How to use GetFerret

01 What GetFerret is

GetFerret lives in your menu bar and gives your Mac a memory for files. It catalogs your drives into one searchable world called the Warren, so you can find a file in an instant, whether the drive is plugged in or sitting on a shelf.

It is built for people with more than one drive: photographers, editors, archivists, and anyone whose work is scattered across externals and a NAS. Your files and the catalog stay on your Mac, and nothing about them is ever sent to us.

02 Speak ferret

Five words carry the whole app. Learn these and the rest is easy:

03 Installing GetFerret

1. Download GetFerret from getferret.app.
2. Open the disk image and drag GetFerret into your Applications folder.
3. Launch it. The ferret appears in your menu bar at the top of the screen.
4. Grant Full Disk Access when asked. GetFerret needs it to read your drives and build the catalog. It uses it only on your Mac.

04 Your first search

Press ⌥ Space (Option and Space) anywhere and a floating search bar appears. Start typing and results show live: what is plugged in right now from Spotlight, and everything in your Warren, merged into one list.

• Use the arrow keys to move through results.
• Press Return to reveal a file in Finder, or open it.
• Press Escape to make the bar vanish.

This alone is a better Spotlight. The real power shows up once you burrow your drives.

05 Burrowing a drive

To burrow a drive is to catalog it. Ferret reads the drive and maps every file into the Warren. From then on, you can search that drive's files even after you unplug it.

1. Open the Den and go to your drives.
2. Pick a drive and choose Catalog to burrow it. External drives are offered automatically when you plug them in.
3. When a drive changes, a quick Re-catalog catches up only what moved.

06 The Warren

The Warren is every drive you have burrowed, joined into one searchable world. Plugged in or not, the files are there to find. When a drive is offline, GetFerret still shows its files and tells you which drive they live on, so you know exactly what to reconnect.

07 The Den

The Den is the main window, where you search, preview, and organize. It also manages the Warren: every drive Ferret knows, cataloged or not, with capacity meters, one-click Catalog and Re-catalog, archive marking, and a pin for each drive's physical location.

Previews are quick and buttery, so you can confirm a file at a glance without opening another app.

08 Power search & filters

Search runs fast across the whole Warren. When a name is not enough, stack filters that all combine at once:

• Drive or folder, to look in one place.
• Kind, size, and date buckets.
• Nest, Stash, and Tag.
• Text and details, including photo and media information like camera data.

Combine a few and you find the right file, not fifty maybes.

Save a view as a Smart Collection

When a set of filters is worth keeping, click the bookmark button in the toolbar (or choose Save View as Smart Collection… from the ••• menu) and give it a name. It appears in the sidebar under Smart.

A Smart Collection saves the search, not the results. It keeps the kind, size, date, 4K, camera or location filter, archive drives and what search looks in, and runs them again each time you open it, so new files that match show up on their own. A date like Past month always means the month before today.

Opening a Smart Collection puts its filters on the toolbar. Change one and the list follows, while the saved collection stays as it was. Click a drive or All Files and the filters clear.

09 Nests

A folder traps a file in one place, on one drive. Since the Den already shows every file across every drive, GetFerret flips the idea. Nests are collections you build as you go, and a single file can live in many Nests at once with no moving and no copying.

Think of folders as output, not storage. Assemble a project as a Nest, then Export it as a clean folder or a zip for hand-off, sub-Nests and all.

10 Tags, fields & Stash

Add your own tags and custom fields to files, and Stash the ones you reach for so they are always one click away.

Because GetFerret knows a drive by its identity rather than its name, your labels stick. Rename a disk or a file and its tags, fields, Nests, Stash, and notes all follow it. Even a note you tacked on with TackNote moves with the file.

11 The drawer finder

This is the signature trick. Give each drive a physical location, for example "top desk drawer" or "shelf B, blue case." Now when a search turns up a file on an unplugged drive, GetFerret tells you not just which drive, but where that drive is. No more plugging in five externals to find one photo.

12 Safekeeping

Safekeeping answers a simple, nagging question: are my important files actually backed up? GetFerret checks that your chosen files exist on more than one drive, and verifies the copies match by their contents, not just their names.

• See at a glance what is protected and what is at risk.
• Copy an at-risk file to a second drive in one step.
• Re-verify to catch bit-rot, the silent corruption that creeps into aging drives.

13 Offloading a camera card

When you bring photos or footage off a camera card, GetFerret makes a copy you can trust, the way a DIT does on set: every file is hashed, copied, and read back to confirm it matches.

1. Open Import Footage from the menu bar.
2. Under Source, click Choose and pick the card, folder, or volume to import.
3. Under Destinations, click Add Destination and pick where the copy lands. Add a second destination for the two-copy habit, or as many as you like.
4. Pick your checksum and leave Verify each copy on, so every file is re-read and confirmed on each destination. Choose Set as Default to remember these next time.
5. Click Import. GetFerret copies, then verifies, with live progress you can watch.
6. You get a report: every file verified, or exactly which ones failed. A checksum manifest is written to each destination, so the proof travels with the footage.

14 Backing up a drive

Safekeeping tells you what is at risk. Backing up a drive is how you fix it: a verified, drive-to-drive copy that uses the same trusted engine as Import.

Give a drive a role (optional)

In the Drives view, right-click any drive to set how GetFerret thinks of it:

• Mark as Archive Drive for long-term storage. An Archive badge appears, and Safekeeping treats it as a safe home your files are checked against.
• Mark as Working / DIT Drive for the fast drive you edit from day to day.

Run the backup

1. Open Back Up a Drive from the menu bar.
2. Choose the source drive or folder you want to protect.
3. Choose the backup drive to copy to. GetFerret creates a named folder there, "GetFerret Backup — [drive name]," so several drives can safely share one backup drive.
4. Leave Verify on so every file is read back and confirmed, and keep Incremental on so repeat backups copy only what is new or changed.
5. Click Back Up. Backups are additive: GetFerret only adds to the backup drive and never deletes from it.

15 Cloud drives

GetFerret also catalogs your cloud folders. Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud Drive, and OneDrive are detected automatically, so their files show up in the Warren alongside everything else, and search covers them too.

16 License & trial

GetFerret is free to try for 14 days, with everything unlocked, so you can fill your Warren before you decide. One purchase covers up to three computers, Mac or Windows in any mix.

• After you buy, your license key arrives by email. Enter it in the app to activate this Mac.
• To move a seat to another computer, deactivate it on the first, then activate on the new one.

17 Permissions

macOS asks your approval before GetFerret can read your files. The main one is Full Disk Access, which lets Ferret catalog your drives. GetFerret uses it only on your Mac, to do the job you asked for, and nothing about your files is ever sent anywhere.

You can grant it when prompted, or later in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access.

18 Pro tips

A few power moves once you have the basics down:

19 Getting help

Stuck, or have an idea? We would love to hear from you. Use Send Feedback from the menu, or email support@getferret.app. You can also reach the studio at keeperscode.com/contact.