How to install

Two minutes, no settings required. macOS 15 or later, Apple Silicon or Intel.

Setup

Four steps, in order.

STEP 1

Open the disk image and double-click the app

You do not need to drag anything. Double-click PitStop right there on the disk image and it offers to move itself into Applications — one click and it reopens from the right place. It is signed and notarised by Apple, so there is no security warning and no right-click dance.

(Dragging it onto the Applications folder beside it works too, if that is your habit. The double-click route matters more for updates — see below.)

STEP 2

Let it read camera cards, once

The first time it scans a card, macOS asks whether the app may access files on removable volumes. Say yes — that is the whole job. It reads cards read-only, always: nothing is ever written to or deleted from a card.

STEP 3

Let it open itself

Nothing to switch on. The first time PitStop runs it asks macOS to start it whenever a card mounts — running or not — so from then on a card in the reader means the window on screen. macOS lists that helper under System Settings ▸ General ▸ Login Items as PitStop; leave it on.

Optionally, click the little card icon in the menu bar and choose Open Automatically When a Card Is Plugged In — that also starts PitStop at login and keeps it waiting quietly in the menu bar, so the window is already there the instant a card goes in.

STEP 4

Plug in a card

The window opens with every shoot on the card already separated, and anything already in your archive marked with a ✓. Tick a shoot, type the folder name and the filename once, press Ingest. When the copy finishes — verified, byte for byte — the cards eject themselves and a notification says they are safe to remove. Don’t pull a card before that: the footer reads “ejecting the cards, don’t pull them yet” for exactly the few seconds it matters.

Worth knowing

Before it surprises you.

Ticking several rows makes them one shoot

That is how you rejoin a two-location job the automatic split separated: tick both halves, name it once, one folder. The scissors control does the reverse for two jobs shot back-to-back.

The card is your second copy until you format it

The app never writes to a card. Eject from the app (the ⏏ on each card, or Eject All) and it warns you — by name and count — if anything on the card is not in your archive yet.

Several photographers on one job

Point Copy to at the day folder that holds one folder per photographer and the app reads the roster off the folder names. Whose camera shot what is decided by the camera body's serial number; it learns each camera's owner from the day's own folders and never asks twice. Each dump lands in its own ingest folder inside the photographer's folder.

Every eject is written down

A plain left-on-cards.txt in your destination records what each card left with — clean or not — on every eject. It is the answer to “did I get everything off everyone's cards?” once the cards are back in their bags.

The second copy lives in Settings (⌘,)

Off by default. Point it at a backup drive and every ingest writes archive + backup in one pass, both verified. A backup problem never blocks the archive copy.

Updating

Just double-click the new one.

Do not drag an update across — macOS refuses to replace an app that is running, and this one is usually running quietly in the menu bar. Open the new disk image and double-click the app: it updates the copy in Applications, closes the running one for you, and reopens itself. Settings, archive and your login-item choice are all kept.

If something is off

Troubleshooting

The window doesn't open when I plug a card in

Check System Settings ▸ General ▸ Login Items for a PitStop entry that has been switched off — the card trigger lives there. If PitStop is already running, look in the Dock: the window may simply be minimised. Open PitStop from the menu-bar icon brings it back.

I updated from GoodEye Shoot Ingest and the Dock icon does nothing

That tile still points at the old app, which the update removed. Drag it off the Dock and drag PitStop from Applications back on. Your settings, destination and camera memory carried across on first launch; re-tick Open Automatically in the menu bar once, and allow notifications again when asked — macOS keeps both per app name.

It says a shoot is already ingested but I want to copy it again

Tick the row — a “Copy these again” switch appears when there is nothing to do. It re-copies anything not physically in the folder.

Eject says something still has a file open

Usually a Lightroom import or a Finder window pointing at the card. Close those and eject again. The app translates the raw macOS error into which action to take.

A copy is running and I need to stop

Cancel, any time. Everything already copied is verified and kept; pressing Ingest again later picks up exactly where it stopped.

Removing it

Nothing to uninstall, really.

Quit it from the menu bar, drag the app to the Trash, and switch it off under System Settings ▸ General ▸ Login Items if macOS left the entry behind. The card trigger is one small file, ~/Library/LaunchAgents/co.goodeye.pitstop.mount.plist — delete it too if you want a clean slate. It keeps no databases and installs nothing anywhere else — the ingest records live inside your shoot folders as small hidden files, and they are yours.

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