PhotoView

What is PhotoView?

PhotoView is a focused viewer for the photos and videos in your Photo Library, whether or not they are synced via iCloud. It is designed to make every image easy to inspect, including the full technical metadata embedded in your files.

You can also play videos and Live Photos, run a slideshow, and mirror what you are viewing to a TV over AirPlay. A few features are part of PhotoView Pro; the app offers the upgrade when you reach one.

PhotoView leaves editing and importing to Apple's Photos app. It does, however, let you tidy up: create albums and folders, add or remove photos, and delete items. Use Photos to edit and import; use PhotoView to inspect what is there in detail.

Key features

• Browse the full library, smart albums, your own albums and shared albums.
• Tap a thumbnail to view photos, Live Photos and videos full screen.
• Swipe between assets, pinch to zoom, double-tap to reset.
• Show or hide a metadata overlay with EXIF, IPTC, TIFF and GPS data, and choose which fields it shows in Settings.
• Move the overlay to any corner by holding and dragging it, or pinch it to resize.
• Open the photo's GPS location on a map (a Pro feature).
• Create a new album or folder while browsing your own albums.
• Select multiple items to delete them, add or remove them from your own albums, or play them as a slideshow.
• Play a full-screen slideshow with transition effects, a per-slide duration, and play, pause and step controls.
• Mirror the current photo, video or Live Photo — and running slideshows with their transitions — to a TV via AirPlay; only the media is shown on the TV, never the toolbar or metadata.
• Choose light, dark or system appearance.

Photos library access

On first launch PhotoView asks for access to your Photos library. Choose Allow Full Access so it can show every photo, video, smart album and shared album.

If you choose Limit Access, PhotoView shows only the photos and videos you select, and albums and collections appear empty. If you grant limited access at the very first prompt, you may need to reopen PhotoView once before your selected items appear.

You can change this at any time: iOS Settings ▸ PhotoView ▸ Photos. The same screen lets you switch between full and limited access.

PhotoView only modifies your library when you ask it to: Delete, Add to album, Remove from album, or creating a new album or folder. Anything you create here is written straight into your Photos library, so it also shows up in Apple's Photos app.

Browsing your library: grid and albums

When the app launches, PhotoView shows a thumbnail grid of your library. Tap a thumbnail to open an asset full screen; the bar at the bottom takes you to your album lists. Turn on Show oldest photos first in Settings to flip the grid's sort order.

Below the grid are three buttons:

• User — the albums you created yourself in the Photos app. Folders open to show the albums inside them.
• Shared — shared iCloud albums you have joined.
• Smart — system-curated albums such as Recents, Favorites, Selfies or Videos.

Tap an album to see its contents as a thumbnail grid; tap a folder to see the albums it holds. Each album card shows its first photo as a cover and a photo count; folder cards show a folder symbol and the number of items inside.

In the User section — both the main list and any folder you open — the plus button in the top-right corner opens a menu where you choose New Album or New Folder. You are then asked for a name, and the item is created when you tap Create, inside the folder you are currently viewing. Creating is not available in the Shared or Smart lists. New albums and folders are written to your Photos library, so they also appear in Apple's Photos app, and anything you make in Photos appears here too.

Viewing a photo, Live Photo or video

Tap a thumbnail to open the photo, Live Photo or video full screen. Swipe left or right to move to the next or previous asset. When the toolbar is showing, the arrow buttons do the same and also wrap around: the forward arrow jumps from the last asset back to the first, and the back arrow from the first to the last. Whether “next” means a newer or older asset depends on Show oldest photos first in Settings.

Display modes

A single tap anywhere on the image cycles through three modes: the toolbar only, the toolbar with the metadata overlay, and the image alone with nothing on top.

