All 136 features
at a glance.

Pinterest-style masonry layout packs variable-height tiles to each image's real aspect ratio, available in both Filesystem and Photos browsers. Tiles fill the shortest column for a dense, gap-free grid, with smooth scrolling even on large folders. Switch via the footer cell-shape button to cycle Landscape (4:3), Square, Masonry.

Maximum rendered cell size raised to 1024 px (from 512 px) across the Filesystem browser, Photos browser, standalone Metadata Search, and Compare Tray slider. Per-window thumbnail-size sliders in the footer of each browser.

Decode quality scales with rendered cell size and screen pixel density. A Max Thumbnail Quality picker in Settings → Advanced offers 1024 px (default), 1536 px, and 2048 px stops for retina sharpness on larger cells.

Hardware-accelerated image viewing using Apple's Metal framework with Display-P3 color management for accurate color reproduction.

Smart thumbnail-first loading with progressive refinement for responsive browsing even with large files.

Native support for professional camera RAW formats including CR3, NEF, ARW, RAF, ORF, RW2, DNG, and many more.

View Adobe Photoshop PSD files with embedded thumbnail extraction for quick previews.

Professional video playback with J/K/L shuttle controls, zoom presets, and frame-accurate navigation.

Intelligent memory management that adapts to available system resources for stable performance with large collections.

A separate background process handles image decoding, preventing memory pressure when cycling through large images. Supports 22 RAW formats with fast, zero-copy GPU rendering.

Full support for Apple's high-efficiency image formats including HEIC photos and HEIF sequences.

Smooth zoom from fit-to-window to 100% and beyond with trackpad gestures and keyboard shortcuts.

Powered by ExifTool (exiftool.org), extracting over 500 metadata elements from images including EXIF, IPTC, XMP, MakerNotes, and format-specific data.

Organized metadata viewing across Favorites, Essentials, Editor, Location, and Advanced tabs for efficient browsing.

Pin your most-used metadata fields to the Favorites tab with inline editing support for quick access.

Curated metadata model with 128 fields across 9 categories, presenting the most useful data from ExifTool's comprehensive extraction.

Side-by-side metadata comparison for up to 12 images simultaneously to identify differences and similarities. Full drag-drop: drag rows out as file promises to Finder, Mail, Slack, and other apps, drop files in from Finder or other MetaScope windows, and reorder rows by drag. Cards reflow to a vertical layout at narrow widths, and a placeholder card appears when a file is deleted or moved. Cross-image keyword operations let you Equalize Keywords (union across all tray images), Copy → Replace, or Copy → Merge to or from any other tray image, with a single Cmd+Z undo across all affected files.

View GPS coordinates in DMS format with reverse geocoding, interactive resizable map (100–500px), GPS offset for bulk adjustments, batch flip GPS polarity, coordinate copying, and cross-standard sync.

Detailed camera body and lens metadata including make, model, serial number, lens specifications, and MakerNotes data extracted by ExifTool.

Toggle visibility of empty metadata fields to focus on populated data and reduce clutter.

Create custom labels with a name, color, and icon to categorize your files. Assign from the Info Panel or context menu — including search results with multi-file selection. Filter by label in Metadata Search.

Add up to 8 custom tabs to the Info Panel, each populated with whatever metadata fields you choose from the registry. Drag fields into your preferred order.

Edit metadata fields directly in the info panel with instant save and validation. Free version allows up to 5 edits per day.

Create, manage, and organize metadata templates for consistent metadata application across your library.

Professional templates across Metadata, Technical, and Custom categories ready to use for common workflows.

Build your own templates with any combination of the 128 available metadata fields.

Apply templates to hundreds or thousands of files at once with progress tracking and error handling.

Template-driven metadata removal with 3 built-in templates for location data, client delivery cleanup, and GDPR compliance. Plus three Strip All Metadata presets (Safe, Complete, and Strip All except Copyright) that remove everything per-field redaction can't reach, including MakerNotes, unknown XMP, and embedded thumbnails. RAW files are skipped, the preview counts tags removed per group, and every strip keeps a 7-day recoverable backup with ⌘Z undo. Preview affected fields before applying.

