# A scan seems slow or stuck

> Why a MoreRoom scan can take longer than usual — huge folders, network or slow external drives, privacy prompts — and what to do about it.

- URL: https://moreroom.app/support/scan-slow-or-stuck
- Topic: Troubleshooting
- Updated: 2026-10-17
- Publisher: MoreRoom (Yando Pte. Ltd.) — https://moreroom.app

## In short

- A whole Mac usually takes seconds to a minute. Millions of small files, slow external disks and network shares take longer.
- As long as the file count keeps rising, the scan is working. Analysing… comes at the end and is short.
- Stuck for good? Click Cancel (Esc), exclude the huge folder in Settings › Exclusions, and scan again — or scan a smaller place first.

## Is it really stuck?

While scanning, MoreRoom shows “Scanning *place*…” with the number of **files** and **bytes** found so far, updated several times a second. When it can estimate the total — from your last scan of the same place, or from the space used on the startup disk — a ring shows the progress.

- If the numbers keep going up, the scan is working, just on a lot of files.
- **Analysing *place*…** — “Matching hundreds of known space consumers” — is the last step. It takes a few seconds on large scans.

## Common reasons it takes longer

- **Millions of small files**: `node_modules`, Git repositories, Photos libraries, mail archives, developer caches. MoreRoom handles about a million files in seconds on a recent Mac, but every file counts.
- **External or network disks**: a USB hard disk, a NAS or a cloud drive with files only online is much slower to read than the internal SSD. [Disk Tools](https://moreroom.app/support/disk-tools) measures how fast a drive really is.
- **Time Machine backup disks**: they contain huge numbers of files. Scanning one is rarely useful; macOS manages that space itself.
- **Other heavy work**: a Spotlight reindex, a backup or a big copy running at the same time slow every app that reads the disk.

## What you can do

1. Click **Cancel** (or press `Esc`) — you go back to the home screen, nothing has been changed.
2. Scan a smaller place first: **Home Folder** instead of **Scan My Mac**, or a single folder with **Choose a Folder…**.
3. Exclude folders you never want to clean — a big archive, a backup, a NAS mount — in **MoreRoom › Settings… › Exclusions**. They’re skipped entirely on the next scan.
4. Next time, a rescan (`⌘R`) runs in the background and keeps the current results on screen.

## No Full Disk Access?

Without Full Disk Access, MoreRoom skips the folders that would make macOS ask for permission, so it never waits on a prompt. If you see macOS permission prompts during a scan, see [macOS keeps asking for permission](https://moreroom.app/support/permission-prompts).

## “Scan failed”

If a scan ends with **Scan failed** and a message, the place may have been disconnected or become unreadable (an external disk ejected, a network share dropped). Reconnect it and scan again. If it keeps failing, [contact us](https://moreroom.app/contact?topic=bug) with the message and your MoreRoom and macOS versions.

## Related articles

- [Scan your Mac, your home folder or any folder](https://moreroom.app/support/scan-your-mac.md)
- [Grant Full Disk Access to MoreRoom](https://moreroom.app/support/full-disk-access.md)
- [macOS keeps asking for permission, or Full Disk Access stays off](https://moreroom.app/support/permission-prompts.md)
- [MoreRoom settings explained](https://moreroom.app/support/settings.md)

## Still need help?

Write to us: a real person reads every message and answers within 2 business days. https://moreroom.app/contact