Go through the photos on your memory card, keep the best with a single key and import only those into Apple Photos. Free for Mac.
In Swedish, vaska means panning for gold — washing away the gravel until only the nuggets are left.
Vaska does the same with your photos. Insert the card, decide on one photo at a time, and only the keepers reach your Photos library. Nothing on the card is ever changed.
Vaska shows the photos straight from the SD card. Already copied them to your Mac? Open the folder instead.
P keeps a photo, X rejects it and 1–5 rates it. Z zooms to 100% so you can check the focus.
Click Import and choose an album in Photos — new or existing — or a folder. Only the photos you kept go in.
Rejected photos stay on the card until you erase it in your camera.
Each photo fills the window, with a filmstrip below. Keep, reject and rate from the keyboard, and Vaska moves on to the next photo by itself. Zoom to 100% with Z, a click or a pinch, check exposure and file info in the inspector, and undo anything.
A grid like the one in Photos, where kept, rejected, rated and already imported photos are clearly marked. Filters for new, kept, rejected and imported photos show exactly what’s left to do.
Import into a new album named after the dates, an existing album or just your library — or copy the photos to any folder, for example on an external drive. RAW+JPEG pairs stay together, photos already in your library are recognized so nothing is imported twice, and you can follow the progress in the sidebar and the Dock.
No price, no ads, no in-app purchases and no account.
Vaska only reads the card. It never changes, moves or deletes anything on it.
No tracking and no data collection. Vaska doesn’t even connect to the internet.
Built with SwiftUI for macOS 26, with Dark Mode, full screen and VoiceOver. It can even open by itself when you insert a card.
Read how to import photos from an SD card to Photos on a Mac — with Photos, with Image Capture, or by picking the best ones first with Vaska.
Read the guide →Yes. Vaska is free on the Mac App Store, with no ads, no in-app purchases and no account.
Insert the card in your Mac’s SD card slot or a card reader and open Vaska. Keep the photos you want with P, then click Import. Vaska adds them to your Photos library, in an album if you like. The step-by-step guide also shows how to do it with Photos alone.
Yes. Choose a folder under Import To: in the import sheet, for example on an external drive. Vaska copies the photos you kept there, in a new folder named after the dates if you like.
No. Vaska never changes or deletes anything on the card. Photos you reject simply aren’t imported. Erase the card in your camera when you’re ready.
JPEG, HEIC and the RAW formats that macOS supports, which covers most cameras. RAW+JPEG pairs are kept together. Vaska works with any memory card your Mac can read, such as SD, microSD and CFexpress cards in the built-in slot or a card reader. It shows photos, not videos.
Yes. Vaska adds photos to the Photos library on your Mac. If iCloud Photos is turned on, they sync to your other devices as usual.
Yes. Photos that are already in your library — imported with Vaska or with Photos itself — are marked as imported, so you never import the same photo twice.
Any Mac with macOS 26 or later.
Yes. Turn on “Open Vaska when a memory card is inserted” in the start window or in Settings.
Questions, ideas or problems? Write to us — we read everything.