Find it with ⌘K. Make it your own.

How to read this

⌘ is Command, ⌥ is Option, ⌃ is Control, and ⇧ is Shift. A key written on its own, like T, is pressed on its own.

Some keys mean different things depending on where you are. In the file browser, there are three places: the grid of thumbnails, the large preview, and a video playing in the preview. Where a key only works in some of them, the table says so. Apple Photos and Social Export have their own contextual commands.

Single letters pause whenever you are typing. If the cursor is in the keyword field, T types a letter t. Press Esc to leave the field and the keys come back.

A command that cannot run right now does not fail quietly. It beeps and the status bar says why, for example that nothing is tagged, or that the source is read only.

Keys that never change

These move you around and open things, so they are not available for rebinding. Settings lists them too, so nothing about the keyboard is hidden.

Marking

By default a marking key acts where you are and does not move on. Turn on advancing in Settings → Browsing, and then holding ⇧ does the opposite for one press. The command names in the app flip to match, so the menu always tells the truth.

Tag, rating, label, and review actions have separate advance settings. With multiple photos selected, T tags all of them, or clears their tags when all are already tagged. Viewing alone does not mark a photo reviewed. Protected photographs are skipped with an explanation.

A mark applies to every selected photograph, or to the one under the focus ring. On a collapsed bracket stack it applies to every frame in the stack.

Moving

In the sources list, ↑ and ↓ move, ↩ or → opens, and typing the first letters of a name jumps to it.

Views and overlays

Review has no assigned key by default. Open it from the photo-control row or ⌘K. It keeps a fixed queue: marking a photo does not remove it. In Review, [ and ] inspect faces when face inspection is active; elsewhere they navigate groups. In Compare, arrows and marks follow the comparison context described below.

Zoom

All of these work in the preview. Zoom is anchored on the pointer, so the detail under the cursor stays under the cursor.

A pinch on the trackpad zooms around your fingers, a two finger drag pans, and a two finger double tap does what Z does. In the grid, a pinch resizes the thumbnails.

Selecting and filtering

Click to start a new selection, ⌘ click to add or remove one, ⇧ click to add an anchor-to-click range while preserving earlier selections. ⌘ with an arrow key moves the focus ring without changing what is selected, which is how you reach past a selection without losing it.

Stacks

Metadata

The quick entry syntax is on the templates page.

Files and ingest

⇧⌘E sends the current selection to an independent Social Export project. ⌘E opens its export sheet. Browse keeps ⌘E for Eject. Choose File → Social Export… with no selection to resume. Sending photos to a populated editor offers New Project, Add to Current, or Cancel. Inside Social Export, arrows select frames, or nudge a selected photo by one exported pixel (⇧ for ten). Z shows the exported file at 100%. Esc steps back out of that view, then out of the selected photo, without closing the editor window. Use ⌘W to close an idle editor and save its draft. ⌘Z/⇧⌘Z undo or redo composition edits. Text fields retain native editing shortcuts.

Video

These work while a video is open in the preview, and they take precedence over the letters they share.

Cards and folders

Apple Photos

These commands apply while browsing Apple Photos. File commands elsewhere in this reference apply to the file browser. Single-letter shortcuts pause while you type.

Read the Apple Photos guide.

App

Changing a key

Open Settings, then Shortcuts. Every command is listed with its key. Click the key and press the one you want. You can also Tab to the recorder and press Return or Space to begin. Esc cancels, and Delete removes the key so the command has none.

If the key is already taken by something that overlaps, Ingest names the other command and offers to move the key across. It refuses a key that is fixed, and it refuses the bare keys that move you around, because the app consumes those before any command sees them.

Standard Mac editing keys are reserved. Select All, Undo, Redo, and Settings retain their native shortcuts. If an older custom binding conflicts with a standard key, Settings explains the conflict and offers a reset; the saved override is kept until you change it.

While a text field has focus, ⌘A selects its text, and undo and redo stay in that editor. Photo-navigation keys do not intercept typing.

A changed key follows everywhere at once. The menus, the palette, the ? sheet, and the hold overlay all read from the same table, so there is no second place to update and nothing to get out of step. Reset All puts every key back.

Every action, one search

Find Source Summary, Select from Pick List, Export Selected Decisions, and Open Current Source in New Tab by name. Source Summary opens in the inspector; clicking a count applies a removable filter.

If you can do it in Ingest, you can find it with ⌘K—whether the action has an assigned shortcut or not. Press ⌘K and search by name, alias, or category. Switch workspaces, find a folder, tag a keeper, edit metadata, organize files, or export without navigating menus.

Inside the palette, ⌘K toggles Actions. Use the arrow keys and Return to choose Pin/Unpin, Copy Link, or Configure Shortcut. Esc closes Actions before it closes the palette. Configure Shortcut reveals that command in Settings; temporary card and recent-folder entries do not offer it.

The palette also lists the things that come and go: your favorites, workspaces, splits, metadata presets, actions, and recent folders. ⇧⌘P pins whatever is highlighted to the top of the list. ⇧⌘C copies a link that runs it, which is how the URL scheme is meant to be discovered.