SADFinder is missing features in the App Store version. Not because my developer isn’t good enough, or because I don’t have the time. No. We’re not allowed. Apple blocks every single one of them, and there is nothing I can do about it.
I’ll show you exactly what’s missing and why. And then the part most people don’t know: if you bought SADFinder Pro on the App Store, you already own the version that has all of it. You have a license for the full standalone version on sadfinder.com, so you’re not missing out.
Let’s get to it.
First: this is not me complaining about Apple
The rules are the same for every developer, and they do make for safer apps. For SADFinder, they’re terrible. In general, I think it’s a good policy.
The easiest issue to understand is updates.
When I fix a bug in the standalone version, I push it and it can reach you in minutes. You get an update button inside SADFinder, you click it, and the new version installs automatically. No setup. Nothing extra.
The App Store doesn’t work like that. Every update goes to Apple for review first. Even a one-line fix. I submit it, and then… I wait. Sometimes a day. Sometimes a week.
And you’re waiting there with a bug or a serious crash, while I can’t do anything to speed up the review process.
The one rule behind every missing feature
Apple requires every Mac App Store app to run inside something called the App Sandbox.
Think of it as a locked room. The app gets a small space of its own. It can reach the places Apple allows and the folders you personally hand it, one door at a time. But it can’t freely see or touch the rest of your Mac the way the standalone version can.
That’s it. That one rule causes almost everything I’m about to show you.
What’s missing
Number 1 — searching inside your files
In the standalone version, I can search for a word that’s inside your documents. Or find things by their Finder tag. In the App Store version, it’s file names only.
Searching inside files and searching by tag need Spotlight’s index. SADFinder queries it through a separate macOS tool, and the sandboxed build isn’t allowed to launch that tool. So rather than pretend, the app tells you those search modes aren’t available.
Number 2 — the Dialog Picker
This is my favourite feature in the entire app. Any program opens a file dialog — you’re uploading a photo to a website, or you hit Save As anywhere — and this little SADFinder palette pops up right next to it, with your favourites and recent folders. Plus a drag-and-drop area in case you want to attach something.
To do that, SADFinder needs Accessibility access and has to interact with another app’s window. Sandbox says no. So the Dialog Picker is completely switched off in the App Store version.
Number 3 — global keyboard shortcuts
These are the hotkeys that work while you’re inside another app. They need system-wide keyboard monitoring, so the App Store build disables them.
Number 4 — snapping and moving other apps’ windows
Also Accessibility. Also blocked. SADFinder can still arrange its own windows in both editions; it just can’t move the windows that belong to another app.
Number 5 — Open in Terminal and Open in VS Code
A sandboxed file manager can’t hand your current folder to other programs the way the standalone build does, so those launchers aren’t included in the App Store version.
Number 6 — automatically hiding Finder’s desktop icons
This one needs an important correction. The SADFinder desktop itself is available in the App Store version — in fact, it starts switched on there. What the sandbox blocks is hiding Finder’s own desktop icons automatically.
So the App Store build points you to the exact macOS switch and asks you to turn it off yourself. The standalone edition does that part for you.
Number 7 — getting to your files
This is the big one.
In the standalone version, you grant Full Disk Access once and everything just works. Full Disk Access does not override the App Sandbox, so the App Store version asks you to approve each external drive or folder through Apple’s own picker.
That’s an extra step for every location. Once approved, SADFinder remembers it with a security-scoped bookmark, so you don’t have to choose the same folder every time you launch the app.
So why is it even on the store?
Because plenty of people will only install software from the App Store, and I get it. Apple handles the payment, updates come through a place you already trust, and uninstalling is one drag to the Trash.
And the App Store version is a real, complete file manager. Everything I just listed is real, but it’s a handful of power features. Tabs, cloud badges, Quick Look, themes, the editable path bar and the SADFinder desktop — all the same. Window snapping still works for SADFinder’s own windows, too.
One purchase, both editions
This is the part I really want you to hear.
One purchase. Both editions. If you bought SADFinder Pro on the Mac App Store, the standalone version is included. You do not pay again.
Open Settings → License → Standalone Edition, then click Connect Mac App Store Purchase.
The app sends Apple’s signed purchase record to sadfinder.com, gives you a short connection code, and you finish on the website. It takes about a minute.
Your App Store purchase stays yours and that copy keeps updating through the store. If you install the standalone edition, it simply becomes the copy you use when you want those features back.
So that’s the difference between SADFinder on my website and the App Store version. In short, the App Store forces me to remove a lot of features. But if you bought SADFinder Pro on the App Store, you get the full standalone version too, without any extra charge. Thanks.