exiftool

[bakubo]

Has anyone here used exiftool on a Mac?

I have used exiftool many times on Windows, but not for Mac. I have one photo that I need to fix the EXIF so I downloaded the Mac version:

ExifTool by Phil Harvey

A command-line application and Perl library for reading and writing EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, makernotes and other meta information in image, audio and video files. For Windows, MacOS, and Unix systems.

exiftool.org

Unfortunately, I can't install. I get this:



Of course, that is very concerning.

 

[Greybeard2023]

Has anyone here used exiftool on a Mac?

I have used exiftool many times on Windows, but not for Mac. I have one photo that I need to fix the EXIF so I downloaded the Mac version:

https://exiftool.org/index.html

Unfortunately, I can't install. I get this:



Of course, that is very concerning.

The Exiftool application hasn't been notarized so Apple won't allow it to be installed.

This is a known problem.

There are two solutions:

- Providing you trust the copy of Exiftool you have downloaded you can override the quarantine flag and then go ahead and install. The Exiftool site has installation instructions and explains how to do this.

- Your other alternative is to download the pure Perl copy of Exiftool (again from the Exiftool site) and run it directly using Perl rather than using the installed version.

Let me know if you want more details of either of these methods.

 

[dv9973]

Has anyone here used exiftool on a Mac?

I have used exiftool many times on Windows, but not for Mac. I have one photo that I need to fix the EXIF so I downloaded the Mac version:

https://exiftool.org/index.html

Unfortunately, I can't install. I get this:



Of course, that is very concerning.

I use the exiftool in terminal many years and didn't get this message. I am installing it from Homebrew

 

[Love_my_R5]

Has anyone here used exiftool on a Mac?

I have used exiftool many times on Windows, but not for Mac. I have one photo that I need to fix the EXIF so I downloaded the Mac version:

https://exiftool.org/index.html

Unfortunately, I can't install. I get this:



Of course, that is very concerning.

I use the exiftool in terminal many years and didn't get this message. I am installing it from Homebrew

I've been using exiftool version 13.01 on macOS Sequoia (now 15.5) without issues. As you can tell from the version number, it's been a while since I've updated the program. I assume that I just overrode the initial quarantine message.

 

[Greybeard2023]

Has anyone here used exiftool on a Mac?

I have used exiftool many times on Windows, but not for Mac. I have one photo that I need to fix the EXIF so I downloaded the Mac version:

https://exiftool.org/index.html

Unfortunately, I can't install. I get this:



Of course, that is very concerning.

I use the exiftool in terminal many years and didn't get this message. I am installing it from Homebrew

I've been using exiftool version 13.01 on macOS Sequoia (now 15.5) without issues. As you can tell from the version number, it's been a while since I've updated the program. I assume that I just overrode the initial quarantine message.

In the past you could just double click on the file and override the warning.

Sequoia doesn't give you that option.

Now you have to remove the quarantine flag before you start.

 

[bakubo]

The Exiftool application hasn't been notarized so Apple won't allow it to be installed.

This is a known problem.

There are two solutions:

- Providing you trust the copy of Exiftool you have downloaded you can override the quarantine flag and then go ahead and install. The Exiftool site has installation instructions and explains how to do this.

- Your other alternative is to download the pure Perl copy of Exiftool (again from the Exiftool site) and run it directly using Perl rather than using the installed version.

Let me know if you want more details of either of these methods.

Thank you for that info. I downloaded directly from the exiftool website so, I suppose, it is safe. It does make me nervous though.

I am on 15.5. I don't know how to override the quarantine flag, but I will search around to find out.

 

[Greybeard2023]

The Exiftool application hasn't been notarized so Apple won't allow it to be installed.

This is a known problem.

There are two solutions:

- Providing you trust the copy of Exiftool you have downloaded you can override the quarantine flag and then go ahead and install. The Exiftool site has installation instructions and explains how to do this.

- Your other alternative is to download the pure Perl copy of Exiftool (again from the Exiftool site) and run it directly using Perl rather than using the installed version.

Let me know if you want more details of either of these methods.

Thank you for that info. I downloaded directly from the exiftool website so, I suppose, it is safe. It does make me nervous though.

I am on 15.5. I don't know how to override the quarantine flag, but I will search around to find out.

I'm not trying to convince you - its a shame the packages don't get notarized to remove the warning.

You could also double check the md5 checksum against the published value on the web site.

