New
- Draft Title and Draft Headline. Every surface where a Title or Headline can be edited (the info panel, the editor window, and both Favorites surfaces) now offers a Draft button that composes the field from the file's existing Description and Keywords. On macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence, Pro users get a fluent on-device composition grounded strictly in the source text; everyone else gets a built-in draft, on every supported macOS version. Drafting runs entirely on your Mac, fills the field with a Metadata draft badge for your review, and writes nothing until you save.
- Draft Description from the Favorites tab. A starred Description now offers the same draft button, badge, and expandable editor as the Editor tab, and other starred long-text fields (Instructions, Usage Terms) gain the same roomy editor.
- Eight new IPTC and PLUS registry fields, completing IPTC Photo Metadata Standard 2025.1 alignment. The registry grows from 128 to 137 fields, adding the four AI provenance fields (AI System Used, AI System Version Used, AI Prompt Information, AI Prompt Writer Name) for disclosing how an image was generated or assisted, plus PLUS Other Constraints, Event Identifier, and GPS Altitude Ref for both the shown and created location structures. All eight are editable in the IPTC Extension section and participate in templates, batch operations, and exports.
- Creator State/Region is now editable, the ninth new field and the last creator contact sub-field that had no editor. It lives in the creator contact block rather than IPTC Extension.
- Sub-second capture times in Batch Rename. The Add Date rule offers Compact Full + Hundredths and Compact Full + Milliseconds for Date Taken (Original), appending sub-second EXIF digits verbatim. Burst frames stay distinct, RAW and JPEG pairs with matching metadata keep the same basename, and missing or malformed sub-seconds fall back to second-level Compact Full.
Improvements
- Index Status in Settings → Search. Every indexed file now records the metadata engine version that read it, and Index Status reports how many rows came from an older engine, so you can decide whether a Library's index is worth clearing and rebuilding.
- Bundled ExifTool updated from 13.55 to 13.59, a security update. It also brings four releases of format coverage, including better recognition of newer Nikon Z and Canon RF lenses, recent Sony bodies, and Exif 3.1 tags. One behavior changes with it: a file whose embedded XMP is malformed now fails the save with an error rather than a warning. The file is left intact.
- Keywords now agree on every surface. Keywords can live in several metadata blocks at once (XMP, IPTC, and QuickTime on video), and different apps write different ones. Every surface (compare cards, search results, video tabs, exports, and rename tokens) now shows the complete, deduplicated set from every block.
- Video keywords are searchable for the first time, including those stored in a video's QuickTime block. Re-index existing Libraries to pick them up.
- Popout viewers browse the filtered, sorted set you opened them from rather than the raw folder contents, on every launch route.
- Folder access is tracked in one place. MetaScope keeps a single record of the folders you have granted it, so a grant you re-import clears any stale denial, and navigating away while a re-grant dialog is open no longer leaves a navigation queued behind it. Favorites and Libraries created in earlier versions load unchanged.
Fixes
- A dozen small features work again. One hidden defect quietly disabled Tools → Set Rating, the Batch Redaction preview, Show in Finder for multi-selections, the info-panel refresh after a save, PDF-export thumbnails, list-view batch ratings, and background thumbnail warming. One fix restores all of them.
- A save issued in the first moments after launch no longer fails with an error while the metadata engine is still starting up.
- Text that looks like a number stays intact. A field holding "4.0" no longer displays, or saves, as "4". This matters most for AI System Version Used and applies to every text field on image and video surfaces.
- Batch keyword edits keep all metadata blocks in sync and can no longer erase a keyword stored only in a block they did not read.
- The Delete key and Cmd+Z work in popout image and video viewers again. Deletion always confirms from the keyboard, key auto-repeat deletes one file, Delete still edits a focused text field, and undo and redo happen right in the viewer.
- The Photos video viewer asks before deleting, and every confirmation names exactly the file it will delete.
- Confirming a delete in a popout viewer opened from the preview pane no longer crashes the app, a last-file delete closes the popout, and the ✕ Close button works.
- A delete that partly fails keeps what it did. Files already trashed stay undoable, are skipped on retry, and the message reports how many of how many actually moved.
- The folder-access prompt appears where you are looking, attached as a sheet to the window that triggered it, instead of hiding behind a popout.
- The Image Analysis row updates to Analyzed ✓ when an analysis completes, whether you pressed Analyze Now or it ran during indexing.
- Right-click → Intelligence → Draft Description now actually drafts, opening the editor on the Editor tab with the draft staged for review and visible from both tabs before you save.
- Paused batch date operations resume reliably across sibling-named folders, refuse to touch files that have moved, and stay cancelled when you cancel them.
- Trash undo is reliable. MetaScope waits for macOS to finish an iCloud Trash restore before showing the file as back, and if macOS rolls the restore back, Undo stays available.
- Undone results return to Integrated Metadata Search automatically, keeping your query and selection.
- Backspace and Cmd+Z work in the standalone Metadata Search window, with the same confirmation and undo as the main browser.
- Move to Trash accepts the dedicated Delete key in list view, matching thumbnail mode.
- Exiting metadata search works the way it reads. The × on the filter bar and the Escape key exit search entirely instead of only collapsing the panel.
- A change in Finder refreshes only the MetaScope window showing that folder, leaving unrelated browser and Photos windows untouched.
- Pasting files stays responsive, and importing controlled-vocabulary CSV, template, or rename-preset files from protected folders no longer fails with a false permission error.
- Locked and read-only files now say so and point at Finder's Get Info, instead of asking for folder access that could not have helped.