Edit Dublin Core, QuickTime, and Production & Media metadata for video files including genre, year, album, director, producer, and composer. XMP location fields are readable and writable for video. Set Absolute Date can write the offset-bearing Keys:CreationDate that Lightroom Classic reads when importing MOV and MP4 video, so clips land at the right local time. Video metadata tabs match the Photos interface with collapsible and reorderable sections.

Edit capture dates, modification dates, and GPS timestamps with timezone support.

10 previously read-only camera fields now fully editable: Camera Model, Lens Make/Model, Focal Length, Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, Exposure Program, Metering Mode, and Flash. Plus 9 new fields including serial numbers and exposure compensation.

GPS date display with UTC labeling, inline editing, bidirectional sync between GPS and EXIF dates, timezone-aware smart validation, and batch GPS date operations.

Three on-device derivation paths in the Date Operations panel. Derive OffsetTimeOriginal from GPS timestamps (arithmetic, no network, high-confidence). Derive OffsetTimeOriginal from GPS coordinates via CLPlacemark.timeZone (medium-confidence, with a warning badge for captures older than about 15 years). Derive UTC GPS timestamps from local time and OffsetTimeOriginal (opt-in, handles date rollover).

Apply a bundle of metadata fields in one step. Create named profiles for copyright info, contact details, or workflow tags. Use expression tokens like {filename}, {year}, and {date:format} for dynamic values that fill in automatically. Lives in the Workbench (⌘7) with a single Merge mode picker (Smart, Fill Empty Only, Replace All, Append to Lists) and inline progress during multi-file apply.

Define your own XMP metadata fields using the ms: namespace. Choose data types (text, number, date, list, boolean) with type-correct editing controls (DatePicker for dates, numeric-only input for numbers, chip picker for Allowed Values). Structured Validation Type picker (None, Whole Number, Decimal Number, Pattern Match, Allowed Values) with live test indicator and seven ready-made pattern examples. Lives in the Workbench (⌘6). Import and export definitions as JSON for team sharing.

Search metadata directly from the browser toolbar. Toggle between filename and metadata search with results displayed in the main thumbnail grid.

Resizable filter panel with advanced IPTC/XMP filters, technical/EXIF filters, date ranges, and saved presets for both built-in and custom filter combinations.

Three display levels (Compact, Standard, Detailed) with inline metadata rows, hover popovers, and automatic thumbnail scaling per density level.

Color-coded relevance badges, multi-field match chips, and search term highlighting for quick visual assessment of result quality.

Build and maintain searchable indexes of your photo libraries for fast metadata queries with SQLite FTS5. Streaming pipeline with concurrent ExifTool extraction sustains roughly 241 rows/second on a typical mixed JPEG/RAW folder, with first results appearing in about 3 seconds. Browse, search, and edit while a large library indexes in the background. Search-during-ingest p95 stays under 4 ms.

Filter by ISO, aperture, focal length, shutter speed, camera, lens, date ranges, GPS, and more.

Use AND, OR, NOT operators and exact phrase matching for precise search queries.

Save frequently used search queries for quick access to common workflows.

Visual analytics with histograms, timelines, and camera/lens usage rankings across your library.

Visualize distribution of ISO, aperture, focal length, and other numeric metadata.

See when photos were taken over time with interactive timeline visualization.

Toggle between grid and list layouts in the search window with adjustable thumbnail size (64–512px), match context chips, relevance scores, and search term highlighting.

Mini sidebar showing detailed metadata for selected search results including match context. Toggle with Option-Shift-Command-I.

Prominent toolbar with Focus in Browser, Open in Viewer, Send to Batch, and Edit Metadata buttons for quick actions on search results.

Search within current folder or all indexed files with a scope picker in the filter overlay.

Create dynamic, query-based collections that auto-update whenever your metadata changes. Define criteria once and results stay current. Three built-in collections included: Untagged Files, Geotagged Photos, and 5-Star Rated.