Gestures

Pinch with two fingers to zoom. While you pinch, a small pill at the top shows the current zoom factor, and the image zooms around the midpoint of your fingers, so the spot you pinch stays put. Drag with one finger while zoomed to pan, and double-tap to reset zoom and pan. Pinching back below the fitted size snaps the image back to fit. At the fitted size, slide the image down with one finger to return to the thumbnail grid. These gestures work on photos, Live Photos and videos alike.

Live Photos

A Live Photo is marked with the live indicator on its thumbnail. When you open one, the still frame shows first; touch and hold to play the motion. When the toolbar is showing, tap the LIVE badge in the upper-left corner to choose a mode: Live keeps touch-to-play, Loop plays continuously, Bounce runs forward then backward, and Off shows only the still frame. Loop and Bounce start on their own as soon as the photo opens. The choice applies to every Live Photo and matches the picker under Settings ▸ Live Photos.

Videos

A video opens with a small capsule of playback controls, a rewind button that returns to the start and a play/pause button. A single tap anywhere cycles the display modes just as it does for photos, and the controls are hidden in the image-only mode. Playback pauses automatically at the end; tap play to resume or rewind to start again.

Closing the view returns you to the thumbnail grid of the current album.

The metadata overlay

PhotoView's signature feature is a compact panel that overlays the photo with its technical metadata. A single tap on the image shows or hides it (see Viewing a photo).

Choosing fields

Tap Customize metadata fields in Settings to open the editor. It has one section per metadata group: Description, Date & time, Location, Camera, Lens, Exposure, Image, File, Video, IPTC, DNG, Apple notes, Canon notes, Nikon notes, and Apple features; on Mac, XMP and Finder sections also appear for files opened from disk. All groups start collapsed so you can scan the list quickly; tap a group title to expand it, then switch on the fields you want. Each group header carries a master toggle that turns its whole group on or off at once, even while collapsed. Three buttons at the top act on every editable field together: Select all metadata, Deselect all metadata, and Reset metadata to defaults, which restores the out-of-the-box visibility.

Even when a field is switched on, it appears in the overlay only if the photo actually contains that data; rows for missing values are hidden rather than left blank. The Apple-features rows (HDR gain map, depth, disparity, portrait and segmentation mattes, plus the Spatial, Cinematic, Time-lapse and High-frame-rate flags) read “Present” when the data is in the file and are omitted otherwise, so the overlay never reports a feature as “Absent”. Each maker-note group is filled in only by the matching camera, so for any one photo you usually see values in just one of Apple notes, Canon notes or Nikon notes. Many technical fields — such as raw latitude and longitude, serial numbers, time-zone and sub-second times, and most maker-note and matte fields — start switched off, so you see them only after turning them on.

Position and size

Metadata position places the overlay in one of four corners: Top left, Top right, Bottom left or Bottom right (Bottom right by default). Metadata size sets how large the panel is: Small, Medium (the default) or Large, where Large adds a header. You can also adjust both directly on the overlay: touch and hold the panel and drag it. It snaps to a corner the moment your finger nears one, confirmed by a light haptic tap and a brief highlight, and stays there when you let go. Pinch the panel out to grow it to the next size or in to shrink it, each step confirmed the same way. Your changes are saved automatically, so the next photo opens with the position and size you just chose.

Location on a map

With Pro, when a photo has GPS data a small map button appears on the panel (in the header at Large size, or as a top-right button at Small and Medium). Tapping it opens a map with a photo marker at the capture location, where you can pinch to zoom, drag to pan, switch between Standard and Satellite views, and tap Done to return. The button is controlled by Map link in the Location section of the editor: Map link is on by default and replaces the Latitude and Longitude rows with the map button. Turn it off if you prefer the raw coordinates, then switch the Latitude and Longitude rows back on separately.

On the Mac

If you'd rather keep the photo unobstructed, turn on Show metadata in a separate window in Settings. Press ⌘I (or View ▸ Show Metadata) to open a separate window that lists the same fields and updates as you move between photos; press ⌘I again to hide it. The overlay's position and size don't apply in this mode.

