Before you start.
PTP is the direct path — camera plugs into Mac, SyncShot reads the files the body is currently holding. No card ejected, no reader needed. Worth a minute up front to make sure the cable, the mode, and the destinations are all set so the first run goes clean.
- A cable that matches the camera
- USB-C to USB-C on most current bodies. USB-A to USB-B for many DSLRs and older mirrorless. USB-A to mini-USB on some cinema cameras. Manufacturer-supplied cables are usually data-capable; cheap charging cables sometimes aren't.
- Camera USB mode set to PTP / MTP
- Most modern cameras default to PTP. Some bodies offer a choice in the USB menu — PTP, MTP, or Mass Storage. Pick PTP (or MTP if PTP isn't listed). Mass Storage works but treats the card like a drive, which isn't this guide.
- Destinations mounted and writable
- External drive plugged in, NAS share connected in Finder, cloud bucket added in SyncShot. If macOS can't see the destination, SyncShot can't write to it.
- Enough free space everywhere
- Rough estimate of what's on the card — RAW count × average frame size, plus video clips — fits on every destination with headroom. SyncShot warns ahead of the copy if a target is tight.
Step by step.
- 01
Connect the camera to the Mac with USB
Cable from the camera body to the Mac — USB-C on most modern bodies, USB-A to USB-B or USB-A to mini-USB on older ones. Power the camera on. macOS sees a new device.
- 02
Confirm the USB mode is PTP, not mass storage
Most current bodies default to PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol). Some give a choice — pick PTP / MTP, not "Mass Storage." PTP keeps the card as the camera's working file system; SyncShot pulls files through the camera, no eject needed.
- 03
Open SyncShot — the camera shows up as a source
SyncShot lists every connected source. The camera appears by model name. Selecting it lists the photos and clips on the card — the same ones Image Capture sees, plus the metadata.
- 04
Choose the destinations for this shoot
Add the places this card belongs. Internal disk for fast editing, an external SSD for the working copy, a NAS for the studio archive, a cloud bucket for off-site. As many or as few as the shoot calls for.
- 05
Save the set as a workflow if it'll repeat
If this is how you offload every tethered or post-shoot session, save the camera + destinations as a workflow. Next time, plug in, click once, done.
- 06
Hit start — SyncShot pulls via PTP
SyncShot reads the camera once and feeds every destination in parallel. PTP is slower than a UHS-II card reader by a real margin — plan for it on big shoots — but the card never leaves the body, and nothing else has to be unplugged.
- 07
Verify, eject the camera, power it down
Every file is hash-checked end to end as it lands. Green report = the bytes that left the body are the bytes that arrived. Eject the camera in Finder, then power it off before unplugging. The card stays in, ready for the next take.
After it's done.
Verified is the bar — not copied. The report tells you what landed where; if anything didn't, it's on that page. Once you trust it, the camera can go back in the bag with the card still inside.
- Open the job report
- Every file, every destination, every hash result. Filter for anything not green. If the report is clean, the shoot is safe.
- Save the destinations as a workflow
- If this is your standard PTP offload — same camera, same set of destinations — save the workflow. Next session, the camera plugs in and the workflow is one click away.
- Eject the camera, then power off, then unplug
- Eject in Finder (camera disappears from the source list), power the body down, then unplug the cable. Pulling the cable hot on some bodies leaves the USB stack confused until the next reboot.
Prefer pulling the card and using a reader? See CFexpress to multiple drives. Curious which camera bodies talk to SyncShot over PTP? Browse every source. More guides at the user guide hub.