--- title: "Self-healing" url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/self-healing category: "Safety & undo" tags: ["self-healing", "safety", "troubleshooting", "services"] summary: "Storage Studio checks its own working parts at launch and every few minutes while it runs, and quietly repairs the common problems — a damaged or stuck background service, missing settings or log storage. It never touches your files to do it." updated: 2026-10-01T05:37:12.000Z --- # Self-healing Storage Studio checks its own working parts at launch and every few minutes while it runs, and quietly repairs the common problems — a damaged or stuck background service, missing settings or log storage. It never touches your files to do it. Storage Studio checks its own working parts when it starts and regularly while it's running, and quietly repairs the problems that would otherwise need a support conversation — a damaged or stuck background service, or missing storage for its own settings and log. These checks only look after Storage Studio itself; they never move, change or remove your files. ## What it checks and repairs | Check | If something is wrong | |---|---| | Storage Studio's own settings folder exists and can be written to | It's recreated | | Its log file exists and can be written to | It's recreated | | The background service's script is intact and matches the copy that came with the app | A known-good copy is put back and the service is restarted | | The background service is running and didn't stop with an error | It's restarted cleanly | | The daily storage record has been updated within the last day and a half | The background service is restarted to get it going again | ```mermaid %% caption: How a self-healing check runs flowchart TD A[Launch, wake from sleep, or the next scheduled check] --> B[Run each check in turn] B --> C{Is this part healthy?} C -->|Yes| D[Nothing to do] C -->|No| E{Can it be repaired safely?} E -->|Yes| F[Repair it quietly] E -->|No| G[Mark it as needing attention] D --> H[Record the result in the Services pane] F --> H G --> H ``` *Flowchart — How a self-healing check runs. Outline:* - Launch, wake from sleep, or the next scheduled check - leads to Run each check in turn - Run each check in turn - leads to Is this part healthy? - Is this part healthy? - Yes: leads to Nothing to do - No: leads to Can it be repaired safely? - Nothing to do - leads to Record the result in the Services pane - Can it be repaired safely? - Yes: leads to Repair it quietly - No: leads to Mark it as needing attention - Repair it quietly - leads to Record the result in the Services pane - Mark it as needing attention - leads to Record the result in the Services pane ## When it runs - At every launch. - Every 5 minutes while you're using Storage Studio, and every 30 minutes while it's hidden. - Not at all while your Mac is asleep, then once straight away when it wakes — drives may have come and gone in the meantime. The checks are small and run on your Mac; nothing is sent anywhere. ## Where to see it Repairs are silent on purpose: there's nothing for you to do, so they don't appear in the popover. To see the latest result, open Settings → **Services** and look at the **Self-healing monitor** row (see [The Services pane](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/services-pane)): | What the row says | What it means | |---|---| | Watching | No check has finished yet in this session | | All clear · last check … | Everything was healthy | | Repaired N items · last check … | "Storage Studio fixed a problem automatically. No action needed." | | N items need attention | Something couldn't be fixed automatically — look at the rows marked Stopped or Sleeping above it | ## Other things that look after themselves - **Interrupted removals.** If your Mac stops part-way through moving something into the [Recycle Vault](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/recycle-vault), the next launch sorts it out: an item whose copy finished is added to the list, and a half-made copy is cleared away. The original wasn't removed in that case. - **Restore points.** A restore point that was never finished, or has nothing in it, is marked **Set aside**, and an item whose moved copy has gone is marked as not reversible. Nothing is deleted. See [Restore Points](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/restore-points). ## What it never does on its own - It never touches your files, folders or apps — only Storage Studio's own parts. - It never moves anything back, rolls anything back or restores anything. Those are always your decision. - It never clears the Recycle Vault items that are waiting on your Mac for your drive to come back. One side effect to know about: if you use **Stop Service** in the Advanced view, the next check will find the background service not running and start it again. If you want Storage Studio's automatic actions to stay off, use **Pause** instead — see [Pausing or stopping everything](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/pausing-and-stopping). If a problem keeps coming back, see ["Service is stopped" won't go away](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/service-is-stopped) or [Something's not working: start here](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/troubleshooting-start-here). See also: [How Storage Studio keeps every change reversible](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/how-storage-studio-keeps-you-safe) · [Sharing diagnostic logs with support](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/sharing-diagnostic-logs) ## What links here - ["Service is stopped" won't go away](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/service-is-stopped) - [Apps that update or reinstall themselves](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/apps-that-update-or-reinstall-themselves) - [Checking your drive's health and setup](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/checking-your-drive) - [Everything looks stuck](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/everything-looks-stuck) - [How Storage Studio keeps every change reversible](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/how-storage-studio-keeps-you-safe) - [Pausing or stopping everything](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/pausing-and-stopping) - [Starting Storage Studio at login](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/start-at-login) - [The Services pane](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/services-pane)