You rated frames on the back of your Hasselblad X2D II. In Phocus or Lightroom Classic, the stars are gone. Every RAW file imports with no rating, as if the triage pass you did on location never happened.
Your ratings are not lost. They are sitting in every 3FR file, in a place neither program reads.
Why the stars disappear
The camera writes your playback rating to the standard EXIF rating tag, but Phocus and Lightroom Classic read the rating from the file's embedded XMP packet instead, and the camera leaves that packet's rating at 0. Hasselblad has acknowledged the bug and committed to a fix in May 2026; it has not shipped as of Phocus 4.2.1. The full evidence is on the Phocus known issues tracker.
What Appaloosa does about it
Scan, free. Point Appaloosa at any folder of X2D II 3FR files. It lists every file, the star rating you applied in camera, and whether Phocus will be able to see it. You know exactly what is trapped before you spend anything.
Repair, to copies. Appaloosa writes corrected copies to a folder you choose. Your originals are never modified. The repair changes exactly one byte in each copy: the rating digit inside the embedded XMP packet.
Verify, every file. Each copy must read back with the correct star rating and differ from its source by exactly one byte, or it is deleted instead of kept. A plain-text report with SHA-256 checksums of every source and copy is written alongside the repaired files.
Repaired copies show their stars in Phocus 4.2.1 and Lightroom Classic. I tested both before shipping.
What it costs
The scan is free. Writing repaired copies is a one-time $9.99 purchase, made inside the app. No subscription, no account. It costs money because building it took real time and I have bills to pay; the price of getting your rated archive back is ten dollars, once.
Researching and writing the blog and page posts I produce takes up a lot of my time and costs me money for software subscriptions, tooling, and other incidentals related to running a business.
Please consider a paid membership to help me keep the lights on and pay the bills - it is only a fraction of the cost of an X2D II and a lens. Click on the button to go to the membership page to see the options available.
Requirements and scope
- macOS 15 or later.
- X2D II 3FR files only. FFF files are not supported.
- Files you have already rated after import are left alone. Appaloosa only repairs files where the in-camera rating is present and the XMP still says zero.
If you shoot a different camera or your ratings live in a catalog, Appaloosa is not for you, and the free scan will tell you so before you pay anything.
Get Appaloosa
Appaloosa is awaiting Mac App Store review and will be listed as "Appaloosa - 3FR Rating Fix". The download link will appear here the moment it is approved.
Appaloosa is an independent tool by Konrad Michels. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Hasselblad.
Core file handling derived from Palomino by Neil Kodner.