---
title: "Storage charts and history"
url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/storage-charts
category: "Freeing up space"
tags: ["storage charts", "history", "free up space", "storage profile"]
summary: "Storage Studio records your free space once an hour and draws it as charts in your Storage Profile. You can see how free space has changed, how much of your data lives on your external drive, and what moved in and out each day."
updated: 2026-10-01T05:34:57.000Z
---

# Storage charts and history

Storage Studio records your free space once an hour and draws it as charts in your Storage Profile. You can see how free space has changed, how much of your data lives on your external drive, and what moved in and out each day.

Storage Studio takes a reading of your storage once an hour and keeps it on your Mac, so you can see how your free space has changed over time. The charts live in your **Storage Profile**, under **Your storage over time**. Open it from the More menu (•••) → **Storage Profile…**.

## The charts

| Chart | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Free space over time | Free space on your Mac (**Internal**, blue) and on your external drive (**NVMe**, green), for the period you pick |
| On your fast drive, not this Mac | How much of your data is living on your external drive instead of your Mac |
| Used vs free — latest snapshot | How full each disk is at the most recent reading |
| Top monitored directories | The biggest folders Storage Studio keeps an eye on, from today's reading |
| Data transferred OUT — daily by service | What left your Mac's disk each day, for the last 30 days, by the feature that moved it |
| Data transferred IN — daily by service | What came back to your Mac's disk each day, for the last 30 days |

## Moving around the chart

Above **Free space over time**, pick a range: from **1d** through weeks and months to **1y**, the current week, month or year so far (**WTD**, **MTD**, **YTD**), or **Lifetime**. It opens on **1mo**.

- **Hover** over the chart to see the date and both free-space readings at that moment.
- **Drag** across a stretch to zoom into it. Pinch, or hold Option and scroll, to zoom in and out.
- **Swipe sideways**, or hold Option and drag, to move through time.
- **Double-click**, or click **Reset zoom**, to see everything again.

The chart directly below follows the same zoom, so the two always show the same stretch of time.

```mermaid
%% caption: From a drop on the chart to an explanation
flowchart LR
  A[Pick a range or drag across a drop] --> B[Chart zooms to that stretch]
  B --> C[What changed in this period appears below]
  C --> D[Each line names an app or place and offers the next step]
```

*Flowchart — From a drop on the chart to an explanation. Outline:*

- Pick a range or drag across a drop
  - leads to Chart zooms to that stretch
- Chart zooms to that stretch
  - leads to What changed in this period appears below
- What changed in this period appears below
  - leads to Each line names an app or place and offers the next step

## Explaining a change

Under **Free space over time** sits the explanation for whatever stretch you're looking at: **What changed in this period**, ranked by how much each app or place gained or lost. It also tells you when the chart's free-space figure includes space your Mac is holding in automatic backups, so you can see how much you could actually use. See [Where did my space go?](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/where-did-my-space-go).

## "On your fast drive, not this Mac"

This chart is measured from the drive itself. It shows how much of your data is on your external drive right now instead of on your Mac, so it goes down if you move something back. You can check it any time by looking at the drive.

## When the charts are empty

Charts need at least two readings. On a new install you'll see **Not enough data yet**: *Storage Studio writes one snapshot per hour. Charts unlock after the second snapshot — check back in an hour.* The readings stay on your Mac. The job that takes them appears in [Job Insights](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/background-activity) as **Storage history**.

See also: [Your Storage Profile](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/storage-profile) · [Storage Inspector](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/storage-inspector) · [Why deleting files doesn't always give the space back](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/why-deleting-doesnt-free-space) · [Data Transfers](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/data-transfers)

## What links here

- [The Home screen](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-home-screen)
- [Where did my space go?](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/where-did-my-space-go)
- [Your Storage Profile](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/storage-profile)