See your active selection source and item count at a glance with Quick Export and Batch Actions inline. Name and persist curated collections as Saved Sets for quick recall.

Export metadata to JSON, XML, CSV, Markdown, and Plain Text formats in the free version.

Pro unlocks XMP Sidecar, YAML, and HTML Report formats, plus unlimited exports (free limited to 5 exports).

Export in newline-delimited JSON format optimized for Elasticsearch and OpenSearch bulk imports.

Generate professional PDF documents with thumbnails, metadata tables, and custom cover pages.

Create web-ready galleries with responsive design and built-in lightbox functionality.

Design custom cover pages with title, creator, customer, and description fields.

Four semantic typography roles (Title, Section Header, Field Label, Field Value) with per-role font family, size, and Bold/Italic/Underline controls. Six presets (Modern, Classic, Technical, Minimal, Serif, Creative) for quick setup.

Apply professional color themes to your exports for consistent branding.

Add text or image watermarks to exported documents for copyright protection.

Export assets as beautifully formatted, print-ready catalogue cards with hero image and grouped metadata. Choose A4, Letter, or A5 page size, portrait or landscape, and 1, 2, or 4 cards per page. Five built-in field presets plus custom presets, and 1/2/3-column data layouts.

The Photos browser supports the same Masonry cell shape as the Filesystem browser, using a SwiftUI N-column shortest-column-first packing algorithm reading PHAsset.pixelWidth and pixelHeight directly. Full arrow-key navigation. Cell shape persists per-window.

Dedicated footer toolbar mirroring the Filesystem footer, with its own thumbnail-size slider, view-mode toggle, density presets, and cell-shape cycle button. Filesystem and Photos thumbnail sizes are independent per window. Footer stays visible in list mode for easy switch-back.

Browse your Photos library directly within MetaScope without duplicating files.

Navigate Photos albums and smart albums to find exactly the images you need.

Visual progress indicators when downloading originals from iCloud for editing.

Intelligent prefetching of nearby images for smooth browsing even with cloud-stored originals.

Export original files from Photos library to any location on your Mac for backup or sharing.

Import images from your filesystem directly into your Photos library with metadata preserved.

Access photos from shared iCloud albums for collaborative workflows.

Respects system low power mode to preserve battery life on MacBooks.

One tabbed Tools → Workbench… window with seven tabs reachable from ⌘1 to ⌘7: Vocabularies, Keyword Rules, Transformation Rules, Activity, Sets, Custom Fields, and Profiles. Tab selection persists across close and reopen. Cross-tab right-click navigation wires vocab terms, rules, and activity entries together (jump from a term to rules that reference it, from a rule row to recent activity, from an activity entry back to its rule). A persistent filter pill shows the active cross-tab filter with one-click clear. The Workbench sidebar opens at 200 pt by default; drag-resize persists across close and reopen.

A reusable popover available from any keyword chip (info panel, Batch Keyword Editor, Vocabulary Browser, suggestion chips). Shows canonical vocabulary form, hierarchy, orphan status, usage count, matching keyword rules, inline synonym editing for editable source vocabularies, and a gated Workbench link.

Keyword chips in the info-panel Keywords section respond to right-click (context menu: open inspector, add or remove, copy) and double-click (opens Keyword Inspector directly). Hover tooltips show the canonical vocabulary form.

Save reusable named keyword collections and apply them in one click from the Batch Keyword Editor's Sets menu. The Workbench Keyword Sets tab (⌘5) provides list and detail management with rename, delete, and chip-based editing: add terms as removable chips with vocabulary autocomplete and a Browse Vocabulary picker, kept exactly as entered so a set stays a precise, literal list. Sets stored at ~/Library/Application Support/MetaScope/Vocabularies/keyword-sets.json.

Right-click any Compare Tray image to access Equalize Keywords (union across all tray images, disabled with fewer than 2 images), Copy Keywords → Replace → target, or Copy Keywords → Merge → target. Both Copy actions offer individual target selection or All Other Images. All three operations are undoable with a single Cmd+Z.

