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How to give Pangalin Space Manager Full Disk Access.

By Grant and Brad, who make Pangalin's apps · Updated

macOS hides Mail, Messages, Photos and most of your Library from every app until you allow it, and that's often where the space is. Full Disk Access lets Pangalin Space Manager measure those parts. It only reads: nothing is moved or removed until you confirm it, and your files never leave your Mac.

Turn it on during setup

After you accept the terms, Pangalin Space Manager shows One quick step:

  1. System Settings opens by itself at Privacy & Security › Full Disk Access, on the left. Pangalin Space Manager moves its window to the right, and a small guide sits just to the right of System Settings, moving with it if you move that window.
  2. Drag the app icon from the guide into the list, or find Pangalin Space Manager there and switch it on. If it isn't listed, click + and choose it from Applications.
  3. macOS asks for your password or Touch ID to confirm. That's macOS, and we never see it.
  4. Pangalin Space Manager notices within a second (“Full Disk Access is on”), comes back to the front and starts your first scan. If macOS offers to quit and reopen it, that's fine: the reopened app finishes the step.

Closed System Settings by mistake? Click Open System Settings again, in the guide or in Pangalin Space Manager's window.

Turn it on later

  1. Choose Apple menu › System Settings › Privacy & Security › Full Disk Access.
  2. Switch on Pangalin Space Manager, or drag it in from Applications, or click + and choose it.
  3. Switch back to Pangalin Space Manager. It notices and rescans.

Without it

Choose Skip this step and Pangalin Space Manager still works, but its totals read low because it can't see the protected areas. On the System Data breakdown, the row “Areas macOS won't let apps read” is marked Permission-limited. Pangalin Space Manager won't keep asking: it asks again only if access was on before and has been switched off.

Scan totals look far too small?

Full Disk Access is usually missing or stale:

  1. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Full Disk Access.
  2. If Pangalin Space Manager is on, switch it off and on again. After an update, a new Mac or Migration Assistant, macOS sometimes keeps an entry that no longer applies.
  3. If there are two Pangalin Space Manager entries, remove both with – and add the one in your Applications folder with +.
  4. Switch back to Pangalin Space Manager, then choose File › Rescan (⌘R).

Turn it off

Switch Pangalin Space Manager off in the same list at any time. It keeps working, with less. To remove the entry completely, select it and click –.

Related guides

Checked against Space Manager 3.45.1, 7 October 2026.