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Iris for Mac

Iris is a native macOS app for browsing the photo and video library you already have. It looks at folders on your Mac (or your Apple Photos library) and turns them into a rich, browsable collection — without ever moving, copying, or modifying the originals on disk.

Iris is built for people who want a serious library tool that respects their files: works with your existing folder structure, never asks you to import, and uses on‑device AI to make every photo searchable, every face nameable, every place findable.

In this guide

Getting started

  1. Installing and first launch — what to expect when you open Iris for the first time
  2. Adding sources — connecting Iris to your folders and Apple Photos library
  3. The main window — sidebar, content area, inspector, toolbar, windows and tabs

Browsing your library

  1. The sidebar — every way Iris organizes your library
  2. Views: Grid, List, and Map — switching between layouts and what each one is for
  3. The inline viewer — looking at one photo or video at a time
  4. Navigation and Jump — back, forward, history, Jump dialog, Surprise Me

Finding things

  1. Search and the filter bar — toolbar search, ranked search, and advanced predicates
  2. The Inspector — all five tabs of metadata and AI results

Curating and organizing

  1. People and face recognition — naming people, confirming faces, browsing by person
  2. Places and the map — named locations, the locations map, and map view
  3. Chapters — your hand‑curated albums
  4. Insights — the analytics dashboard
  5. Item actions — favorites, approximate dates, OCR copy, share, reveal in Finder

Behind the scenes

  1. The background pipeline — what Iris does after you add a source
  2. Library Health — duplicates, missing files, hash failures
  3. Companion apps and the local server — iOS, Apple TV, the web UI, MCP

Reference

  1. Settings — every preference, explained
  2. Keyboard shortcuts — the complete list
  3. Licensing and privacy — trials, registration, and what leaves your Mac
  4. Troubleshooting and FAQ — common questions and fixes
  5. Uninstall Iris - how to completely remove Iris from your Mac

A 60‑second tour

If you've never used Iris before, here's the shortest possible explanation:

  1. Add a folder. Choose File → Add Source and pick the folder where your photos live. Iris starts reading it immediately — your files are not touched.
  2. Wait a few minutes for processing. Iris reads metadata, makes thumbnails, detects faces, and writes everything to its own database. Watch progress in Window → Status (⌘⇧1).
  3. Browse using the sidebar. Click any node — by date, person, place, chapter — and the content area updates.
  4. Inspect a photo. Click a thumbnail and look at the right panel. Five tabs show you when, where, who, what, and how.
  5. Name some people. Open the People tab on a photo, right‑click an unknown face, and pick Assign to Person. Iris gets smarter the more you teach it.

Read on for the full guide.