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TAG Lens is a keyboard-first metadata tagger for your Apple Photos library — rate, reject, keyword, title, and caption at speed. It is not a photo editor, and it is 100% offline by default.

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Requirements

macOS 14 or later. TAG Lens works with the Apple Photos library on your Mac; iCloud Photos is supported but not required.

Troubleshooting

“Photos access is off” — TAG Lens can’t see my photos

TAG Lens needs permission to read your library. Enable it in System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Photos, then relaunch. If TAG Lens can only see some photos, access is set to limited — expand it to the full library in the same pane.

“Photos control is not authorized”

Keywords, titles, and captions are written through Photos automation. macOS asks for this permission the first time you write a tag — not during setup — because browsing and rating don’t need it. If you declined (or denied it earlier), allow TAG Lens under System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Automation (TAG Lens ▸ Photos). Until then, those fields show as needing permission; rating, rejecting, and favoriting still work.

If the toggle is missing or stuck, you can make macOS ask again from Terminal: tccutil reset AppleEvents io.github.wells01440.taglens — then relaunch TAG Lens and write a tag to trigger a fresh prompt. Restart Photos too if writes still fail afterwards.

A photo won’t load at full quality

The original is likely in iCloud and not on this Mac. TAG Lens fetches the photo you’re viewing automatically (Settings ▸ General ▸ Download originals automatically; from your own iCloud Photos, nowhere else). With that off, metadata edits still work, and the photo re-indexes automatically once Photos syncs the original.

My star ratings disappeared after a Photos library rebuild

Photos has no write API for star ratings, so TAG Lens keeps stars and reject marks in an app-local file keyed to each photo’s Photos identifier — and a rebuild can change those identifiers. Export a JSON backup from Settings ▸ Ratings Backup before a migration, then import it to reattach them.

Online enrichment chips aren’t appearing

Enrichment is off by default — enable a source in Settings ▸ Online Enrichment. Offline, the chips quietly fall back to the built-in offline taxonomy.

Your data

Everything TAG Lens writes, and the little it can optionally send, is documented in the privacy policy. Short version: your photos never leave your Mac, and every network feature is off by default behind its own consent switch.