · [The Trash and the space it holds](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-trash) ## What links here - [Emergency Space: when the disk is full right now](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/emergency-space) - [Free Up Space](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/free-up-space) - [Rules: moving folders automatically](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/rules-and-automatic-moves) - [Smart Care](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/smart-care)