Help & FAQ

Which app is which

AAF Look reads an AAF and shows you what is inside: tracks, clips, timecode, source files, and markers, as a report you can read, export to PDF, or print. It also says what is wrong with the turnover, from linked media that did not arrive to a file that stopped part-way through a transfer. Press the Spacebar on an AAF in the Finder and it renders without opening anything.

AAF Player opens the same turnover and plays it back: a timeline with waveforms, fades, clip gain and automation, plus reference picture kept in sync. Select clips or tracks and it exports them, as dry audio files with handles or as a new AAF. Nothing is imported, and the AAF you opened is never written to.

They share the same AAF engine. If one opens your turnover, the other will too.

Installing

Each download is the complete app and runs as a full 14-day trial. There is no separate paid build: your license unlocks the copy you install.

1. Open the downloaded disk image (.dmg).
2. Drag the app into your Applications folder.
3. Open it once from Applications. Do not run it from the disk image or your Downloads folder. For AAF Look, installing it properly is also what enables the Finder Spacebar preview.

Updating

Both apps can tell you when a new version is out: choose Check for Updates… from the AAF Look or AAF Player menu, the one next to the Apple menu. Neither app checks on its own. There is no background polling and no check at launch, so an offline or air-gapped machine simply never reaches out.

AAF Look asks the website which version is current and sends nothing about you, your license, or your files. If an update is available, it shows what changed and offers a Download… button that opens the product page in your browser. AAF Player (from 1.1) makes no network connections at all: Check for Updates opens its product page in your browser, where the current version is listed beside the download. Nothing self-updates and nothing is downloaded behind your back: you install it yourself, the same way you installed the app. You can always see the current versions and what changed on the release notes page.

To install an update, download the new disk image and drag the app into Applications, replacing the copy already there. Quit the app first if it is running. Your license stays valid, so you will not be asked to enter it again, and every 1.x update is included in what you already paid. Trials update the same way, and reinstalling does not restart or extend the 14-day trial.

Trial and licensing

Both apps are a one-time purchase, no subscription, and every copy starts as a full-featured 14-day trial. Nothing is limited during the trial: the trial is the demo.

When the trial ends, AAF Look asks you to activate when you open a file, and AAF Player keeps any session you already have open playing but needs a license to open new ones. AAF Look's Quick Look previews keep working for free either way, always.

Activating

Your license arrives by email as a small signed file. Note that Enter License lives in the app's own menu, the one next to the Apple menu, not the File menu:

• AAF Look (.aaflicense): drop the file onto the AAF Look window, double-click it, or choose AAF Look → Enter License…
• AAF Player (.aafplayerlicense): double-click the file, or choose AAF Player → Enter License…

The license carries your name, which is what the app shows as "Licensed to". Activation never contacts a server: it is checked on your Mac, instantly and offline. It works forever on the Macs you personally use, including air-gapped studio machines, and covers every 1.x update. There is no activation limit and nothing to deactivate.

AAF Look: Quick Look previews (Spacebar in the Finder)

Select an AAF in the Finder and press the Spacebar. macOS shows AAF Look's report right there, without opening the app. It is always free, with or without a license.

One-time setup

macOS only learns about the preview after it has seen the app once:

1. Drag AAF Look into your Applications folder, not run from the disk image or your Downloads folder.
2. Open it once. That is what registers the preview with macOS.
3. Now select an AAF in the Finder and press Spacebar.

After that it is on by default. Most people never open a setting.

From the preview to the app

Every preview carries an Open in AAF Look link under the file name. Click it and the full report opens in the app. The Clip Events list, Find, printing, PDF export and the report summary are app-only, and a preview shows only a short form of the Recovery Report; the whole thing lives in the app. Since 1.1, reading a preview never launches your DAW: the double-click that macOS used to pass through to Pro Tools is disabled inside the preview.

Optionally, the preview can close itself once the report is open. It is off by default. Turn it on in AAF Look’s Settings, under Quick Look: Close Quick Look after opening in AAF Look. The Finder owns the Quick Look window, so closing it needs macOS Accessibility permission: macOS will ask you to allow AAF Look Quick Look Helper, a small part of AAF Look that runs only when you open a report from a preview, closes that one preview, and quits. Opening reports from Quick Look works either way. If you change your mind, the permission is under System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility.

Scrolling the preview

Use the trackpad, mouse wheel, or scroll bar to move through the report. The Page Up and Page Down keys do not scroll a Quick Look preview: macOS reserves the keyboard for Quick Look's own controls and does not pass those keys to a preview extension, so it is a system behavior, not something AAF Look can change. For keyboard navigation (plus Find, print, and export), open the file in the app.

