I keep my ratings and keywords inside my photo files, not in sidecars. Will Photo Archive Lite show them?
For ratings, keywords, and rights — no, and this is the most important thing to know up front. Photo Archive Lite reads those fields from XMP sidecar files (
.xmpfiles sitting next to your photos) — the same place Lightroom and Bridge write them. It does not read ratings, keywords, captions, or copyright that are embedded inside the image file's own IPTC/EXIF block. So if your catalogue metadata lives in the RAW or JPEG itself rather than in sidecars, those fields will look empty in Photo Archive Lite.
What it does always read from the file is the technical EXIF — camera, lens, focal length, aperture, shutter, ISO, capture date. That shows for every photo, sidecar or not.
If you work in sidecars (Lightroom's default for RAW, and the suite's convention), everything lines up. If your workflow embeds metadata directly in the files, Photo Archive Lite isn't the right reader for that today — and we'd rather you knew before buying than be surprised after. (On export, it can embed your metadata into the output JPEG — that direction works; it's only the read-from-file-for-browsing direction that's sidecar-only.)
Is this a Lightroom replacement?
Not on its own. Photo Archive Lite browses, rates, keywords, filters, and exports — it doesn't develop RAW files. For editing, hand a photo to Photo Developer (⌘↩, or "Open in"); your ratings and keywords are already attached because they live in the sidecar. Together they cover the browse-and-develop loop; neither tries to be a do-everything catalog.
Is it a full catalog / DAM with collections and smart albums?
No — and that's deliberate. Photo Archive Lite is folder-based with no database: it shows you what's in a folder, live, and writes metadata beside the files. There are no saved collections, no rule-based smart albums, no import-and-manage layer. That's what keeps it fast and lock-in-free. If you need a managed catalog, it isn't that tool.
Where does my metadata actually live? Will I lose it if I stop using the app?
In plain .xmp sidecar files, in the same folder as each photo. Delete Photo Archive Lite and your ratings, keywords, and rights stay on disk, readable by any XMP-aware app. Move a folder to another drive and the sidecars travel with it. There's no database to back up and nothing to export to "get your data out." More on how sidecars keep your work portable →
Does it modify my original photos?
No. Rating, keywording, and filtering never touch the originals — that work goes into sidecars. Even Export creates new JPEG files; your source files are left exactly as they were.
Which file types does it open?
RAW (including Olympus high-resolution .ori), JPEG, TIFF, HEIC, and PNG.
Will it choke on a big folder?
It loads thumbnails progressively rather than all at once, and caches the EXIF it reads so revisiting a folder is fast. Recursive scans larger than about 3,000 photos ask before proceeding, so you don't pull in an entire drive by accident.
Does it need an account or the cloud?
No. No account, no cloud, no subscription — a one-time purchase that runs entirely on your Mac.
How do its keywords interact with Lightroom?
Photo Archive Lite writes flat keywords to dc:subject — the field Lightroom also updates on every edit, so they round-trip. If a sidecar already contains Lightroom's hierarchical keywords (lr:hierarchicalSubject), Photo Archive Lite leaves them untouched and reads the leaf names; it never rewrites that hierarchical field.
Something not covered here? In the app, Help → Send Feedback opens a pre-filled email — or write to developer@digtek.app directly.