Selecting multiple photos & organizing

Marking several photos at once lets you delete them, add or remove them from an album, or play them as a slideshow. As soon as anything is selected, the selection toolbar appears. Selecting is free — you don't need Pro.

Ways to select

• Tap Select, then tap photos — iPhone, iPad and Mac. The Select button (top left of the grid) turns on selection mode; each tap marks or unmarks a photo.
• ⌘-click (Command-click) — Mac. Hold Command and click photos to add or remove them one at a time, straight from browsing — no need to press Select first.
• ⇧-click (Shift-click) — Mac. Click one photo, then Shift-click another to select the whole range between the two.
• Select All / Deselect All — iPhone, iPad and Mac, from the selection toolbar.

On the Mac a plain click with no key held still opens the photo in the viewer, so it's Command or Shift that builds a selection. Use Cancel in the toolbar to leave selection mode.

What you can do with a selection

• Add to album — adds the selected items to one of your own albums.
• Remove from album — shown only when you are inside an album; removes the selection from that album without deleting it from your library.
• Slideshow — plays the selected items as a slideshow. It becomes available once at least two items are selected.
• Delete — moves the selection to Recently Deleted, after a confirmation. When more than 100 items are selected the confirmation names the exact count, so an accidental Select All is easy to catch.

In the single-asset view, the Delete button asks you to confirm, then moves the asset to Recently Deleted. The next asset is shown automatically; you return to the grid only when the asset you delete was the last one left.

Slideshow

In an album tap Select, mark at least two items, then tap the slideshow icon in the top toolbar. PhotoView plays the selection full-screen, in the order it appears in the album.

Tap once on the screen to show or hide the controls. The bottom buttons step manually forward and back, the middle one pauses and resumes, and the X in the top-right corner ends the slideshow. The controls fade out again after a short idle period. The slideshow stops after the last item; it does not loop, and Back on the very first slide does nothing.

Per-asset behavior

Photos stay on screen for the configured duration. Videos auto-start muted (unless Play video audio is on in Settings), play to their natural end, and then advance. Live Photos honor the Live Photos mode you set elsewhere: in Live the motion plays once and then the still frame is held for the rest of the slide, in Loop or Bounce it keeps playing, and with Off the still frame is shown for the whole slide.

Effects and duration

While the slideshow runs, a settings button next to the X opens a popover where you can change the transition effect, the slide duration (Short, Medium, Long, or a custom value), and whether videos play their audio. Changes take effect from the next slide. Effects are Ken Burns, Crossfade, Slide, Push, Zoom, Cut, and Shuffle; Shuffle varies the transition from slide to slide. The same options live under Settings ▸ Slideshow, where a custom duration can be set from 3 seconds up to 30 minutes.

When an external display is connected the whole slideshow plays on the external screen (see AirPlay).

AirPlay and external displays

When you mirror your iPhone or iPad to an Apple TV or a compatible television via AirPlay, the TV shows only the photo, Live Photo or video, with no toolbar, no controls and no metadata. The shared screen stays uncluttered, while you keep full controls on your device. Until you open something, the TV shows a brief prompt asking you to open a photo or video.

Swipe to the next asset or change the selection on the device, and the picture on the TV follows immediately. Zooming into a photo affects only your device; the TV keeps showing the whole picture. For a video, the play, pause and rewind controls on your device drive playback on the external display.

If you start a slideshow, the TV mirrors it with the same transition effects, slide for slide. While AirPlay is active the device window becomes a control surface: the playback controls are already shown, so tap once to also show the metadata for the asset currently on the external screen, tap again to hide everything, and tap a third time to bring the controls back.

AirPlay mirroring is an iPhone and iPad feature; the Mac app doesn't drive an external display.

On the Mac

On the Mac, PhotoView works like a proper desktop app.

