EXIF Watcher — Changelog

All notable user-facing changes to EXIF Watcher ship as a tagged release here. Format follows Keep a Changelog; the project uses Semantic Versioning.

Every release is signed and notarized for macOS.

[1.2.0] — 2026-07-22

Frame counts now reflect real shots, not re-crops.

Alternate crops no longer inflate frame totals. Files named as another frame plus one trailing letter — AW1_0001b.jpg next to AW1_0001.jpg, then c, d and so on — are the same shot saved again as a different crop, and are now excluded from every count: the headline frame total, photographer and event breakdowns, camera and lens tables, and the ISO / f-stop averages. The rule is careful about real-world archives: the letter must follow a digit (so ordinary names ending in a letter never match), matching works across RAW + JPEG and upper/lower case, folders never cross-match, and if the straight crop was deleted during the edit the remaining crops still count as one frame — never zero, never double. The scan log and a new Alternate Crops (excluded) row on the Summary sheet show exactly how many were set aside.

Optional organization on activation. The activation window has a new Organization field. Leave it blank, or enter your outlet or company name — it's kept with your license record, which makes life easier when one newsroom runs several licenses. Existing licenses aren't affected and nothing is required.

Scan multiple folders in one report. The single Archive Folder is now a Scan Folders list — add as many folders as you like and one run aggregates them all into a single report.
Type a photographer per folder. Each scan folder has an optional Photographer field: leave it blank to detect automatically, or type a name to credit every file under that folder to it — handy for archives that don't follow the date / photographer folder layout.
Photographer detection now reads the image itself. When folders don't follow the YYYYMMDD / Photographer layout, the photographer is taken from each image's Creator / By‑line metadata instead of the folder name, so reports stay accurate on flat or imported folders.
Event breakdown throughout the report. Each image's Headline (for example "Visit Knoxville Open 2026 - Final Round") now powers an event view: the Summary lists photographers under each event, All Photographers gains per‑event tables with event totals, camera and lens totals break down per event, and every photographer tab is sectioned per event with an all‑events total at the bottom.
Shoot dates fall back to the capture time. When the folder layout doesn't carry a date, each frame's day comes from the image's capture time — so date and day counts stay meaningful everywhere.

About panel. A new About panel gathers the app version, your license details, and software‑update controls in one place — matching the rest of the suite.
On‑disk activity log for troubleshooting. EXIF Watcher now keeps a rolling log of each run at ~/Library/Logs/EXIFWatcher/exifwatcher.log (capped so it can't grow without bound), with a Reveal Log in Finder button in the About panel so you can grab it when reporting an issue.

Update notice is more prominent. When an update is available, a bright Update button now appears top‑left next to the wordmark (and on launch), so you won't miss it.

Installs cleanly on every Mac. Re‑released so the app carries its notarization with it — a fresh install is no longer blocked by macOS ("blocked to protect your Mac") on some Macs.

Now runs on Intel Macs. This is now a universal app, so it opens on both Apple-silicon and Intel Macs. Earlier builds were Apple-silicon only, which gave Intel users “this application is not supported on this Mac.” (No other changes — same app, now built for both processors.)

Update notice on launch. EXIF Watcher now checks for a new version shortly after it opens and shows a one-time notice when one is available — with Download & Quit and What's New right there. Dismiss it and it stays out of the way until something newer ships. An "Update" badge also appears in the header so you can grab it whenever you like.

License badges. The license status now marks special licenses: a gold badge for an administrator (all-access) license, and a violet badge for a permanent license that never expires.

Updating quits the app for you. When you download an update, EXIF Watcher now asks to confirm, then downloads it, opens the installer, and quits — so you can drag the new version straight into your Applications folder. (macOS won’t let you replace an app while it’s running.)

Check for Updates — EXIF Watcher can now check for a newer version from right inside the app. The current version is shown next to the license badge; click it to check, and if an update is available you can download and install it in one step.

Mac App Store distribution. EXIF Watcher now ships exclusively as a signed and notarized download.

Rebuilt as a native macOS app (macOS 13 and later).
Aperture-iris brand kit — deep-navy tile, cyan-to-violet aperture mark, with matching wordmark and horizontal lockup.
Native metadata reading — reads JPEG, TIFF, HEIC, and RAW (CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, DNG, RAF, ORF, RW2, PEF, SRW) with no extra tools or external software needed.
Concurrent scanning — configurable worker count (default 6), a live log, and a cancellable run.
Multi-sheet Excel report — produces a branded workbook:
Summary: overall totals (frames, photographers, days), the archive location, file counts, and data size
All Photographers: per-photographer frames, top body, top lens, average ISO, average aperture, average focal length, and days
Overall camera and lens totals
One sheet per photographer with header stats plus camera, lens, and per-date breakdowns
Native interface — a main window with Archive and Output folder pickers, a worker count slider, a live log, and an Open Report button.
Signed and notarized for distribution.