If the preview is blank or shows only a plain icon

The preview may be switched off. Turn it back on, and note that Apple moved this control between macOS versions:

• macOS 15 (Sequoia) and macOS 26 (Tahoe): Apple menu → System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions, scroll to Quick Look, and make sure AAF Look is turned on.
• macOS 14 (Sonoma): Apple menu → System Settings → Privacy & Security → Extensions → Quick Look, and tick AAF Look.
• The version-proof shortcut: open System Settings and type "Quick Look" into its search box. It jumps straight to the right place on any macOS.

Still nothing? Open Terminal, run qlmanage -r to rebuild the preview registry (or just restart the Mac), then try the Spacebar again. If it persists, email us.

AAF Look: reading the report

The top of the report is the headline: file, size, who authored it, frame rate, start timecode, duration, and counts for tracks, clips, markers, and source files. Below that, each topic is its own section:

• Overview: a visual map of the timeline.
• Tracks: every track, its type and channels, clip count, and the first and last timecode it touches.
• Source files: the underlying audio (and picture) the clips point at, with format and size.
• Markers: positions, names, comments, and colors.
• Warnings: anything about the file worth a second look.

Click a section's disclosure triangle to collapse or expand it. View → Collapse All / Expand All does the whole report at once. Press ⌘F to find text, ⌘G for the next match. Open Settings (⌘,) to reorder or hide sections; heavier ones like Clip Events are off by default.

Export a PDF with ⌘E, share it through the macOS share sheet with File → Share, or print on Letter or A4 with ⌘P.

Findings: what is wrong, and what to do

When AAF Look sees something that could cost you time in the DAW, a black banner appears under the file name with a count and a View details link, and a Findings section is added at the end of the report. Each finding says what happened, what it means for the import, what AAF Look actually checked, what it could not establish, and what needs to change about the file. AAF Look has no way of knowing which end of the turnover you are on, so a finding says what the AAF needs, never who to ask.

A clean AAF has no banner and no Findings section at all. When there is one, it is always last, always printed, and, unlike every other section, cannot be hidden or reordered, so a finding can never be tidied out of a report someone else reads. You can still collapse it on screen while you work.

When an AAF cannot be read: the Recovery Report

Some files cannot produce an honest report: a download or transfer that stopped part-way, a file that is not an AAF, or one that holds more than one sequence with nothing to say which is the delivery. Rather than a half-report that looks complete, AAF Look shows a Recovery Report: what went wrong, what it could still recover from the file (each fact marked as exact, partial, or a floor), what it could not verify, and the one thing to do next. The Quick Look preview shows a short version with a link to open the file in the app for the whole thing.

Checking linked media

When an AAF points at audio files rather than carrying them inside, AAF Look looks for them as soon as the report appears: at the locations recorded in the AAF, then beside the AAF itself and in the media folders exporters create next to it. The result appears under Source files and, if anything is missing, as a finding that names each file, where it was expected, and which clips go offline without it.

To point it at a delivery folder instead, choose File → Check Linked Media… or the Check delivery folder… link in the report. AAF Look searches that one folder by file name, read-only, and never opens or alters your media. One limit worth knowing: finding a file with the right name is not the same as confirming it is the right audio. AAF Look says filename found, never relinked. Your DAW still does the relink.

The first time AAF Look looks inside Desktop, Documents, Downloads or an external volume, macOS may ask your permission. That prompt is macOS’s, and answering it once is enough. Until you answer, those files show as checking rather than missing.

Copying a report summary

Edit → Copy Report Summary (⇧⌘C) puts a plain-text summary of the open report on the clipboard, ready to paste into a reply to whoever sent the turnover: the headline facts, the linked-media result, and any findings with what the file needs. It never includes file paths or the list of your own folders.

Your logo on the report

AAF Look can put your own logo and company name at the top of the report, on screen and in the exported PDF, so what you hand to a client reads as yours. Open Settings (⌘,) and choose an image. Settings shows a box matching the space the report reserves: drag the image to position it and use the slider to zoom, so you can place it the way you want rather than accepting a crop. Double-click the box to start over.

PNG, JPEG, TIFF, HEIC, PDF and SVG all work. Reports without a custom logo look exactly as they always have.

AAF Player: playing a turnover

Choose File → Open AAF… (⌘O) or drop an AAF on the window. While "Preparing playback…" is on screen, AAF Player is reading the session and staging its audio; the progress bar tracks real bytes, so a turnover with hours of media takes longer. When the timeline appears, press Space.

