Welcome to AssetScout

AssetScout finds a file by the date its content was made, for the very common case where you remember roughly when something happened but not where you put it.

What it does

You give AssetScout a folder. It walks through everything inside, opens the files that can carry a date of their own, and lays the lot out as a grid of thumbnails in the order the content was made — newest first, divided into months.

From there you can look at what is written inside a file, narrow the grid down by kind or by name, and tidy up what you no longer want, without leaving the window.

What it does to your files

Nothing you did not ask for. AssetScout reads the folders you hand it and leaves everything where it is. It builds no library of its own beside your files, it copies nothing into a place of its own, and it sends nothing anywhere.

Three things change a file, and each of them is something you chose from a menu: rotating or flipping a picture or a video, moving a file to the trash, and dragging a thumbnail out to the Finder, which moves the file there — or copies it, with ⌥ held down.

Where to start

If you have just installed it, read Your first scan. It goes from the empty window to a grid of results, in the order it happens.

If the order of the grid has surprised you — a photograph in the wrong month, a folder of downloads all dated the same day — read Where the dates come from. It is the one idea the rest of the app is built on.

If something has gone wrong, every message the app can put on screen is listed in Messages, and what they mean.