Vidarium is now in public beta — come test it

I’m excited to open up testing for something new: Vidarium, a local-first video library manager for the Mac, iPad, and iPhone. If you’ve got a folder (or a drive, or several) full of video that Photos won’t touch and Finder previews as blank grey rectangles, this one’s for you.

You can join the TestFlight beta right now:

👉 Join the Vidarium beta on TestFlight

What is Vidarium?

Think Lightroom for your videos — but without the subscription, and without importing everything into a walled garden. Vidarium leaves your files exactly where you put them and adds a fast, beautiful organizational layer on top: thumbnails for any format, hover-to-scrub previews, folders, tags, people, collections, and smart searches.

The name says it: a vidarium is a place for your videos — like an aquarium or a terrarium.

Why you might like it

Thumbnails for formats nothing else previews. MKV, AVI, WMV, MOV, MP4 and more all get crisp poster frames — including the ones Finder and Quick Look leave empty.
Hover to scrub. Move your pointer across a clip and Vidarium plays a multi-frame preview, so you can find the right video without opening a thing.
Your files stay put. Vidarium points at the folders you already have. It never copies your originals into a hidden database and never moves them behind your back. Delete the app and your videos are completely untouched.
Organize the way you think. Hierarchical folders (that can mirror your disk or stay purely in-app), plus tags, people, collections, ratings, and a rule editor for saved searches like “4K clips of the kids from last summer, rated 4+.”
One iCloud library that just works. Keep a single library in sync across your devices. Your organization syncs instantly, and the actual files download on demand — clearly marked when they’re not local, never mistaken for missing, never silently deleted.
No server, no lock-in, no account, no tracking. It’s a local-first app, not a streaming box. Optional iCloud is there if you want it — and only if you want it.

Requirements

Vidarium requires macOS 26 or later on the Mac, and it runs natively on iPhone and iPad too — one app across all three, built with SwiftUI.

It’s a beta — I need your feedback

This is early software, so expect some rough edges. That’s exactly why it’s in TestFlight. If you run into a bug, a format that won’t thumbnail, a sync hiccup, or you just have a “why doesn’t it do this?” thought — please send it my way. Every report genuinely shapes where Vidarium goes next.

The best way to reach me is the in-app support dialog, which sends along the details I need to actually track things down:

On iPhone and iPad: open the menu on the initial list screen and choose Contact Support.
On macOS: choose Help → Contact Support in the menu bar.