Search the drives in your drawer.
Finder and Spotlight only see disks that are connected. Espresso keeps the index of every disk you’ve plugged in (the name, size, dates and folder of every file) after you eject it, so you can search, browse and get info on files on drives that are in a drawer, and it tells you which disk to connect to open one. Unlike a classic disk catalog, connected disks stay live: results follow every change. Espresso Free keeps your two most recent offline disks searchable; Espresso Pro keeps all of them, for €19 once.
How it works.
Nothing to set up for each disk: plug it in once, and Espresso remembers it.
| You | Espresso |
|---|---|
| Plug in a drive | Indexes it once: the name, size, dates and location of every file and folder. You can search while it works |
| Work on it | Follows every change while it’s open: new, renamed, moved and deleted files show up within about a second |
| Eject it and put it away | Moves it to Offline Disks, in grey, with the date of its last update. Its index stays on your Mac |
| Search for a file | Shows matches from connected and unplugged disks together; offline ones in grey, with their folder |
| Want to open it | Tells you which disk to connect: “Connect “Photos 2019” to open this file” |
| Plug it back in | Catches up with what changed while it was away, then moves it back under Disks |
What you can do with an unplugged disk.
| What you want | On a disk that isn’t connected |
|---|---|
| Find a file by name or path | Yes, with the full search syntax: your two most recent offline disks in Free, all of them in Pro |
| Browse its folders | Yes |
| Get Info: kind, size, dates, dimensions, date taken, duration, pages | Yes: details are kept for offline disks. Pro adds camera, lens, codecs, music tags and more |
| Copy a file’s path | Yes |
| Search the text inside documents, or what photos show | With Pro: what Espresso has read is kept for offline disks (content:, looks:) |
| Ask in your own words (“photos from the wedding in June 2019”) | With Pro: Ask the Barista works on offline disks too |
| Know where the disk is | With Pro: Disk Info notes where it’s kept (“Studio, desk drawer 2”), a photo of it, when it was last connected and how much space was free |
| Open, preview, share or move a file | Needs the disk: connect it and Espresso opens the file |
A live index or a classic catalog.
Disk catalogers have done this on the Mac for decades. The difference is when the catalog is updated, and how you search it.
| A disk cataloger (NeoFinder, DiskCatalogMaker) | Espresso |
|---|---|
| A catalog is a snapshot of a disk, taken when you scan it (NeoFinder can also update on a schedule, though not with its Private licence) | Connected disks are followed live; an unplugged disk keeps the index it had when you ejected it |
| NeoFinder catalogs optical discs and LTO tapes too, with thumbnails and rich metadata | Every disk macOS can mount: internal, USB and Thunderbolt drives, SD cards (APFS, HFS+, exFAT, FAT32, NTFS), network shares when you turn them on |
| You browse and search catalogs in the app’s own window | One search across every disk, connected or not, updated on every keystroke, with Everything’s search syntax |
| NeoFinder $39.99 once (Private licence, 3 Macs); DiskCatalogMaker $38.99 (User license) | Free for personal use, with two offline disks; Pro €19 once, unlimited offline disks, up to 3 Macs |
Pick a cataloger if you archive optical discs or tapes, or want thumbnails of a media archive. Pick Espresso if your disks change and you want one live search across all of them.
Questions.
- Can I search an external drive that isn’t connected?
- Not with Finder or Spotlight: they only search disks that are mounted. Espresso keeps the index of every disk you’ve connected, so its files stay searchable after you eject it. Opening a file still needs the disk, and Espresso tells you which one to connect.
- What does Espresso keep about an unplugged disk?
- The name, size, dates and folder of every file and folder, and the extended details it read (dimensions, date taken, duration and more). With Pro, also the text it read inside documents. All of it stays on your Mac, about 130 bytes per file: roughly 265 MB for two million files.
- How many offline disks can I search for free?
- Espresso Free keeps your two most recently connected offline disks searchable. The others stay indexed but locked, and nothing is deleted: connect one and it is searchable again right away. Espresso Pro (€19 once, 14-day free trial) searches all of them.
- How do I tell look-alike backup drives apart?
- Right-click a disk › Rename… gives it a label in Espresso without renaming the disk itself. With Pro, Disk Info also keeps where the disk is kept and a photo of it, and shows the place under the disk’s name in the sidebar.
- Does it work with exFAT and NTFS drives?
- Yes. Espresso indexes every disk macOS can mount: APFS, HFS+, exFAT, FAT32 and NTFS, on internal, USB and Thunderbolt drives and SD cards. Network shares (SMB, NFS) are indexed when you turn them on in Settings › Disks.
- Is Espresso a replacement for NeoFinder?
- For drives that change and that you want to search as one, yes: Espresso keeps them live and searches all of them as you type. For archives of optical discs or tapes, or browsing thumbnails of a media archive, a dedicated cataloger such as NeoFinder is the better tool.
Sources, checked 12 November 2026
- Espresso: disks and indexing (offline disks, Disk Info) (https://docs.espressoformac.com/disks)
- Espresso: files on offline disks (https://docs.espressoformac.com/files#files-on-offline-disks)
- Espresso: extended details (https://docs.espressoformac.com/details)
- Espresso: inside files (Pro) (https://docs.espressoformac.com/inside-files)
- NeoFinder (https://www.cdfinder.de/)
- NeoFinder store (https://www.cdfinder.de/store.html)
- DiskCatalogMaker (https://diskcatalogmaker.com/)
NeoFinder and DiskCatalogMaker are products of their makers. Espresso is not affiliated with them, or with Apple.
