Phocus 4.x for Mac: Known Issues and Bug Reports

Since December 2025, I have been systematically testing Phocus 4.x for macOS and reporting bugs directly to Hasselblad Support. Every issue on this page was reproduced on my own hardware, documented with evidence (screenshots, logs, stack traces, binary analysis), and submitted to Hasselblad with a formal support ticket. This page documents the known issues and tracks what was reported, what Hasselblad's response was, and what the current status is.

This is not a complaints page. It is a transparency document. Hasselblad does not publish a public bug tracker or a known-issues list for Phocus. As a result, photographers who encounter problems have no way to know if their issue is already reported, under investigation, or classified as intentional behavior. This page fills that gap.

Key finding: As of April 2026, 21 bugs have been reported to Hasselblad across Phocus 4.0.1 through 4.1.2. Four have been fixed in subsequent releases. One has been confirmed and queued for a future release. Five are under active engineering review. Three were classified as intentional design decisions. The rest await substantive engineering response.

How many Phocus bugs have been reported?

21 issues have been formally reported to Hasselblad Support since December 2025. The breakdown by current status:

What is the process for reporting a bug?

Each bug report follows a consistent format:

1. Reproduce the issue on my own hardware (Mac Mini Pro M4 Pro, MacBook Pro M5, X2D II 100C)
2. Document the evidence: screenshots, screen recordings, Activity Monitor data, Phocus logs, ExifTool output, and in some cases binary-level analysis of the Phocus application itself
3. Submit a formal report to Hasselblad Support with reproduction steps, expected vs actual behavior, and all evidence attached (usually via WeTransfer)
4. Track the response: every email exchange is logged, every engineering verdict is recorded, and the status on this page is updated when new information arrives

I do not speculate about root causes in the reports themselves. When I have done deeper investigation (reverse-engineering Phocus binaries, analyzing kernel-level hang reports), that analysis is provided separately for engineering to evaluate on its own merits.

Functional bugs

These affect core Phocus operations: editing, exporting, importing, and the UI.

Default preview renders with wrong colors (Critical, Phocus 4.1.2)

Ticket: Case #9991365 | Status: Under engineering investigation | Version: 4.1.2

Every 3FR file opened in Phocus 4.1.2 on Mac displays a flat, desaturated preview that does not reflect the correct HNCS color gamut. The exported TIFF from the same file is correct. Photographers are editing against a wrong preview and producing wrong results. Confirmed independently by u/freddiew88 on r/hasselblad who called it "pretty much a debilitating bug."

I reproduced the issue on three Apple wide-gamut displays (MacBook Pro Liquid Retina XDR, Apple Studio Display, Pro Display XDR) with True Tone disabled. This rules out display calibration, macOS color management, and Apple True Tone as causes. Downgrading to Phocus 4.1.1 resolves the issue.

Binary analysis identified the regression window: a color-pipeline refactor between 4.1.1 and 4.1.2 that split the preview and export rendering paths while removing a key color sync method (CImageData::UpdateColorSync) with no like-for-like replacement.

Full investigation and evidence

UI hangs for seconds when any SMB network share is mounted (High, Phocus 4.1.1+)

Ticket: Case #9935255 | Status: Engineering confirmed, queued for future release | Version: 4.1.1, 4.1.2

Phocus watches every mounted volume on the system via FSEvents, not just folders it imports from. When any file changes on any volume, Phocus's main thread synchronously reads that file's metadata. If the volume is a network share (SMB), each metadata read is a network round-trip that parks the main thread for seconds at a time.

This affects any Phocus user with a NAS, Time Machine network target, office file server, or Apple device sharing enabled. The camera does not need to be connected. The only workaround is to unmount all network shares before launching Phocus.

This is the first tracked bug where Hasselblad engineering explicitly confirmed the behavior and committed to fixing it in a future release (April 2026).

HNCS preset change destroys all saved adjustments (High, Phocus 4.1.1+)

Ticket: Case #9955692 | Status: Engineering re-evaluating UX design | Version: 4.1.1, 4.1.2

Changing the HNCS rendering preset (Standard, Nature, Portrait, etc.) wipes every adjustment the user has made to the image: exposure, contrast, color, local edits, everything. In every comparable RAW editor (Lightroom, DxO), changing the color profile preserves user adjustments and only changes the underlying interpretation.

