PhotosRevive 3.1.0 on Mac

PhotosRevive is a Mac app that uses artificial intelligence to automatically bring colour to old black-and-white photos.

macOS 11 or later required

The app needs macOS 11 or later and works on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs. It’s also available for iPhone and iPad, so you can work across devices.

Import and colourise a photo

You can scan a picture directly into the app or import an existing image file. The AI does the colourisation in one go, and you can add manual colour hints to refine the result where the auto guess isn’t quite right.

Version 2.2.0 — optimised for macOS 26

The latest release is described as fully optimised for macOS 26, so it should feel responsive on that system. Interface languages include English, German, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese, French and Japanese.

Gatekeeper blocks the app on first launch

A few things trip people up when they first run PhotosRevive. If the app won't open after you drag it to Applications, Gatekeeper might be blocking it. Mount the disk image again and launch it from there — you'll get a prompt to bypass the block. Alternatively, open Terminal, press Enter after the relevant command and the app will start normally.

Another frequent one: the colourisation looks washed out or the AI misses something obvious. That's usually because the source photo has low contrast or heavy compression artefacts. Try a cleaner scan if you can. Otherwise, use the manual colour hint tool — click on an area and pick a colour that fits. The AI recalculates around your hint and often gets much closer to what you expect.

If the PhotosRevive extension doesn't show up in the Photos app, check that you installed the app to the Applications folder and not somewhere else. Restart Photos and look under the Extensions menu. It should appear there.

Set output format and resolution in Preferences

Before you run your first batch of photos, open Preferences. Set the output format and resolution to match how you plan to use the result — high resolution for prints, standard for sharing online. If you work with scanned images a lot, check whether the app defaults to scanning mode or file import. Switching it early saves a click every time.

Language is another one to set upfront. The app supports English, German, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese, French and Japanese. Pick yours from the menu so the interface labels and tooltips make sense from the start.

One more thing: if you use PhotosRevive alongside the iPhone or iPad version, make sure iCloud sync is on for the app. Colours you hint on one device won't carry over automatically, but having the same source files in iCloud Photos makes it easy to pick up where you left off.

• Now fully optimised for macOS 26.
• Automatically colorises old black-and-white photos.

• macOS 11 or later
• Intel or Apple Silicon

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