The All Apps grid and its shortcut

The All Apps grid is a launcher for every app on your Mac, including the ones you've moved to your external drive. Type a few letters and press Return to open an app, or browse the icons with the arrow keys. A global keyboard shortcut, ⌃ Space unless you change it, brings the grid up from any app.

What's in the grid

The grid shows every app in your Applications folders, including your personal Applications folder and the Utilities folder. Each tile shows where the app lives:

Hover over a tile and right-click to see its App size and its Data & caches on your Mac.

The footer adds it all up: On this Mac (apps still on your Mac plus their data and caches) and Fast drive (moved and offloaded apps). While Storage Studio is still adding up caches, it says (summing caches…).

Using it from the keyboard

%% caption: Finding and opening an app from the keyboard
flowchart LR
  A[Press the shortcut] --> B[Type part of the name]
  B --> C{Is the top match the one you want?}
  C -->|Yes| D[Press Return to open it]
  C -->|No| E[Press Tab, then use the arrow keys]
  E --> F[Press Return to open the highlighted app]

• Type in Search apps. The best match comes first: an exact name, then names that start with what you typed, then names with a word that starts with it, then anything containing it.
• Return in the search box opens the top match. A floating Opening … panel appears, the search is cleared, and the window tucks into the Dock so the app comes to the front.
• Tab moves from the search box to the grid (on macOS 14 and later). The arrow keys then move the highlight, and Return opens the highlighted app.
• Esc closes the window.

With the mouse, one click selects a tile and a double-click opens it. Offloaded apps don't open; right-click them to restore.

The right-click menu

Every action in the Apps window is also on the tile's right-click menu, and each one runs the same safe steps as the buttons on the other tabs:

• For an app on your Mac: Open, Reveal in Finder, Move to Fast Drive, Offload to Fast Drive, Uninstall…
• For a moved app: Open, Reveal in Finder, Move Back to This Mac, Uninstall…
• For an offloaded app: Restore to This Mac, Remove from Fast Drive…

While an app is being moved, offloaded or uninstalled, its tile shows a spinner and can't be clicked.

Sorting and filtering

The menu next to the search box sorts by Name, Last used, Size or Safety, and filters by category or by location: All locations, Internal, Moved or Offloaded. Unlike the Internal tab, the grid ignores the age and running-app filters, so it always shows every app you can open.

The global shortcut

The shortcut works from any app, even when Storage Studio is in the background, and doesn't need any extra macOS permission.

• In the Advanced view, it opens the Apps window on the All Apps grid.
• In the Intelligence view, it opens the main window on its Apps tab. Pressing it again while that window is in front switches between Home and Apps.

To change it or turn it off, open Settings and choose Shortcuts. Under Apps, the Open the Apps grid switch turns it on or off, and the menu next to it picks one of: ⌃ Space, ⌥ Space, ⌘⌥ Space, ⌃⌥ A or ⌘⌥ A. The same choice is in Advanced under Keyboard Shortcut. A combination already used by a Junk Yard shortcut isn't offered, so two actions never share one.

If the shortcut does nothing, macOS may already use that combination. ⌃ Space, for example, is often the macOS shortcut for switching input sources. Pick another one.

See also: Changing keyboard shortcuts · Keyboard shortcuts · Show in Dock