Something's not working: start here

Most problems in Storage Studio explain themselves on one of two screens. Settings → Services shows the live state of every part of the app, with a fix button where there is one, and Background Activity in the More menu shows each background job and anything that didn't finish. Start there, then find your symptom below.

First, two quick checks

1. Open Settings → Services. A red or amber row names the part that needs attention. See The Services pane.
2. Open Background Activity… from the More menu (in the Advanced view it's Job Insights…). A job that needs a look has a notice explaining what happened. See Background Activity and Job Insights.

Nothing Storage Studio moves is deleted until its copy has been checked, so while you work through a problem your files stay safe — see How Storage Studio keeps every change reversible.

Find your symptom

%% caption: Which troubleshooting article to read for each kind of problem
flowchart TD
  A[Something's not working] --> B{What kind of problem?}
  B -->|Can't open or find the app| C[Opening and finding Storage Studio]
  B -->|Drive or moves| D[Drive and moving]
  B -->|Cloud, devices or backups| E[Accounts, devices and backups]
  B -->|Nothing seems to happen| F[Everything looks stuck]
  C --> G[macOS says it can't be opened]
  C --> H[Menu bar icon missing]
  D --> I[Drive not recognised]
  D --> J[A move failed]
  D --> K[Eject fails]
  E --> L[A transfer failed]
  E --> M[A backup didn't run]
  E --> N[Bridge won't connect]

Opening and finding Storage Studio

• macOS says the app can't be opened
• The menu bar icon doesn't appear
• Full Disk Access is on but the app says it isn't
• Paste or Select All doesn't work in a text box

Background work

• Everything looks stuck
• "Service is stopped" won't go away
• Moves or transfers say a component is missing

Your drive and moves

• The drive isn't recognised as set up
• A folder move failed or was cancelled
• The drive was unplugged during a move
• Eject fails: "Files still in use"
• A moved app won't open
• I moved files but my free space didn't go up

Rules and automatic moves

• My rules don't move anything from Documents or Desktop
• A dry run shows files I don't want moved

Cloud accounts, Finder, devices and backups

• My cloud accounts list is empty after signing in
• Signing in to another Apple ID's iCloud fails
• A transfer failed
• The Storage Studio location is missing from Finder
• Two devices won't connect with Bridge
• A backup didn't run
• The setup code for storage you own didn't arrive

The Junk Yard

• The Junk Yard won't open or stops capturing

Still stuck?

Ask Tuhi on the Home screen, or use Contact Support in the More menu and include your diagnostic logs. See Getting help and Sharing diagnostic logs with support.

Restarting Storage Studio (right-click the menu bar icon, then Restart Storage Studio) clears many one-off problems. If you're in the middle of connecting two devices, note that a restart also drops their link for a moment.