AAF Player ships a full help browser of its own: Help → AAF Player Help (⌘?) covers every topic in depth. The essentials:

Transport and navigation

• Space plays and stops from wherever the playhead is.
• J K L shuttle reverse, stop, and forward; press J or L again for 2× and 4×. Shuttling changes pitch by design, which is what makes it useful for finding a transient.
• ← and → step one frame, landing frame-exact and auditioning a short grain of audio so you can scrub a sync check.
• I and O mark a time selection in and out; Esc clears it. ⌘L loops.
• T and R (or ⌘= and ⌘−) zoom in and out.

Reference picture

File → Import Video File… (⌘I), or drop a movie on the window. Where the file carries a start timecode it spots itself; where it does not, type the timecode the first frame belongs on. [ and ] nudge the picture a frame at a time if sync looks off, and ⇧[ resets the nudge. A timecode burn-in can be drawn over the picture with ⌘⇧⌥T.

Rendered effects

Where the editor baked an effect into a clip, AAF Player draws that clip in gold and shows the rendered audio’s own waveform, so you can see which material has been processed without playing through the reel. Choose Play Rendered Effects (Control-Command-E) to switch between hearing the rendered version and the dry original underneath it. That is the quickest way to tell whether something odd is the edit or the effect.

Selecting clips and tracks

Selection follows the Finder. Click a clip to select it, ⇧-click to extend a range, ⌘-click to add or remove one, or drag a box across the timeline. Click a track’s name or number to select every clip on it; the track tints to show how much of it is selected, so a partial selection reads differently from a whole one. ⌥-click a track name to select or deselect every track. ⌘A fills out the tracks you have already touched, the way it does in Pro Tools; ⌥⌘A takes everything.

Track order and waveform height

• Drag a track by its name or number to move it; a blue line shows where it will land. If the track you grab has a selected clip, every track with a selected clip moves together, keeping their order. ⌘Z takes a move back, and View → Reset Track Order returns every track to the editor’s order. Exports follow the order on screen; the AAF you opened is never changed, so reopening it shows the editor’s order again.
• View → Larger Waveforms (⌥⌘]) and Smaller Waveforms (⌥⌘[) scale every waveform from ⅛× to 32× without changing what you hear. Hold ⇧ and the deck’s ▲/▼ button does the same; ⇧⌥-click it to return waveforms to true scale. The button keeps a faint blue while waveforms are zoomed.
• View → Waveforms Follow Clip Gain (on by default) draws each waveform with its clip gain, as Pro Tools does: +20 dB draws ten times taller, −10 dB about a third as tall, and a clip-gain line shapes the waveform along the clip. Volume automation plays but is not drawn into the waveform.
• ⇧M and ⇧S mute or solo every track that has a selected clip; press again to undo it.

Exporting

With something selected, choose File → Export Selected… (⇧⌘E). The sheet counts what you have selected and sizes the result before you commit. Two shapes come out:

• Audio Files: one Broadcast WAVE per clip, written dry the way Pro Tools’ Export Clips as Files writes them. Fades, clip gain and volume automation are ramps rather than media, so they are not baked in. Handles are whatever length you ask for, or All available. Each file carries a timestamp of where it sat on the timeline, so it spots straight back to its original position. Bit depth and sample rate match the source unless you choose otherwise; three or more channels convert to the rate you pick.
• AAF: a new file holding only the tracks and clips you chose, with every marker, timecode, clip gain, fade and automation curve from the original. Where the AAF you opened linked to media elsewhere, that audio is written into the new file so it opens anywhere. If some of it cannot be written in, the export becomes a folder holding the AAF beside the media it needs, and the sheet says so before you commit.

When it finishes, a report sheet lists every file written, with Reveal in Finder and Save Report… to keep the list as a text file. Exporting never overwrites files already in the destination without asking first, and the AAF you opened and its media are never modified. Cancelling, or quitting mid-export, leaves no partial files behind.

What it plays

• Audio in the AAF: embedded PCM (16, 24 and 32-bit), WAVE and AIFF/AIFC. External WAV and AIFF, plus MXF (Avid Op-Atom and standard MXF audio). Media that has moved is found again automatically when it still lives near the AAF; anything genuinely missing is reported per clip in the Inspector with the path where it was expected.
• Reference picture: ProRes, H.264, HEVC and AV1 through the system decoder; DNxHD, DNxHR, MXF-wrapped picture and AVC-Intra through a bundled decoder. Where a file's container and codec disagree, both paths are tried before giving up.

