Help

Install and first open

CubbyPad needs macOS 26 or later. Download the DMG, open it, and drag CubbyPad into Applications. Keep it there: from Applications it opens at login, so the shortcut works from the moment your Mac starts.

CubbyPad is an independent app that isn't distributed through Apple, so the first time you open it macOS says “Apple could not verify CubbyPad”. You only get past this once:

1. Open CubbyPad from Applications, then click Done on the message.
2. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to CubbyPad.
3. Confirm with Open Anyway.

A short welcome walks you through choosing how to open it. Coming from macOS 15? If your Mac still has the old Launchpad's pages and folders, CubbyPad brings them over on its first run. You can see the welcome again any time from Help › Welcome to CubbyPad.

Opening and closing

Pick any of these under Settings › Opening. They all open and close it.

• A keyboard shortcut. ⇧⌘Space to start with. To use ⌘Space instead, turn off Spotlight's shortcut in System Settings › Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts › Spotlight, and CubbyPad switches over by itself. You can also record your own.
• The F4 key. The Launchpad key on older keyboards, or the Spotlight key on newer ones.
• A hot corner. Push the pointer into a corner of any display. It fires once each time you arrive there.
• A pinch. Three fingers on the trackpad, spread them to close, like Launchpad.
• The Dock or the menu bar. Click CubbyPad's Dock icon, or turn on its menu bar icon.

It opens on the display with the pointer, or the one you choose. Esc, a click on empty space, or switching to another app closes it.

Keyboard shortcuts

Everything you can do with the pointer, you can do from the keyboard. These work while the grid is open.

VoiceOver offers the same moves as actions on each icon, and says where an icon lands.

Folders and arranging

• Move an app: hold it until the icons wobble, then drag. Hold at a screen edge to carry it to the next page.
• Make a folder: drop one app on another. The folder is named after the kind of apps in it; click its name to change it.
• Take an app out: drag it past the edge of the open folder. A folder left with one app turns back into that app.
• Move several: ⌘-click apps to select them, then drag one and the rest come along.
• Everything else: right-click an app for Rename, Move to Folder, Move to Page, Add to Dock, Get Info, Hide from Grid and Move to Trash.
• Hide an app: Hide from Grid takes it off the grid but search still finds it. Settings › Hidden Apps brings it back.
• Change the grid: Settings › Grid sets 4 to 12 columns and 3 to 8 rows, and can hide app names.

Click Done, press Esc, or click empty space to stop the wobbling.

Search

Start typing as soon as CubbyPad opens. Arrow keys pick a result and Return opens it. Search finds:

• Apps by name, by the start of any word, or by initials: gc finds Google Chrome.
• Sums: 24*18, 200*15%, √16. Return copies the answer.
• System Settings pages by name or by what's on them: “wifi”, “dark mode”, “open anyway”.
• Your Shortcuts by name, run without opening the Shortcuts app.
• Recent files of the app you search for.
• Apps for a task, like “edit photos”, using Apple Intelligence on your Mac when it's turned on.

Click the mic or press ⌘D to search by voice. Say “Open Safari” and Safari opens; a pause ends listening. macOS asks once for the microphone and speech recognition.

Layouts, Focus and sync

Settings › Layout keeps several layouts, say Work and Personal, each with its own pages, folders and grid size. Switch from the menu at the top left of the grid, the menu bar icon, or Shortcuts.

To switch with a Focus: open System Settings › Focus, choose a Focus, click Add Filter under Focus Filters and choose CubbyPad. When the Focus ends, your main layout comes back.

Sync with your other Macs shares your layouts through iCloud Drive. Turn on iCloud Drive in your Apple Account settings on each Mac first. Apps one Mac doesn't have keep their place for the Macs that do.

Back Up… saves your layout to a file, and Restore… reads one back.

Organize and Cleanup

Settings › Layout › Organize… sorts every app into folders by what it's for. You see the folders before anything changes, and Undo puts the old layout back. With Apple Intelligence on, your Mac's own model sorts them; without it, CubbyPad uses each app's App Store category.

Settings › Cleanup lists apps you haven't opened in 3 months, 6 months or a year, how much room they take, and what they left in your Library. Hide them, or move them to the Trash together. Nothing is ever deleted outright, and macOS's own apps can only be hidden.

Updates

CubbyPad checks for a new version once a day and installs only updates signed with CubbyPad's own key. You can turn that off in Settings › General, or check now with Check for Updates… in the app menu or the menu bar icon. After the first open, updates install without any warning from macOS.

Troubleshooting

Uninstalling

1. Turn off Open at login in Settings › General.
2. Quit CubbyPad from its menu bar icon or the app menu.
3. Drag CubbyPad from Applications to the Trash.

To remove your layouts and history too, delete the folder ~/Library/Application Support/CubbyPad, and iCloud Drive/CubbyPad if you used sync.