Apps: offload what you never open

Your iPhone offloads apps you haven't opened in months and restores them with a tap. CelDrive brings the same idea to your computer — for whole applications and the multi-gigabyte data they hoard.

What it does

Two mechanisms, matched to where the bytes actually are:

• App data tiering. The big offenders are rarely the apps — they're the data: emulator disk images, VM bundles, on-device AI models, dormant browser profiles. celdrive apps tier moves cold data folders to your cloud and leaves a link in place. The app finds its data at the same path and streams it back on first use. (Real example from our own machines: 12 GB of Android emulator images → 3.5 MB local.)
• Whole-app offload. celdrive apps offload packs a rarely-used application to your cloud and leaves a self-restoring stub that looks identical in your Dock and Applications folder. Double-click it and the real app streams back down and launches. Nothing to remember, nothing to reinstall.

The thermostat

You don't have to run any of this by hand. celdrive apps guard installs a background agent that holds your free space at a target (default 20 GB, yours to change). When free space dips below target, it offloads the coldest eligible candidates — and nothing else — until you're back above the line. Set it once; "Storage Almost Full" retires permanently.

Safety rails: what it refuses to touch

Offloading the wrong thing is how tools like this lose trust, so the gates are deliberately conservative. The offloader refuses:

• Anything running or with open files — checked at the moment of action, not from stale metadata
• Apps with login items, launch agents, or privileged helpers (Docker, VPNs, menu-bar utilities) — the OS holds references into these at boot; stubbing them breaks things
• System- or MDM-installed apps (SIP-protected, not ours to move)
• Live browser profiles — open databases corrupt when moved; only profiles untouched for months qualify
• Anything whose last-used date is unknown — unknown is treated as hot, never cold

Honest framing

• Restore takes as long as the download. A 2 GB app streams back in roughly the time 2 GB takes on your connection. That's the trade: instant disk space now, a short wait on the rare day you open it again.
• Everything is verified before anything is removed. Offloads are checksummed to your bucket and read back before the local copy is released. An interrupted offload leaves your app exactly where it was.
• Hot apps are never touched. The point is reclaiming space you'll never miss — not gambling with the apps you use.

Platform support