SSDSentinel — Read Me First

⚠️

Requirements: Apple Silicon M1–M5 · macOS Ventura 13.0 or later · Intel Macs are not supported.

SSDSentinel watches your Mac's log activity in real-time, catching the runaway processes and log storms that silently wear down your SSD. A shield icon lives in your menu bar — always watching, never in your way.

Green — System optimal

Yellow — Elevated activity

Red — Action required

INSTALL

Unzip SSDSentinel_v3.0_Install.zip and drag SSDSentinel.app into your Applications folder.

UNLOCK — Required once per version

⚠️ Why does Mac say "Damaged App"?

The app is completely fine — it is not damaged. When you download an app from outside the App Store, macOS quietly attaches an invisible label to it that says "came from the internet — be suspicious." A built-in Mac feature called Gatekeeper sees that label and blocks it with this misleading message.

The fix is simple: remove that invisible label using one of the two methods below. This only affects SSDSentinel — it does not change any of your other Mac security settings.

✦ Option 1 — Sentinel App (free · drag & drop · no Terminal needed)

Download the free Sentinel app: github.com/alienator88/Sentinel or direct download
Open Sentinel
Drag SSDSentinel.app into Sentinel's left window
Done — launch SSDSentinel normally

⌘ Option 2 — Terminal (one command · about 30 seconds)

Open Terminal — go to Applications → Utilities → Terminal
Type this command, then leave one space after the word "quarantine":
$ xattr -d com.apple.quarantine

💡 Tip: drag SSDSentinel.app from your Applications folder directly into the Terminal window — Mac fills in the full path for you automatically. Then press Return.
Done — launch SSDSentinel normally

Note: You'll need to do this once each time you install a new version. This is Apple's policy for all apps distributed outside the App Store — it's not something we can change. We apologize for the inconvenience.

LAUNCH

Launch SSDSentinel from your Applications folder. Accept the License Agreement on first run. The shield icon will appear in your menu bar — it keeps your Dock clean and stays out of your way.

A free trial is included. A license key is required after the trial — purchase at ssdsentinel.com.

ENABLE SSD WEAR TRACKING — Optional · Required for Storm Engine Wear Data

To see SSD wear level data in Storm Engine, you'll need to install two free tools using Terminal. Open it at Applications → Utilities → Terminal.

⌘ Three quick steps

Check if Homebrew is already installed — paste this and press Return:
$ which brew

If you see a path like /opt/homebrew/bin/brew — Homebrew is already installed, skip to step 3. If nothing appears, continue to step 2.
Install Homebrew — paste this and press Return. It will walk you through the full install:
$ /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
Install smartmontools — once Homebrew is installed, run:
$ brew install smartmontools

Once complete, relaunch SSDSentinel to see wear data in Storm Engine.

SSDSentinel — Platinum Class Mac Protection

INSTALL

UNLOCK — Required once per version

LAUNCH

ENABLE SSD WEAR TRACKING — Optional · Required for Storm Engine Wear Data