--- title: "The Home folder in the Finder location" url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-home-folder-in-finder category: "The Finder location" tags: ["finder", "external drive", "apps"] summary: "Home in the Storage Studio location is your external drive's Storage Studio folder. You can browse all of it, but the folders that hold your moved apps, offloaded apps and Storage Studio's own files are read-only, so they can't be broken by accident." updated: 2026-10-01T05:37:38.000Z --- # The Home folder in the Finder location Home in the Storage Studio location is your external drive's Storage Studio folder. You can browse all of it, but the folders that hold your moved apps, offloaded apps and Storage Studio's own files are read-only, so they can't be broken by accident. The **Home** folder in the [Storage Studio location](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-storage-studio-location-in-finder) is the Storage Studio folder on your external drive: the place your moved folders, moved apps and offloaded apps live. You can browse all of it. The folders that Storage Studio depends on are read-only in Finder, so a stray drag or delete can't break a moved app. Everything else in **Home** works like a normal folder. ## Which folders are protected | Folder in Home | What it holds | | --- | --- | | **Apps** | Apps you moved. Each one opens through a shortcut on your Mac | | **Offloaded** | Apps and their data that you offloaded | | Anything whose name starts with a dot | Storage Studio's own hidden settings and records | A few more folders that Storage Studio manages are protected in the same way: **Containers**, **Caches**, **AppCache-Archive**, **Backups**, **iOS-Backups**, **Docker-Data** and **_pending-delete**. Inside these folders you can browse, open and copy files, but Finder refuses any change: you can't add, edit, rename, move or delete anything there. Every other folder in **Home**, such as folders of documents or media you moved there, can be edited normally. ## Why they're read-only A moved app on your Mac is just a shortcut that points to its folder in **Apps**. If that folder were renamed or deleted in Finder, the app would stop opening, and Storage Studio would no longer know where it went. The same goes for offloaded apps and Storage Studio's own records. Making these folders read-only here means the only way to change them is through Storage Studio, which keeps everything consistent. ```mermaid %% caption: What you can do with a file in Home, depending on where it is flowchart TD A[A file or folder in Home] --> B{Is it inside a protected folder, or hidden?} B -->|Yes| C[Browse, open and copy it. Changes are refused] B -->|No| D[Open, edit, rename, move or delete it as usual] C --> E[Make changes with Storage Studio instead] ``` *Flowchart — What you can do with a file in Home, depending on where it is. Outline:* - A file or folder in Home - leads to Is it inside a protected folder, or hidden? - Is it inside a protected folder, or hidden? - Yes: leads to Browse, open and copy it. Changes are refused - No: leads to Open, edit, rename, move or delete it as usual - Browse, open and copy it. Changes are refused - leads to Make changes with Storage Studio instead ## How to change protected things Use Storage Studio's own tools, which keep your Mac and the drive in step: - To bring an app back, use **Move back** or **Restore** in the [Apps window](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-apps-window). - To remove an app, use **Uninstall**, or **Remove** on the **Offloaded** tab. See [Uninstalling an app completely](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/uninstalling-an-app). - To bring a moved folder back, see [Moving a folder back](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/moving-a-folder-back). ## Good to know - **Home** itself can't be renamed or removed from the location, but you can add new files and folders to it. - This protection is part of the Finder location. If you're on the fallback drive, be careful not to change anything in the folders listed above. See [When the location falls back to a mounted drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/when-the-location-falls-back-to-a-mounted-drive). - **Home** appears once your external drive has been set up for Storage Studio. To hide it from the location, turn off its switch under **This Mac** on the **Mounting** tab. See also: [Moving an app to your external drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/moving-an-app) · [Offloading and restoring an app](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/offloading-an-app) · [The shortcut left behind after a move](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-shortcut-left-behind) - **Can I see all my cloud accounts in Finder on a Mac?** Yes. Storage Studio adds a "Storage Studio" location to Finder's sidebar, with each connected cloud account and paired device as a folder inside, and a Finder button in the app's main window opens it. Files stay in the cloud until you open them. Folders you have visited open straight away and… (https://storagestudio.us/faq) - **Will opening cloud files in Finder fill up my Mac?** No. Only files you actually open are downloaded, and you choose how long they stay on your Mac once you stop using them — from not at all up to a week, 24 hours by default (and longer when the drive keeps its copies on your external drive). After that they go back to being online-only and the… (https://storagestudio.us/faq) - **Is a locked Delta Drive folder the same as Finder's Locked checkbox?** No. Finder's own Locked checkbox (in Get Info) only stops a file being changed or deleted by accident, and anyone using your Mac can untick it — it doesn't keep anyone out. A locked Delta Drive folder does: it opens only in Storage Studio on your Mac, with your 6-digit PIN and a one-time code we… (https://storagestudio.us/faq) ## What links here - [The Storage Studio location in Finder](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-storage-studio-location-in-finder) - [When the location falls back to a mounted drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/when-the-location-falls-back-to-a-mounted-drive)