V0.6.29 · MACOS + WINDOWS · FREE
You are about to wipe a card. How sure are you?
Copying footage is the easy part. The harder question is whether the copy is actually good. Stow reads every file back from the destination drives, compares it with the card, and gives you one answer for the whole card: safe to wipe, or not yet.
What is actually at stake
Once the card is wiped, the original is gone.
A failed offload can mean losing footage you cannot simply recreate.
Then there is the client conversation, working out what can be recovered or reshot, and whatever that costs in time, money and trust.
That is why knowing a copy has finished is not quite enough. You need to know it is good.
How it works
Card in. Verdict out.
Drop in the card
Stow reads the camera and files everything into a clean, consistent folder tree.
Pick your drives
A working drive and a backup, or more if you want them. Stow reads the card once and writes to all of them at the same time.
Read the verdict
Stow checks every copy off the disk and tells you when it is safe to wipe.
The main screen · drag and drop
Live progress
Why we built it
Stow started after I lost footage on a shoot.
We were in Lyon, filming for a business school. At the end of the day I copied the cards to an SSD in the hotel room, opened a few clips to make sure they were there, and went down to dinner while it finished.
Back in England the cards had already been reused on the next job. When I sat down to edit, days later, some of the footage was not there.
Nothing had told me. The copy looked finished. The clips I opened played perfectly. The ones I did not open were the problem.
I didn't want to be in that position again. I wanted something that could tell me when the card was actually safe to wipe, rather than opening a few clips and hoping for the best.
Built by a production company, shaped by the people who use it.
See what Lumira makes
"On a busy multi-camera day, there is always a card you are not sure is safe to wipe. We built Stow so we never have to guess."
Why verification matters
A finished copy has not necessarily been checked.
When you drag a card onto a drive, Finder or Explorer tells you when the copy has finished. It does not then read every file back from the destination and compare it with the card.
That is the extra step Stow adds. It reads the files back from the drives and checks them against the source before it gives you a verdict.
The verdict
One answer for the whole card.
Safe to wipe means Stow has at least two verified copies on separate drives, with every file checked against the source.
Not yet means that threshold has not been met. Stow shows you which copy or file needs attention.
We built it for our own studio, and made it free. No trial, no account, no paid tier behind it.
Stay in touch
- Have your say. If something about Stow annoys you, or you need it to do one more thing, tell us. That is how most of it got built.
- Never miss an update. A short note when there is a new version, so you are not running last year's copy on a job that matters.
- First look at what we make next. Stow is not the only tool we build for our own shoots, and they are all free.
The best ideas have come from other crews.
Stow started as our own problem. Almost everything good about it since has come from other crews telling us what they needed. We would like to hear from you too, and you will be first to know when there is a new version or a new tool.
One email to confirm it is you, then nothing until there is something worth saying. Unsubscribe any time, and your address stays with us.
How it compares
Every tool here verifies. Only one gives a verdict.
The paid tools are good at what they do. Here is where Stow sits.
| Feature | Stow | OffShoot (Hedge) | ShotPut Pro | Pomfort | Resolve Clone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $169 to $249 one-time | $169 one-time + updates | $199 to $899 / year | Free, in Resolve |
| Genuinely free version | Yes | No (10-day trial) | No (trial) | No (trial) | Yes |
| macOS and Windows | Both | Both | Both | Mac only | Both |
| Verified, checksummed copy | Yes (xxHash) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reads card once, two drives at once | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| MHL manifest | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Safe-to-wipe verdict | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| No subscription lock-out | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Camera auto-detect and filing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Basic |
All five tools checksum a copy. Stow is the only one that turns those checks into a clear answer: this card is safe to wipe.
Competitor pricing is in USD and indicative, captured June 2026; the paid tools run from $169 one-time to $899 a year, and the subscription option is Mac only. Subscription tools revert to read-only when payment lapses. Stow is free on both platforms, with no account.
What's inside
Everything needed to clear a card. Nothing else.
Every feature is here to get the card off, and to prove it is off.
A report you can hand to a client.
Every offload writes a one-page report onto each drive. It says what was copied, what was checked and whether it passed, and it prints straight to PDF. Nobody has to take your word for it.
- The safe-to-wipe verdict, in plain words
- Per-card clips, size and verified copies
- Read back off the disk, checked with xxHash3-128 and ASC-MHL v2
- A checksums.csv beside every manifest, openable in a spreadsheet
Check an archive
Worried about an old job? Point Stow at a folder it copied months ago and it checks every single file again, then names the ones that have gone bad.
Verified offload report
The proof of the offload, written to every drive: what was copied, what was checked, and the result. A spreadsheet of every file check sits next to it if anyone wants the detail.
Verified copy
Stow does not trust the copy. It reads every file back off the drive afterwards and compares it with the card.