Sidebar and windows

The sidebar on the left switches between your Library, albums (User, Shared, Smart), Files, and a folder once you open one. Hide or show the sidebar with ⌃⌘S. Right-click a photo ▸ Open in New Window to view it in its own resizable window; ⌘ + / − / 0 zoom there, and Esc or ⌘W closes it.

Keyboard

In the full-screen viewer, the arrow keys (← →) move between photos, ⌘↑ / ⌘↓ jump to the first/last, ⌘ + / − / 0 zoom, ⌘I toggles the metadata, and Esc closes the viewer. See the full list under Help ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts.

Pointer and Quick Look

Hover a thumbnail to highlight it, then press Space to Quick Look the original; Space or Esc closes it again. A single click opens the photo in the viewer. ⌘-click adds a photo to the selection (or removes it), and ⇧-click selects a range — see Selecting multiple photos.

Files in and out

Drag images or videos (or whole folders) from the Finder onto the window, or choose File ▸ Open Folder… (⌘O), to view them under Files. Going the other way, drag a photo from the grid to the Finder or Mail to export the original; several selected photos drag together. Right-click also offers Share, Copy, and Show in Finder.

Metadata window

Turn on Show metadata in a separate window in Settings to see metadata in its own window, which floats above the gallery and updates as you browse, instead of the corner overlay (⌘I opens/closes it).

Settings

Settings gathers the app's options in one place.

General: Show oldest photos first flips the grid's sort order, and Appearance chooses Follow system, Light or Dark.

Most other options are documented with the feature they belong to:

• Metadata position and Metadata size — see The metadata overlay. You can also change both by dragging or pinching the overlay itself.
• Default playback for Live Photos (Live, Loop, Bounce or Off) — see Viewing a photo, Live Photo or video.
• Slideshow effect, slide duration and video audio — see Slideshow.

Backup & restore exports all your settings and field choices to a single JSON file through the share sheet, and imports one back to replace your current settings. This is separate from iCloud sync.

Sync settings via iCloud is off until you turn it on; once enabled, PhotoView keeps your settings in step across your devices automatically. The first time you enable it on a device whose settings differ from the copy already in iCloud, you choose whether to use the iCloud settings or keep this device's. Your photos and videos themselves are synced separately by Apple's Photos system, not by PhotoView.

Once you own Pro, a Support PhotoView entry also appears here — an optional tip jar that unlocks nothing extra.

PhotoView Pro

PhotoView Pro is a one-time purchase, with no subscription and no auto-renew, that unlocks the app's advanced features:

• Professional metadata: the Description, Location, IPTC, DNG, Canon notes and Nikon notes groups in the overlay (plus XMP and Finder on Mac).
• The map button that opens a photo's location on a map.

Everything else is free: browsing your whole library, viewing photos, Live Photos and videos, selecting items to add, remove, delete across albums or play as a slideshow, and the Date & time, Camera, Lens, Exposure, Image, File, Video, Apple notes and Apple features metadata groups.

You can try every Pro feature free for 7 days before deciding — no card, no auto-renew. When the trial ends, the Pro features re-lock until you buy Pro with the one-time payment. One trial per Apple ID. Already bought Pro? Open the Pro screen and tap Restore purchase to re-unlock it on a new device or after reinstalling, at no extra cost.

Frequently asked questions

Why can't I edit photos here?

That's intentional. PhotoView is designed as a pure viewer so you can focus on the image and its metadata without changing anything by accident. Edit photos in Apple's Photos app. Once you save your changes there, iCloud syncs them and PhotoView reflects the result immediately.

Why does a photo look blurry or appear slowly the first time I open it?

PhotoView reads directly from your iCloud Photo Library. If the original image isn't on the device yet, iOS downloads it from iCloud the first time you view it, showing a lower-resolution preview while that happens. Once the full image arrives, the display switches to it automatically. On a slow connection or while offline, this step can take a while; as soon as you are back online, iOS fetches the image the next time you open it.

