Photosteward changelog
Every release, newest first. Updates arrive in the app itself.
0.1.2 31 August 2026
The download itself is now notarised.
- Fixed: the disk image you download was never signed or notarised — only the app inside it was. On a Mac seeing it for the first time, macOS could refuse to open the download outright, with no way past it but right-click → Open. This is the first Photosteward release whose disk image carries its own notarisation ticket, so it opens the way it should, including on a Mac that is offline.
- If Photosteward is already installed, nothing was ever wrong with your copy and there is nothing to reinstall. The app inside every disk image was correctly signed and notarised throughout; only the moment of opening a fresh download was affected.
- Nothing else changed in this release.
0.1.1 31 August 2026
Photosteward is now CHF 15 instead of CHF 29. Nothing else about the app changed.
- The price is CHF 15, one time, for up to three of your own Macs — down from CHF 29. It was set above what PhotoSweeper was believed to charge; PhotoSweeper charges $14.99, so the old figure was about double the app it was measured against rather than a step above it. CHF 15 is the same number a buyer sees on the other side.
- If you already bought Photosteward, your licence is unaffected and there is nothing to do. It keeps working on the same three Macs, and no key stops validating because the price changed.
- The free part is unchanged: scanning and reviewing are free with no time limit, and so are the first 50 photos it offers you to discard — the most recent ones, whole groups at a time.
- No change to how anything is judged, grouped or deleted. This release exists so that the app you have and the price on the website say the same thing.
0.1.0 29 August 2026
The first release. Photosteward clears the near-identical shots out of your Apple Photos library and keeps the best of each moment.
- Groups the near-identical shots in your Apple Photos library — the same moment taken four times — and keeps one of them. When there are faces in the group it weighs those first: everyone smiling, eyes open, more faces clearly visible. Then framing and sharpness, and a group with nobody in it is judged on the picture alone. Not the largest file, and not simply the sharpest one, which is what a duplicate cleaner would have picked.
- Every choice carries its reason in plain language — “Everyone smiling, eyes open”, “Blurred”, “Fewer faces visible” — so you can check its judgement rather than take it on faith. Press space, or Compare all, to see the whole group side by side.
- Disagreeing is one keystroke: the numbers on the photos are keys, and 1–9 flips a photo between kept and discarded. Arrow keys walk the groups, return selects one for deleting, and Reset puts the app’s own choice back.
- The photos it sets aside go into a “Photosteward — Rejects” album, and that album *is* the flag: you can look through it in Photos itself, and taking a photo out of it there tells Photosteward you are keeping it. Nothing is hidden from your library, and nothing is moved.
- Deleting is a single confirmed batch and never a side effect. Photosteward asks, then macOS asks again with its own dialog, and what you delete waits in Recently Deleted for 30 days. Say no at either dialog and nothing happens — the flags stay exactly as they were.
- Photos you marked yourself are left alone: a favourite, a photo you put in an album, a photo you edited. Photosteward does not flag them at all.
- It lives in the menu bar and keeps looking as new photos arrive, rather than being a chore you schedule. The menu shows what is waiting, in photos and in gigabytes, and a pause switch sits beside it.
- It stays polite about your Mac: it can wait for mains power, stands down in Low Power Mode, and pauses until the machine is cool again.
- With “Optimise Mac Storage” on, it works from the previews already on your Mac and downloads full-quality originals only for the groups that need a closer look — in batches, and it asks before the first big download.
- The judging happens here, on your Mac, with Apple’s own Vision and CoreImage frameworks. There is no account and no cloud service, and your files never leave your Mac. Anonymous usage counts — coarse buckets, never a filename, a face or a date — can be switched off in Settings.
- English and German, following your system language.
- Scanning and review are free, with no time limit. So are the first 50 photos it offers you to discard — the most recent ones, whole groups at a time. After that it is CHF 29, once, for up to three of your own Macs. Scanning and review never stop.
- Requires an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later.