Staged Apply Category and Remove Category actions in the Batch Keyword Editor's Categories menu, scheduling every keyword in a vocabulary category as a single batch. Right-click a category header in the Vocabularies tab for the one-step shortcut. The {category:CategoryName} template token expands to the comma-separated, deduplicated keyword set for the named category.

A persistent strip in the Batch Keyword Editor shows currently active vocabularies as dismissible chips. Clicking a chip deactivates that vocabulary for the session; the add button opens the vocabulary picker.

The New Rule button in the Keyword Rules tab opens a 3-step guided wizard (Conditions → Actions → Name & Save) with vocabulary suggestions in Step 1. An Advanced… button on any step escapes to the full editor pre-seeded with current wizard state.

A 4-step wizard for new transformation rules (trigger → action with live preview → guard conditions → name and save). An Advanced… escape hatch pre-seeds the full editor with current wizard state. Built on the same guided flow as the keyword rule creator.

Rules configured with On Save, When Any Field Changes, or When <field> Changes triggers fire end-to-end after every successful metadata write. Changes queue for user review before landing. Applied changes are recorded in Activity with the trigger type shown. The Activity Log reaches full query parity with the keyword log (filter by file, rule ID, or date range).

Edit keywords across multiple files simultaneously in a dedicated editor window. Full vocabulary autocomplete with synonym enrichment, normalization badges, and per-file keyword distribution. Compact scope picker narrows autocomplete to vocabulary and category. When variant expansion is on, an inline preview shows exactly which synonyms and translations will be written before Apply. Add files or folders mid-session without losing staged changes. Vocabulary side panel docks alongside the editor with a toolbar toggle and persistent scroll position.

Metadata search expands keyword queries through vocabulary synonyms. Search for a synonym and find files tagged with the canonical term. Works across browser search, smart collections, and export queries.

Detects when file keywords match vocabulary synonyms and suggests normalizing to canonical terms. Normalization badges on keyword chips with per-chip and batch normalization options.

4 built-in vocabularies with 600+ industry-standard terms: IPTC Media Topics (17 categories), IPTC Scene Codes, ISO 3166 Country Codes, and Common Keywords.

Search-first browser inside the Workbench (⌘1) with faceted filters (active vocabularies only, terms with synonyms, orphaned terms, most-used terms). Interactive tree UI for hierarchical vocabularies with expand/collapse chevrons, descendant counts, and keyword usage badges. Keyword-count badges on vocabulary rows show total terms and active-index matches. Cross-vocabulary search, language filters, synonym display, and IPTC code references. Access via Tools → Workbench… or ⌃⌘V.

Import custom vocabularies from TXT, MD, CSV, or JSON with validation for duplicates, hierarchy integrity, and IPTC code format. Paste a delimited keyword list (semicolon, newline, pipe, or comma auto-detected) directly into a new or existing vocabulary, with case-insensitive merge into synonym lists. Export for sharing or backup.

Bidirectional sync: IPTC keywords write to Finder tags, captions sync to Finder comments. Batch sync with loop prevention for consistent metadata across macOS.

Built-ins (IPTC Subject, IPTC Scene, ISO Country, Common Keywords) ship read-only so MetaScope can refresh their content with each release. The Duplicate button creates a fully editable user copy with all terms, synonyms, translations, categories, IPTC codes, and hierarchical structure preserved.

A power-toggle on every vocabulary header turns it OFF without losing data. Disabled vocabularies stay in the sidebar but stop appearing in keyword autocomplete, synonym enrichment, normalization suggestions, and rule-target pickers. Existing keyword rules referencing a disabled vocabulary keep working.

The Edit Vocabulary sheet for hierarchical vocabularies splits into a Terms pane (term content edits) and a Hierarchy pane (full tree view with search, right-click reparent, and confirmation toasts). Reparent failures from cycles surface as orange toasts, successful moves as green. Scales smoothly to vocabularies with thousands of terms.

