Complete first launch
Finish the platform access decision, take the welcome tutorial, and choose the first location you want to browse. Phials opens these first-run surfaces only after a trial or license grants access to the app.
Respond to the macOS access reminder
On macOS, Phials checks whether it can read protected locations. If that access appears to be missing, Full Disk Access opens before the welcome tutorial.
Full Disk Access is not required to browse ordinary locations. It may be needed for protected locations such as parts of your Library and Applications folders.
- Choose Open System Settings if you need those locations. In System Settings, open Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access, turn on Phials, then quit and reopen Phials.
- Choose Not now to continue without changing access. Phials may show the reminder again on a later launch.
- Choose Don’t show again to stop the startup reminder. This does not grant access to protected locations.
Windows does not show this Phials Full Disk Access reminder. If a location remains unavailable, follow Fix file and folder access problems.
Take or skip the welcome tutorial
After other first-launch dialogs close, Welcome to Phials starts automatically. It introduces the main browsing area, file-view controls, search, the Navigator panel, tab groups, and Settings.
Use Next to move through the tutorial. Choose Skip tour if you do not want it to start automatically again. Closing an unfinished tutorial without choosing Skip tour leaves it incomplete, so it can open again on a later launch.
At the end, you can choose Workspaces to continue into the guided Workspace Folder demo. The demo does not create files until you choose Create Demo Workspace Folder. That action creates a folder named Phials Demo in your home folder and adds example files. At the end of the demo, choose whether to keep the folder or move it to Trash.
You can start or replay tutorials later from the Learning panel. See Get help inside Phials.
Open your first location
When no earlier session exists, Phials creates an Explorer tab, which browses one location and keeps its own navigation and view state. The first Explorer tab opens your home folder. Later launches restore the saved tab arrangement when it is available.
Choose another location in the Navigator panel or enter a folder in the path bar when you want to browse somewhere else. For the main browsing controls, continue with Browsing in Phials.