Hasselblad initially classified this as "by design" (April 2026). After pushback with clarification that the bug is about destructive preset switching, not about the inability to create custom presets, engineering acknowledged the previous verdict "indeed has some issue" and committed to re-evaluating the UX rationale.

Import dialog adjustment dropdown is silently ignored (Medium, Phocus 4.1.1+)

Ticket: Case #9940198 | Status: Under senior engineering review | Version: 4.1.1, 4.1.2

The "Adjustment" dropdown in the Import Images dialog lets you select an HNCS preset to apply at import time (Standard, Nature, Portrait, etc.). The selection is ignored. Imported images always arrive with the default rendering baseline regardless of what was selected.

This ticket was initially conflated with a different bug by Hasselblad Support. After the conflation was identified and corrected, the case was separated for genuine engineering review. Engineering confirmed they have consolidated all evidence materials and are reviewing with the correct issue scope.

Covered in: Phocus 4.1.1 bug investigation

Export dialog fails to open (Medium, Phocus 4.1.1+)

Ticket: Case #9698009 | Status: Reported, reverse-engineering analysis complete | Version: 4.1.1, 4.1.2

The Export menu item sometimes silently fails. Clicking "Export" does nothing. No dialog appears, no error message, no log entry. The only recovery is to quit and relaunch Phocus. Reproduction is intermittent but occurs regularly during normal editing sessions.

Reverse-engineering of the Phocus 4.1.2 binary identified the likely wedging mechanism: an unguarded modal sheet presentation in the export controller that can leave the export state locked if the completion handler never fires.

Covered in: Phocus 4.1.1 bug investigation

Color labels are not written to sidecar or export (High, Phocus 4.0.1+)

Ticket: Case #9686749 | Status: Known issue, informally abandoned | Version: 4.0.1, 4.1.1, 4.1.2

Phocus displays color labels and approval ratings in the UI but does not write them to the sidecar file or include them in exported files. This means labels assigned in Phocus are lost when the session ends or when files are moved to another system.

Hasselblad acknowledged this as a known issue in December 2025 and said they would "internally reassess." No further communication followed. As of April 2026, the bug persists across three major releases.

Full investigation

Application hang requiring force quit (High, Phocus 4.1.1)

Ticket: No dedicated ticket assigned | Status: Reported | Version: 4.1.1

Phocus occasionally freezes completely, requiring a force quit. The hang is associated with main-thread GPU readback operations via Metal. This bug contributed to the architectural analysis that identified a pattern of main-thread blocking across multiple Phocus subsystems.

HDR export with BT.2100 PQ profile was non-functional (Critical, Phocus 4.1.1)

Ticket: No dedicated ticket | Status: Allegedly fixed in 4.1.2 | Version: 4.1.1

HDR TIFF exports with the BT.2100 PQ output profile produced incorrect output in Phocus 4.1.1. The 4.1.2 release notes claim this has been fixed ("Fixed wrong output color profile when attempting to export HDR using 'Source'"). Verification is pending.

Covered in: Phocus 4.1.2 release analysis

Constrained crop handles resize diagonally instead of along axis (Low, Phocus 4.1.2)

Ticket: Case #9975604 | Status: By design | Version: 4.1.2

When using the Crop tool with a constrained aspect ratio, dragging a side handle resizes the crop region diagonally instead of along the intended axis. Engineering reproduced the behavior and classified it as a deliberate design decision.

"Use Last Saved Adjustments" one-shot buffer (Medium, Phocus 4.1.1)

Ticket: Case #9884182 | Status: By design | Version: 4.1.1

The "Use Last Saved Adjustments" preference does not read from the sidecar file. Instead, it applies a one-shot buffer that resets after the first image load. Engineering confirmed this is intentional behavior. A workaround exists: save adjustments to a user preset group via the Adjustments Browser.

Import selection persists after view switch (Low, Phocus 4.1.1)

Ticket: Case #9884184 | Status: By design | Version: 4.1.1

When importing images and then switching to a different view, the import selection state persists instead of clearing. Engineering confirmed this is intentional to support batch export workflows. UX feedback was noted.

