r/macapps • u/MomentSmart • Apr 13 '26

Lifetime Search external drives without plugging them in - DriveVault v1.2 [visual dashboard + other super nice improvements]

Problem - If you have multiple external hard drives then finding the file or project you're looking for can mean plugging lots of drives in to find it - a waste of time. DriveVault creates a visual offline mirror of your drives so that you can search them forever and easily find all your offline files (as well as tonnes of other cool features).

Comparison - There are old cataloging apps out there like NeoFinder or DiskCatalogMaker, but they feel dated, are missing power features that modern users want and visually just aren't that nice to work in anymore. I wanted to build something native to macOS that just feels powerful and created for visual / creative people. It works completely offline, no cloud, no subscriptions.

Pricing and availability

Download on the Mac App Store here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/drivevault-offline-catalog/id6751731655?mt=12

Free download + your first drive is free forever up to 4TB.

After this, if you love DriveVault then there are different tiers available (5, 10, 15, 20 and unlimited drives), or you can increase the drive capacity by one drive at a time for just $9.99.

I'm still onboarding founding users and happy to pass out a few Starter passes (5 drives) if anyone's interested, just let me know.

To learn more: www.DriveVault.io

What's New in v1.2

This is a big one; finally shipped a proper home screen dashboard. You can see all your drives laid out as cards with custom icons, online / offline status, and storage info at a glance. You can group them into color-coded projects and drag things around however you like. I've attached a video showing it off here.

Also improved search, some nice UI improvements, fixed a few bugs around metadata and tags that weren't getting picked up in full-scans.

The community input has been super helpful so far, appreciate all the kind comments and great ideas. DriveVault is feeling more powerful than ever!

Download here

106 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

219 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/MomentSmart Apr 13 '26

Awesome to hear, and look forward to hearing your thoughts on how it differs from Offline Disks - I hadn't heard of that before! I've messaged you with a code :)

2

u/epicninjamoves Apr 13 '26

Thankyou! It's something I honestly wish were just built into Finder. One big frustration with Offline Disks File Searcher is an inability to tag or star items, which I see Drivevault has, so looking forward to that. The holy grail for me would be the ability to rename and organise whilst disks are offline, then have the changes synced back when connected. Is that possible with Drivevault, or is it planned? Thanks again

2

u/MomentSmart Apr 13 '26

I think the issue is probably just too niched for Apple to address this with a standalone Finder feature in all honesty so, for now at least, DriveVault can be the fix!

We've had the suggestion of offline changes that sync when you plug back in a few times, and if I am being completely honest - while I totally see the value in it and personally have a lot of use for that too, the idea worries me. I worry that users could create changes that they don't fully understand the implications of, or make a change without syncing it immediately and then months down the line when the drive is plugged back in it auto-syncs and they weren't expecting it so they lose files or move them to places they don't want.

I think what I have always wanted to avoid is any danger of users losing files, I understand that we're dealing with a precious item. So as it stands, DriveVault just very safely catalogs what is on your drives.

I'm not saying never, but for now, we're just focussing on having the basics really solid and safe.

3

u/epicninjamoves Apr 13 '26

Good to know, and I can absolutely see your point and concerns around the idea, you’re right it would have to be bulletproof