Apps by Detlev Voss

PhotoView 1.0.1 is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad and on the Mac App Store, as always with no ads and no tracking. With iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27, PhotoView now also shows the rating, keywords and caption you set in the Photos app. The metadata overlay has three font sizes to choose from, Settings has a new Support pane, and on the Mac you can control a slideshow from the keyboard. Plus a good number of small improvements and fixes.

Ratings, keywords and captions from Photos

Starting with iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27, the Photos app can keep a rating, keywords and a caption of its own for each photo in your library, separate from what the original file holds. PhotoView now reads both. Rate a photo in Photos, and the rating shows up in the overlay. Change it there, and PhotoView shows the new value, even while the photo is open.

A small symbol in parentheses after the field’s name shows where a value comes from: stacked photos for your photo library, one document for a value stored in the file itself, and two documents for an .xmp sidecar next to a file you opened from disk on the Mac. On the Mac, hold the pointer over the symbol to see the exact field.

Apple’s Photos app never writes into your original file. When it imports a file, it takes over the keywords and the caption, but not the rating. So the stars your photo editor wrote into the file years ago and the rating you give the photo in Photos today can differ. When they do, PhotoView shows both: the value from Photos first, and below it, in a second row with the file’s symbol, the one in the file. In Settings, these rows are called “Rating (file)”, “Keywords (file)” and “Caption (file)”, so you can turn them on or off like any other field. For keywords, a different order or different upper and lower case alone doesn’t count as a difference.

These rows are part of the Description group, and they come with PhotoView Pro. You can try them with your own photos in the free 7-day Pro trial (see “Try before you buy, buy once, yours forever”). On iOS 26, iPadOS 26 and macOS 26, PhotoView reads these values from the file only, as before. The help lists the three places and the order in which PhotoView reads them.

Three font sizes for the overlay

The “Large font” switch has become a choice: in Settings ▸ Metadata ▸ Overlay, “Font size” sets the overlay’s text to Small, Medium or Large. Medium is exactly the size the switch used to turn on. If you had “Large font” on, you now have Medium, and your overlay looks just as it did. Large goes one step further, for a big display or for reading from a little farther away.

The text never gets larger than the overlay itself: a Small overlay keeps the small font, a Medium one goes up to Medium, and only a Large overlay shows the large font. So if Large seems to change nothing, set the overlay’s “Size” to Large as well, in the same section.

A Support pane in Settings

Settings now has a fourth pane, Support. It gathers the ways to help PhotoView along, and the quickest way to reach me:

• “Rate PhotoView” opens the App Store page where you can write a review.
• “Tell a friend” shares the App Store link.
• “Leave a tip” offers three optional one-time tips.
• “Read the blog” opens the posts about PhotoView, in German when PhotoView runs in German, in English otherwise.
• “Send feedback” starts an email to me with your app version and device already filled in.

“Leave a tip” is now there for everyone, with or without Pro. When I wrote “Try before you buy, buy once, yours forever”, tips were for Pro owners only and sat under Settings ▸ General. A tip still unlocks nothing: it simply supports the work on the app. A rating or a recommendation doesn’t unlock anything either, but it helps other people find PhotoView.

British English

PhotoView now comes in British English, too: the app, its help and its App Store page. If your iPhone, iPad or Mac is set to British English, PhotoView uses it.

Slideshows from the keyboard on the Mac

On the Mac, you can now control a running slideshow from the keyboard: Space pauses and resumes, the arrow keys step back and forward, and Esc ends the show. The controls can stay hidden the whole time.

Improvements

• With VoiceOver or Switch Control on, the slideshow controls now stay on screen until you hide them.
• Bounce now plays a Live Photo exactly as long as the original, with no repeated frames.
• Pro is ready the moment PhotoView opens, even offline. A purchase waiting for approval through Ask to Buy or your bank now says so.
• On iPhone and iPad, small controls such as “Restore purchase”, the Map link and the LIVE badge are easier to tap.
• On iPhone and iPad, albums open more reliably, thumbnails no longer reload when you tap “Select”, and slideshow videos start sooner.
• On iPad, the sidebar comes out when you turn to landscape, unless you hid it yourself. Resizing a window keeps your album, open photo, Settings or Help in place.
• On the Mac, folders and dropped files are now read in the background, so PhotoView stays responsive while it sorts them.
• On the Mac, PhotoView clears out the copies it made for Quick Look, sharing and dragging after 30 days, so it takes up less disk space.

Fixed

• Photos with damaged metadata no longer crash the viewer.
• When a photo can’t be loaded, such as an iCloud original while you’re offline, the overlay no longer shows the previous photo’s details.
• Metadata is more accurate: the real pixel size of resized photos, “High frame rate” only for slow-motion clips, and unknown dates left as the file writes them.
• Sharing now tells you when an original can’t be downloaded, and shared videos are no longer cut short.
• A slideshow no longer gets stuck on one slide after you change the duration twice.
• The Metadata Fields switches always match what’s saved, and your settings no longer keep details of the last photo you viewed.
• With two PhotoView windows open, on iPad or on the Mac, each one shows and acts on its own photo and album. On the Mac, the metadata window follows the window in front.
• On iPhone and iPad, swiping back from the screen edge works again after you close a photo.

Fixed on the Mac

• File ▸ Open… (⌘O) opens the Open panel again.
• Esc closes a photo only when you press it in that photo’s window, not in a sheet, Quick Look, Settings or another window.
• ⌘A selects all photos on every keyboard layout, including AZERTY.
• A photo deleted under Files no longer comes back, and deleting a photo no longer reverses the order of a folder.
• Quick Look, Copy and Show in Finder now tell you when an original isn’t available, and videos in Quick Look are no longer cut short.
• The arrow keys turn every page of the welcome tour.
• Restoring a backup from iPhone or iPad no longer turns off the metadata window.

Get the update

Tap or click one of the badges below. If PhotoView is already installed and automatic updates are on, the update arrives on its own. Otherwise, the badge takes you to PhotoView’s page, where you can start it yourself.

If something in 1.0.1 doesn’t work the way you expect, “Send feedback” in the new Support pane is the quickest way to tell me.