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.

A companion page tracks the other half of the record: what each Phocus 4.x release note said versus what actually shipped.

Key finding: As of August 2026, 24 bugs have been reported to Hasselblad across Phocus 4.0.1 through 4.2.1. Nine have been fixed in subsequent releases. Three have been confirmed and queued for future releases, and one more has been confirmed and recorded for evaluation without a committed fix. One is under active engineering review. Five were classified as intentional design decisions, two of them disputed (one closed as won't fix in July 2026). The rest: two awaiting a first substantive response, one superseded, one closed with a workaround, and one awaiting verification of a claimed fix.

How many Phocus bugs have been reported?

24 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)
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: Fixed in Phocus 4.2, confirmed by re-test | 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

Every JPEG, TIFF, and HEIF export silently capped at 7000×5250 (High, Phocus 4.1.2)

Ticket: Case #10109745 | Status: Fixed in Phocus 4.2, confirmed by re-test (full-size JPEG exports at native 11656×8742) | Version: 4.1.2

In Phocus 4.1.2 on Mac, every JPEG, TIFF, and HEIF export is silently downscaled to 7000×5250 pixels regardless of the Dimensions setting in the output preset. “Full Size” produces a 7000×5250 file instead of the native 11656×8742. “Restrict Pixels 2000” also produces 7000×5250 instead of 2000×1500. The same operations under Phocus 4.1.1 work correctly. This is a 4.1.2 regression.

The failure is silent: the export dialog closes, the file appears in the destination folder, EXIF reports a valid (just wrong) size. There is no warning, no log entry, no indication that the configured Dimensions setting did not take effect. Workflows affected include web galleries, social media uploads, email attachments, and archival “Full Size” exports that produce a 37MP file instead of the 100MP master.

Hasselblad Support confirmed the bug on May 22, 2026, two days after the initial report. The reply explicitly noted that multiple customers have reported the issue, engineers are actively working on a fix, and the resolution is planned for the next Phocus update. A separate dedicated ticket was opened as requested rather than merging the issue with prior cases.

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 #10344904 (supersedes #9940198) | Status: By design per Hasselblad engineering, August 19, 2026: with the checkbox ticked (the default) the embedded configuration takes precedence over the selected preset, and the re-ticking on every relaunch is also intended. Disputed | Version: 4.1.1 - 4.2.1

The "Adjustment" dropdown in the Import Images dialog lets you select an HNCS preset to apply at import time (Standard, Nature, Portrait, etc.). Whether it applies depends on the "Use embedded if available" checkbox next to it: unticked, the chosen preset is genuinely applied (verified byte-identical to a manual application on 4.2.1). Ticked, which is the default state and re-arms itself on every app relaunch, the selection is recorded in the sidecar but never rendered, so the default import flow still arrives at the flat 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.

Update, August 19, 2026: Hasselblad senior engineering answered in writing on case 10344904. With the checkbox ticked, the file's embedded configuration takes precedence over the selected preset, and both this and the checkbox re-arming on every relaunch are "expected behavior". I dispute the classification: the Phocus manual's only sentence about the Import dialog says it "allows you to apply Adjustments to images when they are imported", and on default settings it does not do that. The second reported behavior (featureless frames at wide apertures refusing the preset even with the checkbox unticked) was answered with "we have not observed this phenomenon" and remains open.

Measured follow-up (August 2026), including a cross-check against Phocus Mobile 2's rendering: Phocus for Mac Imports Aren't HNCS by Default.

Covered in: Phocus 4.1.1 bug investigation

Hasselblad RGB and L* RGB profiles cannot be selected as export profiles (Medium, Phocus 4.1.1+)

Ticket: Case #10354915 | Status: Confirmed by Hasselblad senior engineering, August 20, 2026. Recorded for evaluation; they will assess correcting the device class in a future software update. No fix version committed | Version: 4.1.1 - 4.2.1

The two profiles Phocus installs for its own working space, Hasselblad RGB.icc and HasselbladLStarRGB.icc, carry ICC device class scnr (Input) instead of mntr (Display). Phocus for Mac and Lightroom Classic both filter their output profile lists by device class, so neither application offers either profile as an export target or for soft proofing. The profile bytes are identical in Phocus 4.1.1, 4.1.2, 4.2 and 4.2.1, so this is not a recent regression. The color data inside the profiles is correct and existing files are unaffected; only selection is broken. The workaround is to set the Phocus output profile to Source, or to correct the device class on local copies of the profiles.

Reported August 12, 2026 with a read-only verification script, a screen recording of the full Phocus profile list, Lightroom screenshots and two pixel-identical test images. Senior engineering confirmed the analysis on August 20, 2026 and recorded the issue for evaluation.

Covered in: Why Hasselblad RGB Is Missing From the Phocus and Lightroom Export Menus

Import rewrites the EXIF camera model, breaking DxO PureRaw (High, Phocus 4.2)

Ticket: Case #10227174 | Status: Won't fix (by design). Final engineering response July 14, 2026 | Version: 4.2

Phocus 4.2 rewrites the EXIF Model tag when importing a 3FR, changing X2D II 100C to Hasselblad X2D II 100C, and injects a private metadata tag the camera does not write. About 215 bytes change, all in the file's metadata header; the raw image data is untouched. DxO PureRaw 5 and 6.3.1 both reject the imported file as an unsupported camera, while the same frame copied straight off the card opens fine. Lightroom Classic opens the modified file without complaint.