Automatically apply metadata based on keywords in your images using powerful rule definitions.

Add, remove, and organize keywords with hierarchical support and auto-completion, integrated with the keyword rules engine.

Match keywords using Exact Match, Hierarchy Prefix, Contains, or Regular Expression patterns.

Control how rules apply: Overwrite, Fill If Empty, Append, or Prepend to existing values.

Use dynamic placeholders like {keyword}, {root}, {parent}, and {leaf} for flexible metadata generation.

Organize rules into groups for batch enable/disable and logical organization.

Share rule sets between installations or team members using the .msrules format.

Control rule execution order with drag-and-drop priority management.

15 action types and 11 comparison operators for automated metadata transformation. Preview changes before applying, save and share rule configurations.

Keyword Rules (⌘2) and Transformation Rules (⌘3) live alongside Vocabularies, Activity, Sets, Custom Fields, and Profiles in the consolidated Workbench window. Preserved keyboard shortcuts (Cmd+Opt+K opens the Workbench on Keyword Rules; Ctrl+Cmd+T on Transformation Rules).

Type in keyword rule fields to get instant suggestions from all loaded vocabularies with source badges and keyboard navigation.

Advisory validation shows when rule terms match or deviate from vocabulary standards. Non-blocking hints help maintain consistency without restricting custom terms.

On-device NLP reads your description and caption text and extracts people, places, and organizations into proper IPTC fields (Persons Shown, Location Shown, Creator). Scan and preview, then accept or reject per suggestion. Configurable entity types and confidence threshold (30 to 95%), with optional geocoding validation for locations. Runs entirely on-device via Apple's Natural Language framework.

Multi-source suggestion engine combining recent terms, frequent terms, synonym matches, and vocabulary entries with weighted confidence scoring. Surfaces the right keyword as you type rather than forcing you to scroll through long lists.

Auto-generate keyword rules from IPTC vocabulary synonym mappings. MetaScope analyzes terms to create smart rules that catch variations automatically, so a single canonical keyword captures every common spelling and translation.

The sidebar is a four-tab shell: Favorites, Libraries, Browser, and Photos. The active tab persists across launches. Photos album loading is lazy until the Photos tab is selected. Sidebar row spacing, icon size, and font scale are adjustable from a dedicated footer toolbar.

Replaces Quick Access as a first-class concept for registered, indexed folders, the folders you have added for ongoing metadata work. Library rows show a compact path subtitle. Drag to reorder, and Library rows stay distinct from Favorites bookmarks.

Recursively expands any folder under This Mac and External Drives. Child folders load lazily, stay cached while the window is open, and auto-expand to the current directory. Browser folders can be starred into Favorites or promoted to Libraries via context menu. A subtle star on each row reflects Favorites changes from other windows.

Tap any Library to mark it as the active configuration scope, shown with a filled accent-color left border. Context-menu toggle. Persists across app restarts; stale persisted ID falls back cleanly to no-active-library on launch.

Folder rows whose target is unreachable dim to about 45% opacity with a question-mark badge on the trailing edge, replacing the older mix of warning icons. One consistent grammar across Favorites, Libraries, and Browser. Auto-reconnect on volume mount clears badges automatically.

Select any file and press ⌥⌘↑ to navigate to its parent folder in place, or ⌥⇧⌘↑ to open it in a new window. Clears Include Subfolders and preserves the selected file for highlighting. Scrolls the selected file into view after navigating. List-view selection survives the navigation without resetting to the top.

Toggle tiles on or off, drag-to-reorder, or reset to defaults from Settings → Interface → Launchpad → Configure Tiles, or via the Edit Tiles… button directly in the Launchpad. Hidden tiles drop to a dimmed Hidden section. Customised users see a new-tile-available banner when new tiles ship; default users automatically receive them at their registry-default position.

