Ingesto is a free camera card offload tool for Mac and Windows that copies your footage to multiple drives at once and verifies every file bit-for-bit.
Ingesto reads every byte back and checksums it, so you know your camera cards landed intact before you wipe them. This is verified camera card offload, and the same workflow DITs and data wranglers use, but for free.
I recently ran an article on the site about another product called Stow that is also a free copy and verification program. Just like Stow, Ingesto requires no account or signing up for anything; it is completely free.
A lot of shooters, and even clients, still use Finder or Explorer to copy critical footage. This is a very dangerous practise and it tells you nothing about data integrity. A single corrupt frame can easily slip through the cracks, and you won’t know until the edit. Some of the copy and verification programs on the market are subscription-based, and that is why some people are reluctant to use them. To play the Devil’s advocate for a second, a lot of the established copy and verification companies do offer good customer support and constant updates.
What can Ingest do?
- Multi-source → multi-destination copy in a single pass
- 4 copy modes: Fast · Verified · Secure (xxHash) · PRO (checksum list)
- PRO double-read: re-reads the source after verify to catch failing cards
- xxHash64 / xxHash128 / MD5 checksum list written per folder
- Auto camera detection (brand & model)
- Smart folder naming with presets + smart counter
- Card tracking: warns on unformatted or already-copied cards
- KIOSK mode: stripped-down single-card UI for camera operators on set
- Ingest report: live HTML log on every destination, exportable to PDF
Just like Stow, Ingesto isn’t yet registered on the Apple App Store. The apps are safe but unsigned. If macOS says the app is “damaged”, run once in Terminal: xattr -cr /Applications/ingesto.app.
You can download Ingesto here.