Two drives at once
The card is read once and written to both drives at the same time, so two backups take about as long as one.
Every card at once
Put three cards in and all three go at the same time, not one after another. You wait for the slowest card instead of for all of them added up.
Wrap a finished card
Once a card is safely backed up, Stow can leave a mark on it so the camera asks to format it the next time it goes in. Some people call it a zombie format. It means a finished card never looks like an unshot one in the pouch. Off unless you switch it on, and Unwrap puts it straight back.
A note on your phone
Walk away and get a message on your phone when the card is done. Optional, and off until you set it up.
It just opens
No security warning to click past. Both the Mac and the Windows version are properly signed, so your computer already knows who made it.
Proof that outlives us
A small record of every file travels with the footage, so any other tool can prove it is intact years from now. It is called an MHL manifest, and post houses know it.
It knows which camera
Stow reads the camera from the card and files the footage the same way every time, so you are not renaming folders at the end of the night.
Stop, safely
Stop part-way and Stow stops properly. A half-finished offload never pretends to be a finished one.
Safe eject
Stow ejects the card for you once every copy has passed, so you are not pulling it out and hoping.
macOS and Windows
The same app, and the same answer, on a Mac or a PC.
Local and private
No account, and nothing uploaded. Your footage never leaves your machine, and neither does anything about the job.
Blog
The bits worth knowing.
Offloading is full of quiet traps: the reader that throttles your card, the copy that was never checked, the drive that lies. Plain explainers, for people who like to know why.
TeraCopy, camera cards, and the tool we ended up building
A good file copier is not a card offloader. What we learned on our own shoots, and why the thing we built is free.
Read ComparisonShotPut Pro alternatives: what working crews actually use
What the offloaders really cost in 2026, where each one earns its money, and where a free tool is enough.
Read Start hereHow Stow works, and what each result means
The complete guide: how a copy is proved, what green, amber and red mean, and exactly what to do when a copy will not verify.
Read Release notesWhat's new in Stow 0.6
Every card copies at once now, both builds are signed and notarised, and a verified card can be Wrapped so it stops looking like an unshot one. Most of it came from user feedback.
Read HardwareWhy your CFexpress card is not hitting full speed
Most shooters are capped by the reader. How to tell, and the one upgrade that helps most.
Read VerificationWhat "verified" actually means
Reading every byte back off the disk, versus checking a file size. Only one survives a card wipe.
Read StorageYour Mac does not checksum your footage
APFS checksums its own metadata. Your clips get no such protection, and an app-level read-back is the only real proof.
Read WorkflowTwo copies, two drives, then wipe
The 3-2-1 rule on set, and why a single backup is a single point of failure.
Read Under the hoodChecksums, plainly
xxHash, MD5, SHA. What each one proves, what none of them do, and which one a card offload needs.
Read SpeedCopy once, verify in the background
How a card reaches two drives at the same time, and where the waiting really goes.
ReadMore as we ship.
Questions
Straight answers.
Is it really free?+
Yes. No trial, no account, no upgrade fee. Stow is free on macOS and Windows, and it stays that way.
Will there be a paid version?+
No. There is no paid tier planned and nothing is held back for one. The client-facing offload report ships free, in the app, today.
Does Stow change my card?+
Your footage is only ever read, never altered or deleted. There is one exception, and it is opt-in: if you turn on Wrap, Stow can write a small marker to a card once it has been verified, so a compatible camera offers a fresh format next time it goes in. It is off by default, it never touches your clips, and Unwrap puts the card straight back.
Why two drives?+
One drive can fail. Two verified copies on two separate drives is the only state where losing a drive does not lose the footage. A single copy holds at amber until a second one verifies.
Is my footage uploaded anywhere?+
No. Copying, verification and camera detection all happen on your machine. There is no account, no cloud, and your footage never leaves the computer. Stow goes online only for the parts you choose to use: a small daily check for a new version, installing an update when you ask it to, and the optional phone alert, which goes through the ntfy service you configure. None of it carries anything about you or your footage, and the version check has an off switch in Settings.
How do updates work?+
When a new version is available, Stow tells you inside the app. You can install it from there, and your settings, reports and offloaded footage are left alone.
I have an Intel Mac.+
The current macOS build is for Apple Silicon, M1 and later. There is no Intel build at the moment; if that changes we will say so here.
Before you go
We would like to hear how it goes.
Leave your address and you will hear when there is a new version, and first when we make something else for production. If Stow falls short on a job, reply and tell us. Almost everything it does now started that way.
One email to confirm it is you, then nothing until there is something worth saying. Unsubscribe any time, and your address stays with us.
Free for macOS and Windows
Stop hoping the copy worked.
An early release. v0.6.29, a few MB, no account. macOS build is for Apple Silicon.