What it deliberately does not do

AAF Player never modifies the AAF you opened. There is no editing, no re-conform, and no manual relink dialog: export gives you the pieces, and changing the session still happens in the DAW. Sessions that mix sample rates play at the dominant rate with the odd clips flagged rather than resampled, so those will sound pitch-shifted. Tracks with more than two channels fold to left and right: surround stems play but are not decoded to a surround bus.

Troubleshooting

An AAF will not open at all (either app)

If the file is an Avid turnover that links to its media rather than embedding it, typically an .aaf sitting next to an Avid MediaFiles folder, make sure you are on version 1.0.2 or later. Earlier versions refused to open some of these files: 1.0.1 fixed the common case, and 1.0.2 fixed the exports that still would not open in AAF Look. Choose Check for Updates… from the app menu, or see the release notes. Keep the AAF and its media folder together as delivered.

An audio-only AAF reports the wrong length (either app)

Some audio-only exports declare a zero-length sequence while carrying a full programme. Before 1.0.2 that left AAF Player's timeline reading 00:00:00.000 with Go to End jumping back to the start, and AAF Look reporting the wrong duration. Update to 1.0.2 or later.

AAF Look reports the wrong sequence, or an odd frame rate

Two fixes landed in 1.0.2. A file containing group clips could be reported as the group clip rather than the delivered sequence, and an audio-only AAF carrying no timecode could have its audio sample rate mistaken for a frame rate. Both now read correctly, and a file with no timecode reports its frame rate as N/A.

AAF Player is not in the Finder’s “Open With” menu

Update to version 1.0.3 or later. Earlier versions registered for .aaf under an identifier macOS did not bind when another AAF-aware app was installed, so the entry did not appear. AAF Player deliberately does not claim the double-click default: that stays with your editor.

The AAF export came out as a folder, not one file (AAF Player)

That is the export telling the truth about the media. Where the AAF you opened linked to audio that could not be written into the new file, the export becomes a folder holding the AAF beside the media it needs, so the pair travels together. The export sheet says this before you commit. Keep the folder intact when you send it on.

Export Selected is dimmed (AAF Player)

Nothing is selected. Click a clip, drag a box across the timeline, or click a track name to take the whole track, and the item enables.

A track is silent (AAF Player)

Check its M button (red means muted, and turnovers often arrive with tracks pre-muted), check whether another track is soloed, and check the track actually has clips at the playhead. If the meters move but you hear nothing, check your output device in System Settings → Sound.

Playback paused when the audio output changed (AAF Player)

That is deliberate. When the output changes, for example headphones unplugged or another interface chosen in System Settings → Sound, AAF Player pauses and moves playback to the new device, so dialogue never jumps out of the room’s speakers. A note at the top of the timeline names the device; press Space to carry on from the same spot.

It says "Ready N of M tracks"

Normal whenever a session has empty tracks. Only tracks with playable audio are counted.

A banner says playback needs a different sample rate

Your output device is running at a rate the session cannot play at. Open Audio MIDI Setup (in /Applications/Utilities), select the output device, and set its format to the rate the banner names.

Dialogue sounds pitch-shifted

Either you are shuttling, where J and L change pitch by design (press K, then Space), or the session mixes sample rates and the affected clips are playing at the dominant rate. Mixed-rate clips are flagged when the session opens.

External audio is missing

Keep the media files in the same folder tree as the AAF, as delivered. AAF Player searches near the AAF automatically; clips whose media cannot be found are listed as offline in the Inspector, with the path where they were expected.

The picture will not load, or looks wrong

Check the codec against the list above. If the picture freezes while audio carries on, the video window recovers by itself within a moment, because the decoder runs in a separate process: re-spot by double-clicking the video lane if sync looks off afterwards.

System requirements

• macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later, including macOS 15 (Sequoia) and macOS 26 (Tahoe).
• Apple silicon.

Getting help

Email support@parkstreetpostsoftware.com. The more of this you can include, the faster the answer:

• What you expected to happen, and what happened instead.
• The app version, from the About window, and your macOS version.
• For a problem with one turnover: who delivered it and what it came out of (Media Composer, Premiere, Resolve), plus the AAF itself if you can share it. An AAF describes the edit, not the audio, so it is usually small enough to email on its own, and it is often all we need to reproduce the problem.

Bugs and feature requests are welcome at the same address. Turnovers from the wild are the most useful thing anyone sends: if a file opens wrong, that file is the bug report.

FAQ