FileOctopus Local by default
Core browsing and search require no account, analytics, cloud sync, or external AI service. Natural-language interpretation uses local templates. FileOctopus's filename index, opt-in extracted text/OCR, saved searches, and workspace/session state are stored locally.
OCR uses on-device Vision. Source classification reads existing file metadata; it does not contact the source service. There is no built-in AI organizer sending filenames or contents to a provider.
Where FileOctopus keeps data
Settings are stored in FileOctopus's preferences. Workspaces, saved windows, the sidebar, View Options, saved searches, search indexes and the file-operation journal are stored in ~/Library/Application Support/FileOctopus.
Data from BetterFinder
If you used BetterFinder, its data stays in ~/Library/Application Support/BetterFinder and in its preferences after FileOctopus copies it. Erase Index… and Clear File Operation History… in FileOctopus clear only FileOctopus's copy. The older folder can hold file names, indexed text and operation history, so delete it yourself when you no longer need BetterFinder.
You choose the index scope
Approve folders in Search settings. This Mac searches that approved set. File contents and text in images have separate opt-ins per folder. Indexes can contain sensitive names or text, so choose those options deliberately.
Removing a search root stops its inclusion. Erase Index deletes stored search data without deleting originals, but retained roots are indexed again. FileOctopus's controls do not erase or configure macOS Spotlight's separate index.
Operation history and recovery
File operations keep local information needed for verification, Undo, and interrupted-operation recovery. Recovery may retain artifacts that need review. Use the recovery report and FileOctopus → Clear File Operation History… to manage this data; do not remove journal artifacts blindly during an active operation.
Actions that leave the app
Open, Open With, Markup in Preview, and Share hand files to the selected system service or application. Those applications have their own behavior and privacy settings. Explicitly opening a cloud-backed file may involve its provider; FileOctopus's conservative preview/indexing behavior is not a device-wide network restriction.
Finder and permissions
FileOctopus does not replace the macOS Desktop, Open/Save dialogs, or Finder itself. Access depends on filesystem and macOS privacy permissions. Unavailable locations and cloud placeholders are reported rather than assumed to contain accessible local bytes.