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DriveDrawer app icon: drives filed upright in a drawer, one pulled up in brass

Disk catalog for Mac

Every drive. Even the ones in the drawer.

Plug a drive in once and DriveDrawer remembers every project, folder and file on it. After that you search all your drives at once, by name, while they sit on a shelf or in a drawer. The result tells you which drive to get out.

Coming soon See how it works
  • Search drives that are not connected
  • Updates itself when you plug a drive back in
  • One-time purchase, no subscription
Preview: an illustration of the DriveDrawer window with made-up drive and clip names. The current build of the app is in Dutch.

The problem

Which drive was it on?

Every shoot adds a few SSDs. Every finished project moves to an archive drive. A year later a client asks for one shot, and the hunt begins.

The stack

Drives with names that don't help

SSD_07, BACKUP_B, the one with the yellow sticker. The name on the drive rarely tells you what is on it.

The hunt

Plugging in drive after drive

Connect, wait, search, eject, next. Repeat until you find it, if you find it at all.

The blind spot

Finder forgets unplugged drives

Finder and Spotlight only search drives that are connected. Once a drive goes in the drawer, its files vanish from every search.

How it works

Scan once. Find it forever.

  1. Plug in and scan

    A new drive shows up under Connected, not yet in catalog. Click Scan and DriveDrawer reads every folder and file name on it.

  2. Put it away

    The catalog stays on your Mac: names, folders, sizes and dates. The drive can go back in the drawer.

  3. Search everything

    Type part of a name. You see every match on every drive, with the folder it is in, its size and date. A green dot marks drives that are connected.

  4. Plug it back in

    DriveDrawer notices a known drive and updates its catalog by itself. Double-click a file to show it in Finder.

Offline browsing

Look inside a drive that isn't there

Pick a drive in the sidebar and walk through its folders like in Finder, while the drive itself is in a drawer across town.

  • Folder sizes included. Every folder shows its total size, so you know how big a restore will be before you start.
  • Clear about what is offline. A drive that is not connected says so. Ask for a file on it and DriveDrawer tells you which drive to connect.
  • Paths you can paste. Copy the path of any file or folder, even when its drive is unplugged.
Preview: illustration with made-up names.

Features

Small on purpose. One job, done properly.

DriveDrawer does one job: it knows what is on your drives and where.

Search

All drives at once

Search every drive in your catalog together, or pick one drive. Results update as you type.

Matching

Forgiving search

Type a few words in any order; every word has to appear in the name. Capitals and accents don't matter, so cafe finds Café.

Filter

Folders or files

Show everything, only folders or only files. Folders come first, and you can sort by name, drive, location, size or date.

Auto update

Updates on plug in

When a known drive is connected, DriveDrawer scans it again by itself. One shortcut updates every connected drive at once.

Safe scans

Unplugged mid-scan? No harm

A drive's catalog is only replaced when a scan finishes. Pull the cable halfway and the previous catalog stays.

Drives

SSDs, cards, RAIDs, network shares

Anything that mounts in /Volumes, from camera cards to a NAS share. Windows system folders on exFAT drives are skipped.

Finder

From result to file

Show a file in Finder, open a folder inside the catalog, or jump to the folder a file is in. Copy paths for your edit notes.

Private

Your catalog stays on your Mac

One database file in your Library folder. No account, no cloud, nothing uploaded. Show it in Finder to back it up.

Good to know

What it doesn't do

So you know exactly what you get.

Made for

People with a drawer full of drives

Built by a filmmaker in Amsterdam with exactly that drawer.

Editors and assistant editors finding last year's rushes DITs and data wranglers keeping track of shuttle drives Directors and producers with an archive of finished films Colourists and post houses juggling client drives Photographers with years of shoots on SSDs Anyone who has said "it's on one of these"

What it will cost

Coming soon. Pay once.

DriveDrawer is built and working. It goes on sale once it is signed and notarised by Apple.

DriveDrawer for Mac

Pricing announced at launch

  • One-time purchase, no subscription, like the other Dutch Angle Tools Mac apps
  • macOS 13 Ventura or later
  • Apple silicon and Intel
  • No account, works without internet
  • As many drives as you like
Coming soon

Where it stands

The app is built and works. Before it can be sold, it needs Apple's Developer ID signature and notarisation, so macOS opens it without warnings.

The current build's interface is in Dutch. It started life as Schijfcatalogus, Dutch for "drive catalog". Catalogs made with Schijfcatalogus move over to DriveDrawer by themselves.

FAQ

Questions about finding files on offline drives

How do I find files on an external drive that is not plugged in?

You need a catalog: a list of everything on the drive, made while it was connected. DriveDrawer makes that list when you scan a drive and keeps it on your Mac. After that you can search the drive's files and folders by name, and browse its folders, without plugging it in. The result tells you which drive to get out of the drawer.

Can Finder or Spotlight search a drive that is not connected?

No. Finder and Spotlight only search drives that are connected. Once you unplug a drive, its files drop out of every search. DriveDrawer keeps its own catalog on your Mac, so an unplugged drive stays searchable.

Is DriveDrawer an alternative to NeoFinder or DiskCatalogMaker?

It is the same kind of app: a disk catalog for the Mac. NeoFinder (cdfinder.de) and DiskCatalogMaker (diskcatalogmaker.com) are established catalog apps; NeoFinder's site, for example, lists thumbnails and photo and video metadata among its features. DriveDrawer is smaller on purpose: it catalogs the names, folders, sizes and dates on your drives and lets you search them. Check their sites to see which one fits you.

Does DriveDrawer update when I plug a drive back in?

Yes. When DriveDrawer is open and a drive that is already in your catalog is connected, it scans that drive again after a couple of seconds and replaces its catalog. You can switch this off. New drives are never scanned on their own: they show up under Connected, not yet in catalog, with a Scan button.

Which drives can I add to the catalog?

Any drive that shows up in /Volumes: external SSDs and hard drives, RAIDs, camera cards, USB sticks and network shares you have connected in Finder. APFS, Mac OS Extended, exFAT and FAT drives work; on Windows-formatted drives, system folders such as $RECYCLE.BIN are skipped. Your Mac's startup disk is not added.

Does DriveDrawer look inside my files or show previews?

No. It records the name, size and modification date of every file, and the path and total size of every folder. It does not read file contents, make thumbnails or read clip metadata such as codec or timecode. Hidden files are skipped, and a Final Cut Pro library or other package is listed as one item with its full size.

Where is my catalog stored, and does anything leave my Mac?

The catalog is one database file in the Library folder on your Mac. DriveDrawer has no account and no cloud, and it does not send your file names anywhere. The Drives menu can show the catalog file in Finder, so you can back it up.

What happens if I unplug a drive while it is being scanned?

Nothing is lost. A scan only replaces a drive's catalog when it finishes. If the drive disappears halfway, DriveDrawer keeps the previous catalog and tells you.

When can I buy DriveDrawer, and what will it cost?

DriveDrawer is coming soon. Before it goes on sale it gets signed and notarised by Apple, so macOS opens it without warnings. The price is announced at launch. It will be a one-time purchase with no subscription, like the other Dutch Angle Tools Mac apps.

Which Mac do I need?

A Mac with macOS 13 Ventura or later, with Apple silicon or Intel. The interface of the current build is in Dutch.

DriveDrawer

Put the drives away. Keep the catalog.

Scan each drive once, then find any project, folder or file by name, wherever the drive is.

Coming soon Read the FAQ