Phocus 4.1.1 import is byte-identical to the card original, so this is a 4.2 regression. The rewrite applies through the Standard import preset (which is always active) and there is no option to turn it off. Workarounds: copy files off the card yourself and point DxO at that copy, or restore the original Model value with ExifTool on files already imported.

Update, July 3, 2026: Hasselblad engineering responded that the rewrite is deliberate, on the grounds that current versions of Adobe software require the prefixed Model format to recognize the camera. Direct testing contradicts this: Lightroom Classic 15.4.1 with Camera Raw 18.4 recognizes card-original files carrying the camera-written value, and the camera already writes the prefixed form in the UniqueCameraModel tag on every frame. The by-design classification is disputed.

Update, July 14, 2026: Hasselblad has closed the discussion. Engineering's final response restates that import "is not a direct copy" and that the Model rewrite exists to align 3FR imports with FFF imports, and points to manual card copying as the way to keep files untouched. The two questions on the table, rolling the rewrite back in favor of a camera-firmware fix and documenting the change in the release notes and manual, went unanswered. The rewrite stands in Phocus 4.2, so the workarounds above remain the practical answer for DxO users.

Update, August 21, 2026: Retest against 4.2.2 pending; see Phocus 4.2.2 for Mac: HEIF Fixes, Language Switching, Smoother Zoom for what its changelog does and doesn't claim about the import path.

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

Ticket: Case #9698009 | Status: Engineering confirmed runtime findings, fix being developed | 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. In May 2026, Hasselblad's senior engineering team confirmed the static analysis is correct, reproduced the bug in Phocus 4.1.2, and is now developing a fix that addresses the specific reset path for the locked state flag. No release date committed.

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: Fixed in 4.2.1 (persistence); export not re-tested | Version: 4.0.1, 4.1.1, 4.1.2, 4.2

Color labels assigned in Phocus did not survive an application restart. This is fixed as of Phocus 4.2.1, confirmed by hands-on testing on 3FR files; version 4.2 still showed the fault. Hasselblad shipped the fix without noting it in any release notes and without responding on the case. FFF and JPG/HEIC files were not affected. The second half of the original report, whether color labels are included in exported files, has not been re-tested. Full story of how it was found and fixed.

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

Full investigation

In-camera star ratings are silently dropped on RAW import (Medium, Phocus 4.1.1+)

Ticket: Case #10078056 | Status: Hasselblad committed a fix in May 2026; still unfixed through Phocus 4.2.1 (retested 2026-08-03) | Version: 4.1.1 through 4.2.1

Rating an image on the X2D II's back screen during playback writes a standards-compliant EXIF:Rating tag to the .3FR file (Microsoft EXIF 2.3 tag 0x4746). Phocus reads the embedded XMP packet's xmp:Rating field exclusively and ignores EXIF:Rating entirely. The camera firmware does not update the XMP packet when ratings are applied in playback, so every imported file shows zero stars regardless of how it was rated on the camera.

Confirmed by a controlled test: a copy of one of the test files with xmp:Rating manually forced to 3 imports into Phocus showing 3 stars. The EXIF tags are identical between the original and the forged copy; XMP is the only variable. I originally reported that Lightroom, Capture One, Photo Mechanic, and Bridge all read EXIF:Rating correctly and Phocus was the outlier. That claim was wrong: an import test on 2026-08-03 showed Lightroom Classic drops these ratings too, reading the embedded XMP just like Phocus. Capture One, Photo Mechanic, and Bridge remain untested. The camera firmware's failure to mirror playback ratings into the XMP packet is the root defect in practice.

Hasselblad's 2026-05-12 response confirmed the scope: JPG and HEIF imports do transfer ratings correctly into Phocus. The bug is specific to RAW (.3FR) files. A follow-up on 2026-05-15 from Hasselblad Support tightened the commitment: “our engineering team has indicated that an improvement is currently planned for the next version of Phocus.” No release date committed, but a concrete release-cycle target.

Affected workflow: photographers who triage on the camera back before getting to the workstation, then import RAW. Reported to Hasselblad Support on 2026-05-10 with full ExifTool evidence and a screen recording. A repair tool now exists: Appaloosa writes corrected copies that show their stars in Phocus and Lightroom Classic.

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: Fixed in 4.2 | Version: 4.1.1, 4.1.2

A memory leak in the Ultra HDR export path leaked memory on every export through Phocus 4.1.2, where a large batch could exhaust system memory and hang the Mac. Fixed in Phocus 4.2: in testing, memory holds at a much lower steady state and export batches no longer show the runaway growth. The restart-between-batches workaround is now only needed on Phocus 4.1.x.

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 85-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. The dated 2026 record of those releases and their defects is on The Phocus for Mac Record.