---
title: "The shortcut left behind after a move"
url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-shortcut-left-behind
category: "Data Parking & moving folders"
tags: ["data parking", "finder", "external drive", "moving folders"]
summary: "When you Relocate a folder, it stays where it was but each file in it becomes a shortcut pointing to the real file on your external drive. Apps keep working, the space is freed, and the files can't be opened while the drive is unplugged."
updated: 2026-10-01T05:33:41.000Z
---

# The shortcut left behind after a move

When you Relocate a folder, it stays where it was but each file in it becomes a shortcut pointing to the real file on your external drive. Apps keep working, the space is freed, and the files can't be opened while the drive is unplugged.

**Relocate** frees the space a folder takes without changing where you — or your apps — find it. The folder and all its subfolders stay in place on your Mac. Each file inside is replaced by a **shortcut**: a tiny pointer to the real file, which now lives on your external drive.

## What it looks like

- **In Finder**, the folder looks the same. Each file shows a small arrow on its icon, the same mark macOS uses for aliases.
- **In Data Parking**, a shortcut has a small link badge on its icon.
- **In size**, the folder on your Mac now takes almost no space — each shortcut is tiny. The real size is on the drive.

```mermaid
%% caption: A relocated folder - real folders on your Mac, shortcuts pointing to files on the drive
flowchart LR
  subgraph Mac[Your Mac]
    F[Projects folder] --> S1[report shortcut]
    F --> S2[photo shortcut]
  end
  subgraph Drive[External drive]
    Real1[report - the real file]
    Real2[photo - the real file]
  end
  S1 -.points to.-> Real1
  S2 -.points to.-> Real2
```

*Flowchart — A relocated folder - real folders on your Mac, shortcuts pointing to files on the drive. Outline:*

- Projects folder
  - leads to report shortcut
  - leads to photo shortcut
- report - the real file
- photo - the real file

## Why apps still work

When an app opens a file through a shortcut, macOS quietly follows it to the real file on the drive. The app sees the same folder, the same names and the same contents, so libraries, project folders and tools that expect files in a fixed place carry on as before. Files are read from the drive, at the drive's speed.

This is why Storage Studio relocates file by file rather than turning the whole folder into one shortcut: apps that look inside the folder, list it or watch it for changes still find real folders there.

## When the drive is unplugged

The shortcuts stay, but the files they point to aren't there. Opening one fails, and apps report the file as missing. Nothing is lost: plug the drive back in and everything works again. Storage Studio says relocated folders and apps won't be reachable when you eject — see [Ejecting your drive safely](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/ejecting-your-drive) and [When your drive is disconnected](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/when-your-drive-is-disconnected).

## A few things to know

- **Don't delete the files on the drive yourself.** The shortcuts would then point to nothing.
- **Deleting a shortcut** removes only the pointer; the real file stays on the drive.
- **New files** saved into a relocated folder are ordinary files on your Mac, not on the drive.
- **Before Storage Studio calls a Relocate done**, it checks that a shortcut really is in place for every file. If some are missing, the move is marked failed and the copy on the drive is kept — so you never walk away believing an app will find its files when it won't.

## Bringing it back

To turn the shortcuts back into real files, use **Move back** in [Storage Inspector](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/storage-inspector)'s **Relocated** panel. See [Moving a folder back](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/moving-a-folder-back).

Apps moved from the [Apps window](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-apps-window) use a shortcut too, for the app as a whole — see [Moving an app to your external drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/moving-an-app).

See also: [Shortcut](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-shortcut), [Relocate](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-relocate), [Move, Merge or Relocate](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/move-merge-or-relocate).

More answers: https://storagestudio.us/faq

## What links here

- [A dry run shows files I don't want moved](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/dry-run-shows-unwanted-files)
- [A tour of the Data Parking window](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-data-parking-window)
- [Developer caches and build folders](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/developer-storage)
- [Ejecting your drive safely](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/ejecting-your-drive)
- [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)
- [Moving an app to your external drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/moving-an-app)
- [Moving folders safely](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/moving-folders-safely)
- [My rules don't move anything from Documents or Desktop](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/rules-dont-move-documents-or-desktop)
- [Shortcut (symbolic link)](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-shortcut)
- [Storage Inspector](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/storage-inspector)
- [The Home folder in the Finder location](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-home-folder-in-finder)
- [When a trial or licence ends](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/when-your-licence-ends)
- [When your drive is disconnected](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/when-your-drive-is-disconnected)