Frequently Asked Questions

DriveVault is a macOS app that lets you scan external hard drives once and browse or search their contents even when the drives are unplugged.

It creates a local catalog of file names, folder structures, sizes, dates, and metadata—so you can find files instantly without connecting drives. Think of it as a searchable offline index of everything on your external storage.

Creators, photographers, videographers, agencies, studios, researchers—anyone with lots of external storage who needs to find things fast without plugging in every disk.

If you've ever had a shelf of drives and wondered "which one has that client project from 2022?"—DriveVault is for you.

macOS only. DriveVault is built natively for Mac and integrates with macOS previews, Finder-style navigation, and Apple-native features.

There are no current plans for Windows or Linux versions.

Search across every scanned drive by file name, type, size, date, and rich metadata. Photo EXIF data (camera, lens, ISO, date taken), video basics, and document metadata are all supported.

You can also filter by file categories and build saved searches for queries you run often.

Browse in a macOS-style Column or Icon view. See offline low-res previews on files so you can identify them at a glance.

Photos with the necessary data display EXIF metadata; videos and documents show key details where available.

Yes—tag files, add notes, apply star ratings, and group drives into Projects.

Create smart collections (e.g., "Recent Photos", "Large Files") and compare drives to find duplicates or gaps in backups.

Yes. Drive comparison and backup checks help you verify what's mirrored where.

You can generate reports that summarize differences, missing files, and drive health stats—so you know exactly which files exist on which drives.

DriveVault is designed to scale gracefully with large libraries. It uses progressive loading and efficient indexing, so there's no fixed hard limit in practical terms.

For the vast majority of users, DriveVault comfortably exceeds typical real-world usage. For very large drives, we recommend using Quick Scan instead of Full Scan:

• Full Scan (recommended up to 4TB) — captures thumbnails and rich metadata
• Quick Scan (for larger drives) — captures complete folder structure with lower data overhead

We've successfully tested Full Scan on drives exceeding 40TB. Performance with very large libraries depends on your Mac's memory, storage speed, and CPU.

No. Your files remain on your drives. DriveVault only stores a local catalog and optional thumbnails on your Mac.

Nothing is uploaded—privacy is core to the product.

No. Catalogs are stored locally on your Mac. We don't upload your library.

Optional crash/usage analytics (if enabled) are anonymous and never include file names or content.

No. Scanning is completely read-only. Your files are never modified.

Any tags, notes, or ratings you add are stored in your local catalog—not written back to the disk's files.

Yes—there's a free tier that lets you try all of DriveVault's features with one drive up to 4TB.

Paid tiers simply unlock more drives. No features are locked behind a paywall.

Pricing is tiered by the number of drives in your library:

• Purchase a tier you can grow into (5, 10, 15, 20, or unlimited drives)
• Or add single drives one at a time

All purchases are one-time—no subscriptions required.

Yes—import/export lets you share your drive library with other DriveVault users.

Click the "Export" button and choose the drives you want to export, then share the .DriveVault file with your team member.

Note: Users importing libraries need adequate space on their tier plan to import the library.

We'd love to hear from you! Post on our Feature Requests board or report issues on the Bug Reports board.

The Public Beta is now closed. Thank you to our hundreds of beta testers who helped refine DriveVault into the powerful drive cataloguing app it is today.

DriveVault is now available on the Mac App Store.