> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://photocli.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Supported Photo File Formats and Extensions in photo-cli

> photo-cli processes jpg, jpeg, heic, png, and hif by default. Learn how to extend support to any format the MetadataExtractor library can read.

photo-cli processes `jpg`, `jpeg`, `heic`, `png`, and `hif` files by default. Because the tool uses the [MetadataExtractor](https://github.com/drewnoakes/metadata-extractor-dotnet) .NET library to read EXIF data, you can extend this list to support any image format that MetadataExtractor handles — without recompiling or upgrading photo-cli itself.

## Default supported extensions

Out of the box, photo-cli looks for files with these extensions (matched case-insensitively):

* `jpg`
* `jpeg`
* `heic`
* `png`
* `hif`

<Note>
  Extension matching is case-insensitive. Files named `IMG_1234.JPG` and `IMG_1234.jpg` are both processed.
</Note>

## Adding extra extensions

Use the `settings` command to replace the `SupportedExtensions` value with a comma-separated list of the extensions you need:

```bash theme={null}
photo-cli settings --key SupportedExtensions --value jpg,jpeg,heic,png,tiff,cr2
```

The new value takes effect immediately for all subsequent commands. You do not need to restart anything.

## MetadataExtractor compatibility

photo-cli delegates all EXIF reading to the [MetadataExtractor .NET library](https://github.com/drewnoakes/metadata-extractor-dotnet). Any format listed in that library's supported file types can be enabled by adding the extension to `SupportedExtensions`.

<Warning>
  photo-cli reads EXIF data to determine the taken date and GPS coordinates. Image formats that do not embed EXIF metadata — such as plain PNG exports from design tools — will have neither a date nor location. Those photos are handled according to your `--no-taken-date` and `--no-coordinate` settings, and may end up in the configured fallback folders.
</Warning>