Terminal can be used to override the flag from your downloads directory:

- if you already have an old version of Exiftool you can:

exiftool -XAttrQuarantine= ExifTool-13.30.pkg

(this is what I do for every new release - no problems so far)

- otherwise:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ExifTool-13.30.pkg

 

[Hans de Zomers]

Running unsigned or unnotarized software poses a security risk, potentially exposing your Mac to malware and compromising your privacy.

If you're confident the app is legitimate, navigate to your Mac's Privacy & Security Settings and choose to run the package regardless.

 

[CAcreeks]

I have one photo that I need to fix the EXIF so I downloaded the Mac version:

https://exiftool.org/index.html

Unfortunately, I can't install. I get "Apple could not verify..."

I use the exiftool in terminal many years and didn't get this message. I am installing it from Homebrew

Either the Homebrew's exiftool is notarized, or all Homebrew applications are?

https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/exiftool#default

Homebrew is a hill to climb when you start, but offers many important applications that are otherwise difficult to install, including darktable, ffmpeg, and gcc. Possibly if you don't expect to use open-source software, it would be easier to override Apple Nanny?

https://brew.sh/

 

[Greybeard2023]

I have one photo that I need to fix the EXIF so I downloaded the Mac version:

https://exiftool.org/index.html

Unfortunately, I can't install. I get "Apple could not verify..."

I use the exiftool in terminal many years and didn't get this message. I am installing it from Homebrew

Either the Homebrew's exiftool is notarized, or all Homebrew applications are?

https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/exiftool#default

Homebrew is a hill to climb when you start, but offers many important applications that are otherwise difficult to install, including darktable, ffmpeg, and gcc. Possibly if you don't expect to use open-source software, it would be easier to override Apple Nanny?

https://brew.sh/

exiftool itself isn't an executable so probably doesn't need to be notarized - its a script that is interpreted by Perl which is already included with MacOS - it seems to be the installer that is the problem

 

[Love_my_R5]

I'm not trying to convince you - its a shame the packages don't get notarized to remove the warning.

You could also double check the md5 checksum against the published value on the web site.

Terminal can be used to override the flag from your downloads directory:

- if you already have an old version of Exiftool you can:

exiftool -XAttrQuarantine= ExifTool-13.30.pkg

(this is what I do for every new release - no problems so far)

- otherwise:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ExifTool-13.30.pkg

exiftool -XAttrQuarantine= works like a charm. Note that you can drag & drop the .pkg file icon into the Terminal window:


Using Drag & Drop

 

[bakubo]

I'm not trying to convince you - its a shame the packages don't get notarized to remove the warning.

You could also double check the md5 checksum against the published value on the web site.

Terminal can be used to override the flag from your downloads directory:

- if you already have an old version of Exiftool you can:

exiftool -XAttrQuarantine= ExifTool-13.30.pkg

(this is what I do for every new release - no problems so far)

- otherwise:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ExifTool-13.30.pkg

exiftool -XAttrQuarantine= works like a charm. Note that you can drag & drop the .pkg file icon into the Terminal window:


Using Drag & Drop

It seems to me what you are saying is that in order to install exiftool I must first install it and then I can use it to set XAttrQuarantine so that I can then install it. Is that what you are telling me?

 

[bakubo]

The App Store has an app called AnyEXIF which it says can edit EXIF. I installed it, but seems to not really work at all.

I just have a very few TIFF and JPEG files which lost their EXIF info when I used an app on them sometime back. I would like to restore at least some of the EXIF info to them (camera, lens, focal length, etc.).

I have used exiftool on Windows from time to time for many years, but using a Mac now is more problematic and I am not sure I want to install what might be a dangerous program on my Mac. I have a Windows laptop I could use, but it is in a different location and I don't expect to be there for months.

Any ideas?

 

[Greybeard2023]

I'm not trying to convince you - its a shame the packages don't get notarized to remove the warning.

You could also double check the md5 checksum against the published value on the web site.

Terminal can be used to override the flag from your downloads directory:

- if you already have an old version of Exiftool you can:

exiftool -XAttrQuarantine= ExifTool-13.30.pkg

(this is what I do for every new release - no problems so far)

- otherwise:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ExifTool-13.30.pkg

exiftool -XAttrQuarantine= works like a charm. Note that you can drag & drop the .pkg file icon into the Terminal window:


Using Drag & Drop

It seems to me what you are saying is that in order to install exiftool I must first install it and then I can use it to set XAttrQuarantine so that I can then install it. Is that what you are telling me?

