Support: the Mac App Store version
For the copy you bought from the Mac App Store. Apple sold it to you, and the purchase itself is what unlocks the app — there is nothing to activate and no account to create with us.
"Purchase not confirmed"
If the app shows Purchase not confirmed, it could not confirm your App Store purchase on this Mac. That usually means the app arrived here as a copy rather than as a download — from another Mac, a backup or Migration Assistant — because a purchase is confirmed for the Mac that downloads it. The app has already asked macOS once to fix this by itself.
The fix: install it from the Mac App Store again on this Mac, signed in with the Apple Account that bought it. Your projects, people, tags and captions all stay exactly where they are.
Until then the app keeps working with limits: it organizes up to 300 photos in total, never changes your photo files, and makes no exported copies. Nothing you have already organized is lost or hidden.
Using it on another Mac
Install it from the Mac App Store on that Mac, signed in with the same Apple Account, rather than copying the app across — a copied app is exactly what shows "Purchase not confirmed". This version runs on Macs with Apple silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 26 or later.
Refunds, receipts and payment
Apple sold you the app and handles all of these. Apple does not tell us who buys, so we have no record of your purchase and cannot look it up or refund it. Start at reportaproblem.apple.com, signed in with the Apple Account you bought with.
Folders and permissions
Like every Mac App Store app, this one runs in Apple's sandbox: it can open any folder you choose in the app, your Pictures folder included. macOS remembers the permission that comes with your choosing a folder, so you are not asked again.
If you move a folder, or open a library made on another computer, the app cannot find it until you point at it again: use Locate… on that folder. On this version that step also restores the permission, so typing the new path in is not enough.
Where your data is kept
Your projects, people, names and settings live inside the app's own container, which Time Machine backs up like the rest of your home folder:
~/Library/Containers/com.itfanatic.privacyfirstphotoorganizer/Data/Library/Application Support/PrivacyFirst Photo Organizer
Your photos stay in their own folders, where they always were — the app never copies or moves them.
Bringing a library from another copy of the app
This version keeps its own library, separate from any other copy of the app on the
same Mac. To bring a library across, export the project from the other copy (the
⋮ menu on its project card → Export)
and import the .ioproj file here — the user guide built into the app
covers both steps — then use
Locate… once on each folder so this version is allowed to
open it.
Updates
New versions arrive through the Mac App Store, according to its own update settings. The app itself never checks for updates and makes no network request to do so.
Bugs, questions and your data
- How to do something: the user guide is built into the app — press User guide (the question-mark icon in the sidebar, or the button on the About page). It covers the whole application, with screenshots, and it is written for this version.
- A bug or a feature request: the public tracker at github.com/bl305/privacyfirst_photo_organizer_support. It is public and permanent, so leave out your email address and order details, and check screenshots for faces, names and file paths first.
- Anything else: support@itfanatic.com. A real person reads it. The app sends nothing to us, and Apple does not tell us who you are, so we hold no personal data about you unless you write to us.