A tile grid that replaces the empty-state screen, opening common metadata tasks with a single click. Eighteen tiles cover Open New Window, Copy Metadata, Compare, Workbench, Batch Rename, Fix Dates, Template Manager, Fix GPS, Doc Export, Edit Keywords, Search, Analyse, Import to Photos, Apply Profile, Apply Template, Redact Metadata, Export Metadata, and Export Photos to Filesystem. Apply Profile and Apply Template tiles show inline progress during multi-file apply. Opens automatically when a window has no folder loaded, or on demand from the sidebar header strip or ⇧⌘L.

A persistent header strip at the top of the sidebar gives one-click access to Launchpad and a Tools popover without navigating away from your current folder. The Tools popover offers the same actions as the main Tools menu.

Dedicated footer toolbar on the Filesystem browser, Photos browser, and Sidebar. Independent H and V spacing sliders with editable px fields and stepper buttons, three density presets (Compact, Comfortable, Spacious), filename and rating overlay toggles, 3-state cell-shape cycle, selection-style toggle (Compact, Classic), thumbnail-size slider, and the view-mode toggle (now lives in the footer rather than the top toolbar). Responsive 3-stage collapse cadence as the window narrows, with spacing sliders always accessible as vertical-popover buttons.

Six grid settings are per-window: cell shape, filename labels, star-rating overlay, provider-badge overlay, horizontal spacing, and vertical spacing. Two windows can run different densities without coupling. A last-adjusted-window-wins seed mechanism opens new windows with whichever values the last-adjusted window had.

Right-click selected files for a Move to Folder… action. A folder-picker sheet confirms the destination; the operation is undoable with Cmd+Z. Available in both grid and list browser modes.

Add frequently used folders to the sidebar Favorites or Libraries for one-click access.

Comprehensive keyboard shortcuts for all common operations with customization support.

Adjust sidebar, preview, and info panel sizes to match your workflow preferences.

Pause long-running batch operations and resume exactly where you left off.

Automatic checkpoints protect against crashes with cross-restart persistence.

Process entire folder hierarchies with recursive scanning and file type filtering.

Drag files and folders from Finder directly into MetaScope for quick access.

Open images, videos, and folders directly from Finder's right-click menu. Smart routing opens files in their parent folder with automatic selection.

Right-click any file or selection and pick Edit In… to send the files straight to Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Capture One, Pixelmator, or any editor you add under Settings → Edit In…. Multi-selection sends the whole batch in a single launch. Choose Application… opens the system picker and auto-saves the chosen app to your list. The submenu sorts editors by usage so the more you use a tool the higher it surfaces.

Press OPT+CMD+0 in any standalone window (Batch, Template Manager, Metadata Search, Help, Analytics Dashboard, Field Picker, Search Settings, Export Wizard, Metadata Copy, Launchpad, Exif Editor, Entity Enrichment, vocabulary windows) to animate back to default size and re-centre on screen. One API contract, future windows wired correctly by construction.

Hide/show toolbar items via Settings, three density presets (Compact, Standard, Comfortable), and right-click context menu for quick customization.

Rename files directly in the browser with slow-double-click to edit. Works in both list view and thumbnail grid with Enter to confirm and Escape to cancel.

Rate files directly from the thumbnail grid or list view. Click the star overlay, use Option+0–5 keyboard shortcuts, or pick a rating from the context menu. Writes to XMP:Rating instantly.

On macOS Tahoe, toolbars and system chrome adopt the native Liquid Glass material. Toolbar controls, filter chips, and the compare tray use glass effects. Availability-gated with no visual difference on macOS 15.

Context menus throughout the app use native macOS menus with stable submenus. Labels, Rating, and Apply Profile submenus no longer collapse when the parent view updates.

Right-click any image, video, or folder to drop the cached preview and regenerate from source. A content-aware cache also auto-refreshes thumbnails when a file is re-encoded at the same path.

Apple Photos, Lightroom, Aperture, Music, and TV library bundles are treated as opaque packages. A .photoslibrary opens a dedicated Info Panel with a Browse in Photos Environment CTA. Other library bundles get a Reveal in Finder action.