- The Minimal workspace preset no longer hides Copyright Notice (re-select it once to pick up the corrected set), compare-card creator labels resolve, and creator contact fields keep a consistent name and order everywhere.
- Two labels are corrected: Creator State reads Creator State/Region in the search filter, and a mislabeled entry in the Advanced Filter picker now reads Image Supplier.
Known issues
- If you upgrade with a paused batch date operation that spans unrelated folders, you may need to re-select the folder before it will resume.
MetaScope 1.5.1 (Build 52)
August 2026, Build 52
MetaScope 1.5.1 rounds out on-device drafting to Titles and Headlines, brings the metadata registry fully current with the 2025 IPTC standard including the new AI provenance fields, and delivers a broad reliability pass across keywords, the popout viewers, and file operations, plus a security update to the bundled metadata engine.
Draft Title, Headline, and Description
Every surface where a Title or Headline can be edited (the info panel, the editor window’s Editor tab, and both Favorites surfaces) now offers a Draft Title or Draft Headline button that composes the field from the file’s existing Description and Keywords.
On macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence, Pro users get a fluent on-device composition grounded strictly in what the metadata already says. Everyone else gets a smart built-in draft. Either way it runs entirely on your Mac, on every supported macOS version, with no network involved.
Draft Description itself now works from the Favorites tab too. A starred Description offers the identical draft button and expandable editor as the Editor tab, and other starred long-text fields (Instructions and Usage Terms) gain the same roomy editor.
As always, a draft only fills in the field for your review, marked with a “Metadata draft” badge. Nothing is written until you save, and a manual edit clears the badge.
Current with the 2025 IPTC Standard
The metadata registry grows from 128 to 137 fields, completing MetaScope’s alignment with the flat fields of the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard 2025.1.
The headline addition is the four AI provenance fields: AI System Used, AI System Version Used, AI Prompt Information, and AI Prompt Writer Name. Together they let you disclose how an image was generated or assisted, in the standard’s own vocabulary, so the disclosure travels with the file.
Alongside them: PLUS Other Constraints, Event Identifier (the multi-value companion to Event), and GPS Altitude Ref for both the shown and created location structures. Those eight all live in the IPTC Extension section. The ninth, Creator State/Region, becomes editable in the creator contact block, closing the last gap there.
Every new field participates in templates, batch operations, and exports.
Keywords That Agree Everywhere
Keywords can live in several metadata blocks at once (XMP, IPTC, and QuickTime on video), and different apps write different ones. MetaScope used to pick one block per screen, so the compare card, search results, video tabs, and exports could each show a different set. A batch edit could even erase a keyword it never read.
Every surface now shows the complete, deduplicated set from every block, in one order. Batch keyword edits keep all blocks in sync, including the QuickTime entry other players read. And keywords stored in a video’s QuickTime block are indexed and searchable for the first time. Re-index an existing Library to pick those up.
Popout Viewers, Finished
The Delete key and Cmd+Z work in popout image and video viewers again. Deletion from the keyboard always confirms, key auto-repeat deletes exactly one file, Delete still edits a focused text field, and undo and redo now happen in the viewer itself instead of sending you back to the main window.
The Photos video viewer, the one destructive surface that never confirmed, now asks first. Every confirmation names exactly the file it will delete, and wording and action decide together, so a reversible Trash move is never described as permanent.
Confirming a delete in a popout opened from the preview pane no longer crashes the app. Deleting the last file closes the popout, and the ✕ Close button works.
Popouts also browse the filtered, sorted set you opened them from rather than the raw folder, on every launch route. A delete that partly fails keeps what it did: already-trashed files stay undoable, are skipped on retry, and the message reports how many of how many actually moved.
Engine and Reliability
The bundled ExifTool engine is updated from 13.55 to 13.59, a security update. It also brings four releases of format coverage, so newer Nikon Z and Canon RF lenses and recent Sony bodies are recognized by name on read instead of showing as unknown.
Because an existing index still holds what the older engine read, Settings → Search → Index Status now reports how many indexed rows came from an older engine version, so you can decide whether a Library is worth re-indexing. It is deliberately informational; nothing re-indexes itself behind your back.
Batch Rename gains sub-second capture times. The Add Date rule can append hundredths or milliseconds from Date Taken (Original), keeping burst frames distinct while RAW and JPEG pairs with matching metadata keep the same basename.
One Fix, A Dozen Features
A single hidden defect had been quietly switching off features all over the app. Nothing crashed, and nothing reported an error. Each affected feature simply did less than it was designed to do: Tools → Set Rating, the Batch Redaction preview, Show in Finder for a multi-selection, the info-panel refresh after a save, PDF-export thumbnails, list-view batch ratings, and background thumbnail warming. One fix restores all of them.
Two more correctness fixes are worth calling out. Text that looks like a number now stays intact, so a field holding “4.0” no longer displays, or saves, as “4”. That matters most for the new AI System Version Used field, and it means an untouched save is a true no-op again. And locked or read-only files now say so and point you at Finder’s Get Info, instead of asking for folder access that could never have helped.
The full list of fixes in this release is above.
Requirements
- macOS 15.4 Sequoia or later
- Apple Silicon or Intel Mac
- A built-in Title and Headline draft is available to every user on every supported macOS version. The more fluent on-device composition, and Draft Description, require MetaScope Pro, and the fluent rewrite additionally requires macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence.
Get MetaScope
MetaScope is available on the Mac App Store. Free tier includes 5 edits per day. MetaScope Pro unlocks unlimited edits and all professional features.