Why can't I add photos to a shared album?

iOS does not let third-party apps such as PhotoView write to shared iCloud albums. This restriction comes from the operating system and the app cannot work around it. You can add photos and videos to your own albums and remove them again. To add to or remove from a shared album, open Apple's Photos app and perform the action there.

Why is GPS or other metadata missing for a photo in a shared album?

When you add a photo or video to a shared iCloud album in the Photos app, iCloud strips some metadata for privacy and compatibility. As a result, the same asset viewed from the shared album is often missing GPS coordinates and altitude, title, caption and description, keywords, people and faces, star rating, album membership, and depth/portrait and spatial data. The usual capture information is preserved: date and time, camera make and model, lens, exposure time, ISO, focal length and aperture. If you want to keep this extra data, use iCloud Shared Photo Library (requires iCloud+) instead of a shared album.

Why doesn't a particular album appear in PhotoView?

• PhotoView has only Limited Access to the library. Open iOS Settings ▸ PhotoView ▸ Photos and choose Full Access.
• The album is new and iCloud is still syncing. Wait a moment; the album list updates on its own once syncing finishes.
• The album is a type iOS does not expose to third-party apps, for example Apple's own Memories. Those appear in the Photos app only.
• For shared albums, the invitation must have been accepted in the Photos app first.

Why is iCloud sync paused?

Sync pauses when iCloud isn't reachable. Turn on Sync settings via iCloud in Settings (it's off until you enable it), sign in to iCloud and turn on iCloud Drive in Settings → [your name] → iCloud. PhotoView uses iCloud to keep your settings in sync across devices, and sync resumes automatically once iCloud is reachable again.

Why does the Mac app show more metadata than iPhone or iPad?

On Mac you can open original files from any folder, so PhotoView reads them directly, including embedded XMP from desktop editors (ratings, labels, keyword trees, edit history, AI and drone data), any .xmp sidecar next to the file, and Finder details such as tags, comments and where a file came from. On iPhone and iPad, photos come from the Photo Library, which doesn't expose these, so those sections don't appear.

What are HDR Gain Map, Depth Map, and Disparity Map?

These are extra image layers that modern Apple cameras embed alongside the main photo. The HDR Gain Map tells the display how much extra brightness to add to highlights. The Depth Map is a per-pixel distance map that Portrait Mode uses to separate subject from background. The Disparity Map is the raw left/right shift between the two lenses on a dual-camera system, before it's converted into a depth map. PhotoView only reports whether each map is present (“Present”, or omitted if absent); it doesn't render the map, and the original photo on your device stays exactly as Apple stored it.

What are Content ID, Live Photo ID, and Burst ID?

Three identifiers iPhone cameras write into the photo file when the picture was taken; they live in the Maker notes group. Content ID is a UUID Apple stamps on related captures. Live Photo ID is the same value surfaced under the more familiar name — if it carries a UUID shared by another asset, those two are the still and the video of one Live Photo. Burst ID is a UUID shared by every photo taken in one burst sequence. Copy a Content ID or Burst ID from one photo's metadata and look for it on another to confirm the two were captured together.

What does Focal length (35 mm) mean?

It's the camera's focal length converted to what a 35 mm full-frame camera would need to capture the same field of view. Because cameras use different sensor sizes, the raw focal length alone doesn't tell you how wide a shot looks; the 35 mm equivalent normalizes it so a 28 mm shot on a phone, a compact and a full-frame camera all read as 28 mm. PhotoView shows both: Focal length is the raw value, and Focal length (35 mm) is the normalized one. Use the 35 mm value when comparing photos from different cameras.

What is “Support PhotoView”?

Once you own Pro, a Support PhotoView entry appears in Settings. It's an optional tip jar with a few one-time tips, purely a way to support development. Tipping unlocks nothing extra; Pro already includes every feature.

Still have a question? Get in touch — I'm happy to help.