Toolset customization not persisted across sessions (Low, Phocus 4.1.1)

Ticket: Case #9836189 | Status: Closed (workaround found) | Version: 4.1.1

Custom tool panel configurations were not saved between Phocus sessions. Investigation revealed this is scoped to the Layouts editor: customizations made inside a Layout are persisted with that Layout, not globally. The behavior is undocumented but consistent once understood.

HNNR denoised filename gains unnecessary numeric suffix (Low, Phocus 4.1.1+)

Ticket: Case #9884186 | Status: Under investigation | Version: 4.1.1, 4.1.2

When HNNR (Hasselblad Natural Noise Reduction) processes a file, the output filename receives an unnecessary numeric suffix (e.g., _HNNR_1.3FR instead of _HNNR.3FR). Hasselblad said they are "actively investigating" as of April 2026.

Memory and performance issues

Severe memory leak causes system hang (Critical, Phocus 4.1)

Status: Fixed in Phocus 4.1.0 | Version: 4.1

Ultra HDR export in Phocus 4.1 leaked memory at approximately 1 GB per export cycle. On systems with 16-32 GB of RAM, this could cause a complete system hang within minutes of sustained export work. Fixed in Phocus 4.1.0 and confirmed resolved.

Full investigation and workaround

Ultra HDR export memory leak (Critical, Phocus 4.1.1)

Ticket: No dedicated ticket assigned | Status: Reported | Version: 4.1.1

A separate memory leak in the Ultra HDR export path persists in 4.1.1. Filed with evidence but swept into a consolidated support ticket without individual tracking. Verification against Phocus 4.1.2 is pending.

Preview cache regenerates pyramid on every click (Medium, Phocus 4.1.1)

Ticket: No dedicated ticket assigned | Status: Reported | Version: 4.1.1

Clicking on a thumbnail in the browser triggers a full pyramid rebuild for the preview, even when the image has not changed. This causes unnecessary CPU load and contributes to the sluggish feel when browsing large folders.

Privacy and telemetry issues

Unexpected outbound network connections (Critical/Privacy, Phocus 4.1)

Ticket: Case #9698009 | Status: Fixed in 4.1.1 | Version: 4.1

Phocus 4.1 made outbound connections to Google services (Firebase, Crashlytics, Google App Measurement) without clear user consent. Network capture analysis documented what data was transmitted, how often, and what it included.

Phocus 4.1.1 introduced an Experience Improvement Program opt-in dialog. Verified April 2026: opting out of data collection stops all outbound connections to Google services. The fix is confirmed.

Full privacy investigation

Phantom "Product Improvement Program" (Medium, Phocus 4.1)

Status: Fixed in Phocus 4.1.1 | Version: 4.1

The "Product Improvement Program" referenced in Phocus's privacy settings had no visible opt-in mechanism and no documentation explaining what data it collected. Fixed in 4.1.1 with the introduction of an explicit opt-in dialog.

Privacy policy does not reflect desktop app analytics (Medium, Phocus 4.1)

Status: Substantially fixed in 4.1.1 | Version: 4.1

Hasselblad's published privacy policy did not mention desktop application analytics or data collection by Phocus. The 4.1.1 update addressed this with updated disclosure language and the opt-in mechanism.

What does this tell us about Phocus quality?

Phocus is a capable RAW processor with genuinely unique technology. HNCS color science produces results that no third-party editor can replicate. HNNR denoising runs on Apple's Neural Engine and delivers excellent results. The HDR output pipeline, when working correctly, gives Hasselblad photographers post-capture control that Canon and Sony require in-camera decisions for.

The issues documented here are real, reproducible, and affect photographers' daily work. Three of the most severe bugs have been fixed in subsequent releases, which shows that Hasselblad's engineering team does act on reports when they reach the right people. The challenge is that Phocus has no public bug tracker, no beta program, and no way for users to check whether their problem is already known. This page attempts to bridge that gap.

For detailed workarounds and in-depth coverage of Phocus behavior (including the topics touched by these bugs), see the Essential Phocus 4.x User Guide, a 78-topic reference covering everything from HNCS color science to tethered capture workflows.

For release-by-release context on when each bug was introduced or fixed, see the Phocus version history.