Welcome.
AnaLog is a logbook for film photography: track a roll from the fridge through loading, shooting, the lab and scanning, log each frame with its exposure, and export the whole roll's metadata to Lightroom or Capture One when the scans come back — that last step finishes on a Mac, with a free companion app.
Email: support@perez.one
Questions, bug reports and requests all land in the same inbox, and a real person reads them.
AnaLog is built for iPhone and requires iOS 18.6 or later. The home screen widget needs iOS 26.2 or later — on an earlier version the app works fully and the widget is simply unavailable.
A free companion app that writes your logged frame data into your scanned film files. Export a roll from AnaLog, open the .analog file on your Mac, choose what should happen to your files, and drop the folder with your scans onto the window. Your shot dates, exposure settings and GPS go into the files before you import them.
You choose what happens at the Mac, not on your phone — in front of the folder, once you can see what is in it. The app asks what kind of files you have, because the answer changes what is possible.
RAW scans — from your own scanner, or raw files from the lab
| Mode | What it does to your files |
|---|---|
| Sidecars only | Your files are not touched. Only the title, caption and keywords reach Lightroom — it takes everything else from the RAW itself. |
| Archive & copy | Originals move to a folder of their own, and dated working copies carry the full shot data. Uses twice the disk space. This is the one to pick if you are not sure. |
| Overwrite RAWs | Writes the shot data into your RAW files, keeping a named backup copy of each one first. |
The film camera is not written into a RAW, and that is deliberate. Camera and model are the key Adobe picks a decoder with, so a film compact there makes the file unopenable in Lightroom — measured on a real roll. It reaches Lightroom as a keyword instead, and the section below puts it back on the finished picture, where it is safe.
Finished JPEGs or TIFFs — scans from a lab, or your own exports
| Mode | What it does to your files |
|---|---|
| Write into the files | Everything goes straight into the photographs, the film camera included. Nothing else is left in the folder. |
| Write into copies | Your photographs move to Original Photos untouched, and copies carrying the AnaLog data go in AnaLog Photos. Pick this if these are the only copies you have. |
No sidecars are written here — a JPEG holds everything itself, so a file beside it would only be one more thing in the folder. You do not have to pick this yourself: drop a folder of JPEGs and the app switches, and says that it did.
Download AnaLog Metadata — requires macOS 13 (Ventura) or later.
Everything happens on your Mac — the app makes no network connections. Your original scans are always kept, either in an Original RAWs folder or as _original copies beside each file, depending on the mode you pick. Metadata is written using ExifTool by Phil Harvey, which is included, so there is nothing to set up first.
If you shoot RAW, there is one thing the first pass cannot do: write the film camera into the file. Run AnaLog Metadata a second time on your finished exports and it goes in — along with anything Lightroom or Negative Lab Pro dropped on the way.
Your exports are matched to their frames by capture date — which AnaLog wrote into the RAW on the first pass and Lightroom carried through — so whatever your export preset renamed them to makes no difference. Files it cannot place are named and left alone rather than guessed at.
If a lab sends you JPEGs and you never touch a RAW at all, this is not an extra step: it is your only one. Choose Finished JPEGs or TIFFs and everything goes in at once.
If you convert with Negative Lab Pro, these three decide whether the data in your files survives into your finished pictures. Two of them are switches you have to turn off.
| Where | Setting | Set to |
|---|---|---|
| NLP ▸ Advanced | Exclude NLP Metadata | On |
| Export window | Remove Location Info | Off |
| Export window | Write EXIF Fields with Custom Metadata | Off |
What each one costs if it is set the other way:
With all three set, a JPEG exported at the end of the chain carries the ISO, aperture, shutter, lens, GPS, altitude, title, keywords and shot time from AnaLog.
What is free, and what does AnaLog Pro add?
Your first five rolls are free, and so is exporting one of them — that roll can be exported as many times as you like. AnaLog Pro removes both limits. It is a one-time purchase rather than a subscription. The purchase restores on any device signed in to the same Apple Account; your log itself stays on the iPhone it was made on, and a backup from Settings moves it.
Nothing you have logged is ever locked away: every roll, frame and scan stays visible and editable whether or not you buy. Deleting a roll gives the allowance back, and restoring a backup always restores all of it, however many rolls it holds.
I bought Pro, but a new iPhone doesn't know it.
Settings › AnaLog Pro › Restore Purchase, signed in to the same Apple Account that bought it. There is nothing to pay again, and usually nothing to type — if a password sheet does appear, it is Apple's, not the app's.
Can I get a refund?
Refunds go through Apple, because Apple handled the payment — the developer never sees it and cannot issue one. Ask at reportaproblem.apple.com with the Apple Account that bought it. If something in the app was the reason, write to the address above as well; that part can actually be fixed.
New film stocks appeared without an app update. How?
The film catalog is published separately from the app, so new stocks can be added at any time. AnaLog fetches it in the background; there is nothing to do and no account involved.
My film isn't in the catalog.
Send the brand, name, ISO and process to the address above and it can be added for everyone. In the meantime the roll can be logged with the closest match and corrected later.
How do scans get matched to frames?
By frame number. When you export, the scan whose filename ends in a given number receives that frame's metadata — so a gap in the log is a gap in the run rather than everything after it shifting by one. Scans that match no logged frame are carried through untouched rather than left behind.
Do I need the Mac app to use the export?
Yes. AnaLog on iPhone writes a single .analog file holding everything
it knows about the roll — every frame, its exposure, its date and its location.
AnaLog Metadata, a free companion app for macOS, is what turns
that into something your editor can read: sidecar files for Lightroom or Capture
One, or the data written straight into your scans. You choose which, on the Mac.
The helper installs nothing on your system and the download is linked in AnaLog
under Settings.
Does the export change my original files?
Only in the modes that say so. The mode is chosen in AnaLog Metadata on your Mac, and each one names what it will do before it runs — sidecar files written beside your scans, copies with the data written in, or writing into the originals themselves. The destructive one is named and described before you choose it.
Where is my data, and how do I get it out?
On your iPhone, and nowhere else. Settings has a backup export that writes your whole log to a single file you can keep or move to another device.
AnaLog has no accounts, no analytics and no advertising, and sends none of your data anywhere. The full policy, including exactly what the camera, location and photo library permissions are used for: Privacy Policy
Worth trying first:
If it persists, email the address above with:
Please do not delete and reinstall the app to fix a problem before taking a backup. Your log lives on the device, so reinstalling clears it.