Docs and support

Mac applications ship as a disk image. Requires macOS 12 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.

1. Open the .dmg and drag the application into Applications.
2. Launch it. On first run macOS may say the developer cannot be verified.
3. If that happens, open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the message about the blocked app, and choose Open Anyway.

Permissions you'll be asked for

iErasure and Mac Storage Manager need Full Disk Access to see and act on every volume. Grant it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, then relaunch the app. Without it, some drives simply won't appear.

Uninstalling

Drag the application to the Trash. Settings and saved reports live in ~/Library/Application Support/Synapsi/ — remove that folder too for a clean uninstall.

Windows applications ship as a zip archive. There is no installer and nothing is written to the registry.

1. Right-click the zip, choose Properties, and tick Unblock if the option appears.
2. Extract somewhere permanent — C:\Tools\Synapsi\ works well. Don't run it from inside the zip.
3. Run the .exe. If SmartScreen warns you, choose More info → Run anyway.

To verify the download first:

Get-FileHash .\Synapsi-KnowledgeBase.zip -Algorithm SHA256

Application data lives in %APPDATA%\Synapsi\. Uninstalling is a matter of deleting both folders.

Data Recovery ships as a tarball for x86_64.

1. Extract it: tar -xzf synapsi-recovery.tar.gz
2. Make it executable: chmod +x synapsi-recovery
3. Run it with elevated permissions: sudo ./synapsi-recovery

Raw device access requires root, which is why sudo is needed. The source device is always opened read-only regardless of how the tool is invoked.

Sanitizes drives on Mac hardware and produces a certificate proving it happened.

Running a wipe

1. Grant Full Disk Access if you haven't already, then relaunch.
2. Select the target drive. Confirm by model and size, not by position in the list — ordering changes as devices are attached.
3. Choose a method. The tool applies the approach appropriate to the media type; SSDs and spinning disks are not sanitized the same way.
4. Review the confirmation summary and start. This cannot be undone.

Verification and certificates

After the wipe, iErasure reads back from the drive to confirm the result rather than trusting that the command succeeded. The certificate records the device serial, model, capacity, method used, verification result, operator, and timestamp. Export as PDF for an audit file or JSON to import into an asset system.

Important: a drive that fails verification is reported as failed. Don't ship it as sanitized — quarantine it and handle it under your destruction process instead.

A single-pass hardware check for Mac hardware coming through intake or going out the door.

What it tests

• Display — dead pixels, backlight uniformity, colour banding
• Keyboard — per-key registration including modifiers
• Audio — speaker output and microphone capture
• Storage — SMART attributes and a short self-test
• Battery — design capacity against current full-charge capacity, plus cycle count

Reports

Each run writes a report with the machine serial, per-test results, and a timestamp. Export as JSON for an asset system or PDF for handing to someone. Reports are kept locally so you can pull a machine's history later.

Volume, container, and partition management, with the APFS layer made visible rather than hidden.

Before you start

Every operation shows a summary of what will change before committing. Read it. APFS containers hold multiple volumes that share space, so deleting a container is not the same as deleting the volume you were looking at — the summary spells out which is which.

Common tasks

• Add a volume to an existing container without repartitioning
• Reclaim space from snapshots and purgeable data that Finder reports as unavailable
• Convert between APFS and HFS+ when older hardware or tooling requires it
• Repartition a drive, including removing a Boot Camp partition cleanly

A note on erasing: formatting prepares a drive for reuse. It is not sanitization and should not be treated as such for compliance purposes — use iErasure where a verified wipe is required.

Bootable macOS installers, without createinstallmedia and its arguments.

Creating installer media

1. Point the app at a macOS installer already in your Applications folder, or let it fetch one.
2. Select the target USB device. Anything on it will be erased.
3. Review the summary and confirm.

Multiple versions on one stick

A 32 GB or larger drive holds several macOS versions side by side, each selectable at boot. Useful when you're supporting a fleet where not every machine takes the current release.

Hold Option at power-on to pick the installer on Intel Macs. On Apple silicon, hold the power button until startup options appear.

A local document store with full-text search. Free, with no limits on documents or users.

Getting started

1. Create a folder from the sidebar, or leave documents in Unfiled and rely on tags instead.
2. Use Create for a new document, or Import to bring in existing .md, .txt, or .docx files in bulk.
3. Tag as you go. Tags cross folders, so a document can live in one place and surface from several.

Search syntax

The search bar supports boolean operators, which must be uppercase:

• erasure AND verification — both terms present
• apfs OR hfs — either term
• drive NOT ssd — first term, excluding the second
• "chain of custody" — exact phrase

Backup

Backup & Export writes the whole store to a single archive, with documents in plain Markdown so the backup stays readable without Synapsi installed.

Recovers files from damaged, deleted, and reformatted media.

The first rule

Stop writing to the affected device immediately. Every write reduces what can be recovered. If the data matters, image the drive first and run recovery against the image rather than the original.

Running a recovery

1. Start with sudo ./synapsi-recovery.
2. Select the source device. It is opened read-only — nothing is written back to it at any point.
3. Choose a destination on a different physical drive. The tool refuses to write recovered files onto the device being recovered.
4. Scan, then review what was found before committing to a full extraction.

What to expect

Filenames and folder structure survive when the filesystem metadata is intact. On reformatted or badly damaged media, files are recovered by signature instead — contents come back, names usually don't. Partial recovery is normal and worth taking.

Paid applications are a one-time purchase. There is no subscription and no renewal.

• What you get. The version you bought, plus fixes and point releases for it.
• Where it works. Use it commercially, on client hardware, across a facility. There is no seat count and no license server to check in with.
• Offline activation. Licenses validate locally. The applications never contact a server, so a machine with no network connection runs exactly the same.
• Lost your license? Email from the address you purchased with and it'll be resent.