A simple macOS menu bar app to manage your external drives.

Install via Homebrew:

brew tap homielab/mountmate https://github.com/homielab/mountmate
brew install --cask mountmate

Or download the latest .dmg and drag MountMate.app into your Applications folder.

MountMate is a lightweight macOS menu bar utility that lets you mount and unmount external drives with a single click – no Terminal, no Disk Utility, no hassle.

Whether you're dealing with a noisy spinning HDD or want finer control over when your drives are active, MountMate gives you a clean, no-nonsense solution right from your menu bar.

I have a 4TB external HDD plugged into my Mac mini 24/7. Since it's a spinning drive, macOS constantly spins it up – just for trivial things like opening Finder or running Spotlight. That meant:

• Unwanted noise
• System slowdowns
• Wasted energy

I tried:

• Disk Utility – too slow and clunky
• Custom shell scripts – too technical
• Existing third-party apps – too bloated or didn’t work right

So I built MountMate.

• View all connected external drives
• See which ones are mounted
• Mount/unmount any drive with a click
• Check available free space
• Runs quietly in the menu bar
• Fully native – no Electron, no dependencies

macOS automatically mounts drives when they’re plugged in – but gives you no easy way to remount them later unless you use Terminal or Disk Utility. MountMate is perfect for:

• External HDDs you don’t always need
• Drives used only for backup
• Reducing wear and tear or noise
• Improving system responsiveness

MountMate runs entirely offline, using native macOS APIs and command-line tools. It:

• Does not track anything
• Does not require connect to the internet
• Does not access your files
• Does not require root permissions

Just a clean utility that does one job well.

1. Download the latest .dmg release
2. Open the .dmg file
3. Drag MountMate.app into the Applications folder
4. Eject the installer disk image
5. Launch MountMate from Applications

If you have Homebrew installed, you can install MountMate directly from this repository:

brew tap homielab/mountmate https://github.com/homielab/mountmate
brew install --cask mountmate

• If you see a warning that MountMate is from an unidentified developer, go to:
  System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway
• Make sure you're connected to the internet to allow macOS to verify the app and receive updates

MountMate was built to solve my personal workflow issue, but I’d love to improve it for others too. Feel free to open an issue or suggest improvements!

If you found MountMate helpful, please consider supporting its development: