How to add copyright metadata to photos on a Mac

What macOS offers on its own

The Photos app on a Mac lets you add a title, a caption and keywords, and adjust the date and location. It has no copyright field. The same limit applies as on the iPhone: Photos doesn't let other apps change a library photo's metadata in place, so any tool that stamps a library photo saves a copy.

Photos that live in ordinary folders are different. A tool can rewrite their metadata directly, as long as it takes care not to re-encode the image.

Whichever tool you choose, decide on your wording first: a notice such as © 2026 Your Name, the name you want as creator, a credit line and a website. Use exactly the same text everywhere, because software compares these fields as exact strings.

Option 1: Adobe Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and Bridge

If you already use Adobe software, you have the fields:

• Lightroom Classic: the Metadata panel has an IPTC section with Creator, Copyright, Copyright Status and Rights Usage Terms. Save them as a metadata preset and apply it on import, and every new photo carries your notice. Lightroom writes it into files when it exports them, or into sidecars if you save metadata to files.
• Photoshop and Bridge: File › File Info offers Copyright Status, Copyright Notice and Copyright Info URL, the Web Statement of Rights.

These work well inside an Adobe workflow. They don't reach photos that only live in the Photos app.

Option 2: exiftool on the command line

exiftool is a free, widely used tool that reads and writes almost every metadata field. A command that sets the notice and creator in EXIF and XMP for a whole folder looks like this:

exiftool -Artist="Jane Smith" -Copyright="© 2026 Jane Smith" -XMP-dc:Creator="Jane Smith" -XMP-dc:Rights="© 2026 Jane Smith" ~/Pictures/Export

Two things to know. exiftool keeps a copy of each original with _original added to its name, unless you tell it not to. And writing the IPTC fields with a © sign needs the IPTC character set declared as UTF-8, or other readers may show stray characters. The exiftool documentation covers both.

Option 3: Copyrighted for Mac

Copyrighted handles folders and the Photos library in the same way. Add a folder, or your Photos library, and the app reads every photo's copyright fields and sorts them into four groups: Matches you, Third-party, Blank and Conflicting.

• Folders: JPEG, HEIC, PNG and TIFF files are rewritten in place without re-encoding. RAW files get an XMP sidecar and are never opened for writing.
• Photos library: a stamped copy goes to an album called Copyrighted, and the original stays untouched. An optional setting, off by default, can delete an original after its copy is verified.
• Safety: each file is read back before it replaces the original, and every batch can be undone from History.

One purchase covers the Mac, iPhone and iPad, and the first 50 stamped photos are free on each device.

From Finder and the Share menu

Copyrighted also adds two commands to macOS. Add Copyright in the Share menu stamps the photos you select. Copyright Info reads a photo and shows who it says it belongs to, layer by layer, without changing anything. The steps below use the app itself; How it works explains each stage.

Choosing an operation, and undoing it

Each batch in Copyrighted uses one of three operations. Add missing fills empty fields and leaves existing values alone, so it is safe to run on a mixed folder. Update overwrites the copyright fields in every layer with your profile, which is how you fix a photo that names an old studio or whose layers disagree. Remove clears the fields and is free.

Before anything is written, the Apply sheet counts how many photos will be rewritten in place, how many get an XMP sidecar, how many are saved to Photos, and how many are skipped, with the reason. Some camera JPEGs carry maker data that can't be carried through a rewrite; those are skipped and left unchanged.

Every batch lands in History with its counts. Undo restores what each file said before, from the journal written ahead of the change.

Check the result

Whichever tool you use, check a file afterwards. The copyright checker reads a photo in your browser and shows the notice, creator and credit in each layer, with a verdict on whether they agree. If the notice appears in XMP but not in EXIF, or names two different owners, a reader could miss it or credit the wrong person.

Test the route your photos take after that too. Export or upload a stamped photo the way you normally would, download it again, and check the copy. Some services remove metadata, and it is better to find out before you publish a whole series.

Step by step

1. Install Copyrighted on your Mac and open it.
2. Create a Rights Profile with your notice, name, credit and website.
3. Add a folder of photos, or your Photos library, and let the scan finish.
4. Open the Blank or Conflicting group and select the photos to stamp.
5. Click Apply, choose Add missing or Update, and confirm.
6. Check a stamped file with Copyright Info or the online checker.

Questions