As pointed out above this technique works only for upgrading not a new installation.

The equivalent command for a new installation using native MacOS commands is :

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ExifTool-13.30.pkg

Otherwise you can follow the advice from Hans below and use the MacOS security settings to override the warning and complete the install

 

[Love_my_R5]

I'm not trying to convince you - its a shame the packages don't get notarized to remove the warning.

You could also double check the md5 checksum against the published value on the web site.

Terminal can be used to override the flag from your downloads directory:

- if you already have an old version of Exiftool you can:

exiftool -XAttrQuarantine= ExifTool-13.30.pkg

(this is what I do for every new release - no problems so far)

- otherwise:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ExifTool-13.30.pkg

exiftool -XAttrQuarantine= works like a charm. Note that you can drag & drop the .pkg file icon into the Terminal window:


Using Drag & Drop

It seems to me what you are saying is that in order to install exiftool I must first install it and then I can use it to set XAttrQuarantine so that I can then install it. Is that what you are telling me?

Not at all. I was just suggesting that it is quite easy to update ExifTool after you have successfully installed it. I ran a quick test using the latest version which seems to work as expected with macOS Sequoia 15.5.

 

[wklee]

Has anyone here used exiftool on a Mac?

I have used exiftool many times on Windows, but not for Mac. I have one photo that I need to fix the EXIF so I downloaded the Mac version:

https://exiftool.org/index.html

Unfortunately, I can't install. I get this:



Of course, that is very concerning.

I’ve used EXIFTool however because It’s built into GraphicConverter, I use GraphicConverter now. GraphicConverter if you have the latest version now at v12, it keeps EXIFTool up to date.

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Never buy version 1.0 of anything.
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi

 

[lightandaprayer]

I have used exiftool on Windows from time to time for many years, but using a Mac now is more problematic and I am not sure I want to install what might be a dangerous program on my Mac. I have a Windows laptop I could use, but it is in a different location and I don't expect to be there for months.

Any ideas?

What seems to be "problematic" is simply Apple updating part of its system-based security protocols to provide improved protection for its users. The previous steps for dealing with non-authorized apps were so simple and easy, hackers were successfully using it to their advantage.

After Sequoia came out The Eclectic Light Company published an article explaining how working with Gatekeeper has changed. There is also an example showing how previously the malicious app Atomic Stealer could easily persuade some people to authorize installing it:

Living With(out) Notarization

I do not know the specific reasons why Phil Harvey, the author of ExifTool, has made it clear that he currently has no plans to complete the process for getting his app signed. It sounds like it is particularly onerous, perhaps more-so because of ExifTool's primary functions. But the app is not inherently dangerous. ExifTool MacOS Installation Info-Post Sequoia

If you are going to continue using the MacOS it would behoove you to become more familiar with its security operations and procedures. I wish that more Mac users would take the time to learn how Gatekeeper, XProtect, etc. actually work, in part so they can make better-informed decisions about using third-party security/privacy apps/services.

On the other hand, Gawd knows that Apple doesn't do a great job of informing users about its integrated anti-malware apps. The Gatekeeper installation dialog is an exception; XProtect does not alert users to any malicious malware alerts/removal. That is a serious omission because it would be helpful in avoiding possible sources of future infections.

Apple Platform Security Official Apple Communities Support publication

XProtect Ascendant: MacOS Security in 2024 Published 12/27/24 by The Eclectic Light Company. This is an up-to-date overview which is succinct and easy to understand. Eclectic Light is a very good resource for all kinds of Mac/iOS information. It's also a place to download free apps that compliment and enhance Apple's built-in cybersecurity protections.

 

[Jaded Snapper]

Is there any reason to use that particular solution?

I've been using Exif Editor for many years and it does what I need. It's on the Mac App Store, and in fact has just been updated.

 

[Ted1]

[No message]

 

[bakubo]

I just have a very few TIFF and JPEG files which lost their EXIF info when I used an app on them sometime back. I would like to restore at least some of the EXIF info to them (camera, lens, focal length, etc.).

I have used exiftool on Windows from time to time for many years, but using a Mac now is more problematic and I am not sure I want to install what might be a dangerous program on my Mac. I have a Windows laptop I could use, but it is in a different location and I don't expect to be there for months.

Any ideas?

I used Xnview MP to fix the EXIF in the few files.