Matchwell™
Change Log

Newest first.


0.9.10  (24 October 2026)
  - Lightroom: Matchwell starts faster, and "Matchwell: starting" shows at the top of Lightroom right away. Large
    catalogs on a network drive no longer pause before the scan begins.
  - Lightroom: more groups on each review screen, plus "More per screen" and "Fewer per screen" buttons. Matchwell
    remembers your choice.
  - Lightroom: the Date taken choices are listed with a button beside each one, instead of a drop-down list.
  - The app opens its window sooner: the comparison tools load in the background.
  - User Guide: new Updates section; License and Help sections now match the other Picture Org apps.

0.9.9  (24 October 2026)
  - Lightroom: fixes an error when the review was saved ("attempt to call field 'rename'").
  - Lightroom: "Matchwell: starting" shows at the top of Lightroom as soon as you choose Find duplicate photos, so
    you know it's on its way.

0.9.8  (23 October 2026)
  - Your review is saved as you go. Close it part way and Matchwell offers to continue where you left off, with your
    choices kept. In Lightroom there is one saved review for each catalog; in the app, one for each set of folders.
  - Merge only the groups you have looked at: the rest are kept for later.
  - If a photo has changed since the scan, its group is ticked off so you can check it again.
  - A scan timer: the review shows how long the scan took, step by step.
  - The deep search is much faster on network drives (a NAS) and USB thumb drives: each photo is read only once, and
    fewer at a time. Matches are exactly the same.
  - During the deep search, the progress line says "photo pairs compared", so the count makes sense.
  - Lightroom with more than one screen: the review now fits on any of your screens, instead of running across them.

0.9.7  (23 October 2026)
  - The groups now fill your screen with no scrolling: as many as fit, side by side where there's room. Previous and
    Next (or the left and right arrow keys in the app) move to the next screenful.
  - You choose which keywords and people go onto the kept copy: each one from the other copies is listed with a
    tick, so untick any you don't want.
  - Lightroom: when the copies have different dates taken, you choose which date the kept copy gets. Matchwell has
    Lightroom save the kept copy's metadata, writes the date into the file (or its .xmp sidecar), and has Lightroom
    read it back. Undo puts the old date back.

0.9.6  (23 October 2026)
  - Windows: after an in-app update, the app's Start menu and Desktop shortcuts change to the new Matchwell icon.
  - Lightroom: the reminder after an update now says to run Find duplicate photos again.
  - License messages now give the full product name, Matchwell Photo Deduplicator.
  - Behind the scenes: Matchwell now shares its license, update and app code with the other Picture Org tools, so a
    fix in one reaches them all. Matches are exactly the same.

0.9.5  (23 October 2026)
  - New choice under What happens: when the holding folder is on another drive, Matchwell can check every copy byte
    by byte before removing the original. Off by default, so moves stay as fast as before.
  - Clicking Find duplicates twice quickly can no longer start two searches.
  - Behind the scenes: tidier code, sturdier updates, and the Lightroom plug-in always finishes a search even if
    something goes wrong. Matches are exactly the same.

0.9.4  (23 October 2026)
  - A new Matchwell icon: both prints now show The Picture Org camera in front of the hills. Setup has new pictures
    to match.

0.9.3  (23 October 2026)
  - Faster with 16-bit TIFF scans: each one is read about three times as fast.
  - Faster on large folders with many near-identical photos, and when looking for exact copies. The groups found are
    exactly the same as before.

0.9.2  (23 October 2026)
  - Lightroom: choose the copy to keep with "Keep this one" under its picture, instead of a list above the group.

0.9.1  (23 October 2026)
  - Windows: Choose a folder now opens the folder dialog in front of your browser. If the dialog ever can't open,
    Matchwell says so; you can always paste or type the folder's path in the box below the button.
  - Lightroom: Find duplicate photos no longer stops with an "Access is denied" message on Windows.
  - Lightroom: "The folders or collections shown now" works again, including All Photographs and other special
    sources.

0.9.0  (23 October 2026)
  - First release. Finds duplicate photos, keeps the best copy of each, and merges the other copies' keywords,
    people, captions, titles, ratings and places into it.
  - Five levels of "how alike", from exact copies to the same shot in any version: copies at another size or in
    another format, edited, retouched, slightly cropped or black and white versions, and copies turned sideways or
    upside down.
  - Deep search (optional): also mirrored copies and copies cropped much tighter.
  - Keeps the copy with the most pixels, then camera raw over TIFF over JPEG, then the larger file; you can pick
    another.
  - When copies disagree, you choose: the kept copy's value, another copy's, or both combined.
  - Two ways, one license: the Matchwell app for Windows and Mac (no Lightroom needed) moves the extra copies to a
    holding folder with a report; the Lightroom Classic plug-in merges in the catalog and flags the extra copies as
    rejected.
  - Nothing is deleted, and every run can be undone. Camera raw files get an .xmp sidecar; the pictures themselves
    are never re-saved.
  - Every folder box lets you type or paste a path.
  - Free 21-day trial; a license covers 2 computers, with complimentary updates.
