--- title: "Storage Inspector" url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/storage-inspector category: "Freeing up space" tags: ["free up space", "storage inspector", "external drive", "local snapshots"] summary: "Storage Inspector, opened from What's Using Space, measures what is taking room on your Mac, what changed since last time and what your automatic backups are holding, and lets you move big folders to your external drive and back." updated: 2026-10-27T11:13:36.000Z --- # Storage Inspector Storage Inspector, opened from What's Using Space, measures what is taking room on your Mac, what changed since last time and what your automatic backups are holding, and lets you move big folders to your external drive and back. **Storage Inspector** shows what is actually using space on your Mac. Every number on it is measured on your Mac rather than estimated. It also shows what grew since the last measurement and how much your automatic backups are holding, and you can move a big folder to your external drive from here and move it back later. Open it from the More menu (•••) → **What's Using Space…**, or from the **What's Using Space** card on the Home screen. In the Advanced view it's the **Storage Inspector** button in the popover. ## What's on the screen The sections run from top to bottom in the order you're most likely to need them. - **What changed**: three figures. **Gone** is space taken by files that weren't there at the last measurement. **Pinned** is space your Mac is holding in automatic backups. **Reclaimed** is space released since the last measurement without you doing anything. Below them, the folders that grew or shrank the most. - **Biggest on this disk**: your home folder, measured, biggest first. Click the arrow next to a folder to look inside it, or the folder icon to show it in Finder. A shortcut is shown as **shortcut** and counted where its contents really live. - **Space held by backups**: how much your Mac's local snapshots are holding, with the age of each one. The **Local Snapshots** button opens the screen where you can review and remove them. See [Local snapshots](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/local-snapshots). - **Known quick wins**: caches Storage Studio knows about, with their sizes, and the place to move a big one to your drive. This section starts collapsed, and caches that are already empty are counted rather than listed. Click **Measure again** at the top to walk the disk again. Results appear as they arrive. ## Moving a folder to your external drive In **Known quick wins**, a row that can be moved shows a **Move to NVMe** button (NVMe is the app's name for your fast external drive). A row gets one when it's at least 100 MB and safe to move. Some rows can't be moved, and the row says why: - **Protected**: an app's own files, including its settings and sign-ins. Storage Studio only moves the part an app rebuilds by itself. - **The Trash**: its size is shown, but there's no button. *Emptying the Trash is the one thing Storage Studio can't undo, so it isn't offered here.* See [The Trash and the space it holds](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-trash). ```mermaid %% caption: What happens when you click Move to NVMe on a row flowchart TD A[Click Move to NVMe] --> B[Confirm sheet] B --> C{Is an app using files in the folder?} C -->|Yes| D[Apps listed, with Quit and Quit all] C -->|No| E[Copy to the drive] D --> E E --> F{Did the copy check out?} F -->|Yes| G[A shortcut replaces the original] F -->|No| H[Nothing changes - your folder stays as it was] G --> I[Folder appears in the Relocated panel] ``` *Flowchart — What happens when you click Move to NVMe on a row. Outline:* - Click Move to NVMe - leads to Confirm sheet - Confirm sheet - leads to Is an app using files in the folder? - Is an app using files in the folder? - Yes: leads to Apps listed, with Quit and Quit all - No: leads to Copy to the drive - Apps listed, with Quit and Quit all - leads to Copy to the drive - Copy to the drive - leads to Did the copy check out? - Did the copy check out? - Yes: leads to A shortcut replaces the original - No: leads to Nothing changes - your folder stays as it was - A shortcut replaces the original - leads to Folder appears in the Relocated panel When an app is using the folder, the sheet lists it and offers **Quit** for each app or **Quit all**. You can also continue anyway, but that may interrupt the app. The sheet also offers **Keep auto-syncing new files to NVMe**: with it on, new files that apps write into the folder later are moved to the drive in the background too. See [Rules: moving folders automatically](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/rules-and-automatic-moves). When it finishes you'll see *✓ Checked — the original place now points at the copy on your drive, so your apps keep working.* If it doesn't finish, *Move did not complete — your source folder was not modified.* If a copy of the folder is already on your drive, the sheet says so and asks what to do with it: - **Keep both** (the default) — the copy on the drive is renamed with today's date, for example *Downloads (drive copy 27 Oct 2026)*, and kept exactly as it is. Your folder moves in beside it. - **Merge** — your folder's files join the copy on the drive. Where both have a file with the same name but different contents, both are kept: the drive's one is renamed with the date. Identical files are left alone and nothing is deleted. - **Replace** — the copy on the drive is removed first and isn't kept anywhere, so you type **Replace** to confirm, and the button reads **Move and replace**. ## iPhone and iPad backups The backups Finder makes of your iPhone and iPad appear under **Space held by backups**. With your drive connected they have a **Move to fast drive…** button: Storage Studio copies them to the drive, checks that every file arrived, and only then frees the space on your Mac. Finder carries on backing up there, so keep the drive connected when you back up or restore a device. **Move back…** brings them home whenever you like, checked the same way. Neither runs while a device backup is in progress, and if a copy doesn't match, it's removed and nothing on your Mac changes. ## The Relocated panel and Move back The **Relocated** button at the top right opens a panel listing every folder that currently lives on your drive, with when it was moved. Each one has a **Move back** button that copies it back to your Mac and removes the shortcut. If apps are using the folder, you're shown which, as when moving it out. If you've added files since the move, the confirmation says how many. - **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: [Where did my space go?](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/where-did-my-space-go) · [Moving a folder back](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/moving-a-folder-back) · [The shortcut left behind after a move](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-shortcut-left-behind) · [When an app is holding a folder open](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/when-an-app-holds-a-folder-open) · [Emergency Space](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/emergency-space) ## What links here - [Emergency Space: when the disk is full right now](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/emergency-space) - [Freeing up space: the options](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/freeing-up-space-overview) - [How copies are checked: Fast, Thorough or Off](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/how-copies-are-checked) - [Local snapshots](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/local-snapshots) - [Move, Merge or Relocate: which to choose](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/move-merge-or-relocate) - [Moving a folder back](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/moving-a-folder-back) - [Rules: moving folders automatically](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/rules-and-automatic-moves) - [Storage Studio and macOS Storage settings](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/compared-with-macos-storage-settings) - [Storage charts and history](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/storage-charts) - [The Trash and the space it holds](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-trash) - [The shortcut left behind after a move](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-shortcut-left-behind) - [What Storage Studio does](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/what-storage-studio-does) - [What a move keeps](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/what-a-move-keeps) - [When an app is holding a folder open](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/when-an-app-holds-a-folder-open) - [Where did my space go?](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/where-did-my-space-go) - [Where to start: pick your goal](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/where-to-start) - [Why deleting files doesn't always give the space back](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/why-deleting-doesnt-free-space)