Help · Guides · Pangalin Space Manager
How to use Space Watch.
Space Watch keeps an eye on your free space and tells you before it gets tight, so a full disk doesn't catch you out mid-project. It only warns: it never deletes, moves or empties anything by itself. The one exception is an automatic move rule, and only if you switch it on.
Turn it on
- Choose Pangalin Space Manager › Settings… (⌘,) and click Space Watch. You can also use the Space Watch switch on the Dashboard.
- Under Running in the background, turn on Daily background check so it checks even when the app is closed.
- Click Allow notifications, and allow them when macOS asks.
If macOS won't let it start, approve Pangalin Space Manager in System Settings › General › Login Items (Login Items & Extensions on newer macOS), then try again.
Choose your levels
Each rule has a slider and its own switch:
- Free-space floor (5 to 200 GB; 30 GB to start): you're told when free space drops below it.
- Downloads budget (1 to 100 GB): you're told when your Downloads folder grows past it.
- Trash budget (1 to 50 GB): you're told when the Trash holds more than this. The space comes back when you empty it.
- Flag screen captures older than: old screenshots and recordings on your desktop are flagged on the Space Watch card in the app.
A notification reads, for example, “Free space fell below your 30 GB floor”. Click it to open Pangalin Space Manager.
Catch leftovers when you drag an app to the Trash
In the same tab, under Trash Watcher, switch on Offer to remove an app's leftovers when it leaves Applications. It's off until you switch it on. While Pangalin Space Manager is open, it watches only /Applications and ~/Applications, never inside the Trash. When an app leaves them (usually because you dragged it to the Trash), a banner says the app is no longer in Applications; click Review leftovers… to see what it left. You see every file first, and nothing is removed until you choose. Removing leftovers counts toward your free 5 GB.
See free space in the menu bar
In Settings › Appearance, switch on Show Pangalin Space Manager in the menu bar, then Show free space next to the icon. Click the icon for Rescan now and Open Pangalin Space Manager.
How often it tells you
- The background check runs once a day.
- Each rule notifies once when it's crossed, then stays quiet until things recover and it's crossed again.
- You get at most one Space Watch notification every three days, whether it comes from the daily check or after a scan. A warning held back is delayed, not lost.
Turn it off
- Switch off Daily background check and Start at login in Settings › Space Watch, or use the Dashboard switch.
- To silence notifications only, choose System Settings › Notifications › Pangalin Space Manager and switch off Allow notifications.
- Uninstalling Pangalin Space Manager removes the background check completely.
The built-in alternative
macOS warns you itself when your startup disk is almost full, but usually only when it's already very low. To check at any time, choose Apple menu › System Settings › General › Storage.
Related guides
- Free up space safely
- Move cold files automatically when space runs low
- “Your disk is almost full”: what to do
Checked against Pangalin Space Manager 3.47.0, 10 October 2026. Screenshots from Pangalin Space Manager 3.48.0, 11 October 2026.