Importing Photos

RapidRAW does not import photos in the Lightroom sense. There is no catalog database to maintain and no two-step "copy + import" flow. You point RapidRAW at a folder and it shows you the photos in that folder.

This is fast, transparent, and means you can move photos with the file manager any time without breaking the editor, as long as you keep the .rrdata sidecars next to them.

Opening a folder

The first time you launch RapidRAW you are prompted to Open Folder from the splash screen. After that, two options exist:

Splash screen → Open Folder opens any folder as the active root.
Splash screen → Continue Session restores the last folder you used.

Once you're in the Library, you can switch the active root or add another to the sidebar:

Top-right header → Open another folder (folder icon) replaces the current root with a different folder.
Right-click a folder in the tree → Pin folder keeps the folder in the sidebar across sessions, on top under the Pinned group. The pinned list lives in Settings → General → Pinned folders.
Top-right header → Go Home (house icon) returns to the splash screen, where you can pick yet another folder.

Library view modes

The View Options dropdown in the library header has a mode toggle:

Current folder shows only the photos in the selected folder.
Recursive flat list shows every supported image under the selected folder, regardless of subfolder. Useful for large shoots split across dated subfolders.

What files RapidRAW recognizes

RapidRAW reads every major RAW format plus standard formats. The full table is at File Formats. Briefly:

RAW: Adobe DNG, Canon CR2/CR3/CRW, Nikon NEF/NRW, Sony ARW/SR2/SRF, Fuji RAF, Olympus ORF, Panasonic RW2, Pentax PEF, Apple ProRAW, Hasselblad 3FR/FFF, and more.
Standard: JPEG, PNG, TIFF, WebP, JPEG XL, BMP, GIF, EXR, HDR, QOI.

If a file type isn't supported it simply won't appear in the library.

How edits are stored: the `.rrdata` sidecar

The first time you adjust a photo, RapidRAW writes a small file next to it:

IMG_2231.NEF             ← your original RAW (never touched)
IMG_2231.NEF.rrdata      ← all adjustments, masks, crops

The .rrdata is a JSON-format sidecar. It's lightweight, typically a few kilobytes. Keep the sidecar with the image when you move or back up files. If a sidecar is missing, the photo opens with no edits applied (the original is preserved either way).

When you create a virtual copy, RapidRAW writes an additional .rrdata per virtual copy alongside the original.

New to non-destructive editing?

"Non-destructive" means RapidRAW never overwrites your original RAW or JPEG. Every change you make is recorded as a list of adjustments in the sidecar. To get a finished file with the edits "baked in," use the Export panel (E). That produces a new JPEG, TIFF, or other file in a folder you choose.

Backups and moving libraries

Because RapidRAW stores everything beside each image (no central database), backing up is just file copying:

To back up a whole shoot, copy the folder. The .rrdata files travel with the images.
To migrate to a new machine, copy the folders to the new machine's disk and open the root folder again.

The only things stored elsewhere are:

Presets under the app data directory (see Installation → What gets installed where).
Thumbnail cache, regenerable, safe to delete to free space.
AI models, re-downloaded on demand.

Special files

.rrexif is written when RapidRAW denoises or stitches images, alongside the output, to preserve the original EXIF data with the new pixels. You don't need to manage these manually.

Performance note

Folders with thousands of RAW files generate thumbnails progressively. The first scan of a large folder may take a moment; subsequent visits are instant thanks to the thumbnail cache.

If thumbnails look stale or wrong, see File Issues for how to clear the cache.