Source: Love Mac | Software download link: Preserve for Mac

Preserve for Mac is a professional tool dedicated to editing and managing metadata in lossless audio files. It supports mainstream lossless formats such as FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, DSF, and WAV, allowing users to efficiently edit tag information such as song titles, artists, albums, cover art, and lyrics, and to perform high-quality audio format conversion and changes to sample rate/bit depth. This article aims to provide a detailed operation manual from beginner to expert.

I. Detailed Explanation of the Core Interface and Workspace

After launching Preserve, its interface is mainly divided into four logical areas, with a clean design and centralized functions.

Top Menu Bar and Toolbar: Contains entry points for all advanced operations, such as file import, batch operations, format conversion, preferences settings, etc. The toolbar provides shortcut buttons for the most commonly used functions such as “Add Files,” “Edit Info,” “Write Tags,” and “Convert Files.”
Left Navigation Panel (Sidebar): Usually used to display the file list or album grouping. You can view all imported audio files here and filter and browse by album, artist, etc.
Central Editing Area: This is the core workspace. When one or more files are selected, this area displays detailed metadata fields for editing, including:
- Basic Tags: Title, Artist, Album Artist, Album, Year, Track Number, Disc Number, Genre, Composer, etc.
- Cover Art: Displays the currently embedded album cover; you can drag and drop a new image to replace or add one.
- Lyrics & Comments: Used for editing and viewing synchronized or unsynchronized lyrics as well as other text comments.
- Technical Information: Displays non-editable, read-only information such as the file’s codec format, sample rate, bit depth, number of channels, and duration.
Bottom Status Bar & Batch Operations Panel: The status bar shows the number of currently selected files and format information. When multiple files are selected, a batch operations panel appears, allowing you to apply a certain field (such as Artist) uniformly to all selected files, or perform batch conversion.

II. Complete Workflow: From Project Creation to Export

1. Create/Open a Project and Import Files

Steps:

Launch the software: Click the Preserve icon in Launchpad or the Applications folder.
Import Audio Files:
- Method 1 (Menu): Click the menu bar File > Add Files... or Add Folder....
- Method 2 (Keyboard Shortcut): Press Cmd + O (Open File) or Cmd + Shift + O (Open Folder).
- Method 3 (Drag & Drop): Drag audio files or folders directly from Finder into the main window of Preserve or onto its Dock icon.

After importing, the files will appear in the file list on the left navigation panel.

2. Edit Metadata

Steps:

Select Target Files: Click a single file in the left list, or hold the Cmd key to select multiple files, or press Cmd + A to select all.
Enter Edit Mode: Click directly on any editable field (such as “Title”) in the central editing area to start typing. Editing happens in real time, but changes at this point are only temporarily stored in memory.
Edit Cover Art:
- Add/Replace: Drag an image file (JPEG, PNG, etc.) directly onto the cover art display area.
- Remove: Right-click the cover and select “Remove Cover”.
Batch Apply Tags: After selecting multiple files, enter content (such as a unified album name) in the “Shared Values” input box of the batch panel at the bottom, then click the “Apply” button on the right.

3. Save (Write) Changes

After editing is complete, you must write the changes to the file itself.

Steps:

Write to a single/multiple files: Select the edited files and click the “Write Tags” button in the toolbar (the icon is usually a disk or a down arrow).
Keyboard shortcut: Press Cmd + S.
Menu action: File > Write Tags.

Note: This operation directly modifies the original files. It is recommended to back up the original files beforehand using the File > Create Backup Copy feature.

4. Format Conversion and Export

Preserve can convert files to other lossless formats or change their sampling parameters.

Steps:

Select files: Select one or more files that need to be converted.
Open the conversion dialog: Click the “Convert Files” button in the toolbar, or use the menu Tools > Convert Files..., shortcut Cmd + Shift + C.
Set output parameters: In the pop-up dialog, set:
- Output format: Such as FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, WAV, etc.
- Sample rate/bit depth: You can choose to keep the original or perform up/downsampling (e.g., convert 44.1kHz to 96kHz).
- Output Directory: Specify the save location for the converted files.
- Filename Rules: Optionally choose whether to include tag information in the filename.
Start Conversion: Click the “Convert” button. The process will run in the background, and you can check the progress in the status bar.

III. Advanced Tips for Common Features

Automatically Fetch Metadata from Online Databases:
- After selecting files, try using Tools > Look Up Metadata (Cmd + I). Preserve may connect to databases such as MusicBrainz to automatically match and fill in tags and cover art, greatly improving organization efficiency.
Smart Fill and Field Linkage:
- When editing “Track Number”, using a format such as “3/12” (current track/total tracks) can fill in the total track count at the same time.
- Use the “Album Artist” field to unify album organization, making it easier to browse by “Album Artist” in players.
Lossless Embedded Cover Optimization:
- To avoid excessively large files, it is recommended to keep cover image resolution between 1000×1000 and 1500×1500 pixels, in JPEG format. Preserve may automatically compress oversized images when they are dragged in, but it is best to process them in advance.
Rename Files Using Folder Structure:
- After writing tags, you can use the Tools > Rename Files feature to automatically rename physical files based on tag information (such as “Artist – Title”), keeping your file system tidy.

IV. Common Issues and Solutions

Symptom	Possible Cause	Solution
Saving (writing) after editing fails, with a message saying the file is read-only or a permission error.	1. The file is locked by another application. 2. The file is on a read-only volume (such as a disc image) or you do not have write permission.	1. Close any player or editor that may be using the file. 2. Copy the file to a local disk where you have write permission (such as the Desktop) and try again.
Edited artwork or information does not appear in other players (such as iTunes or car stereos).	1. Some players have specific requirements for metadata formats or have cached old information. 2. Metadata standards for formats such as WAV are not consistent.	1. Make sure the artwork is in standard JPEG format and not too large. Force a library refresh or rebuild the index in the player. 2. For scenarios with high compatibility requirements, consider converting the file to a format with better metadata support (such as ALAC or FLAC).
During batch editing, the wrong tags were accidentally applied to all files.	User error.	Immediately use `Cmd + Z` to undo the last write operation. If you have already saved multiple times, try restoring from a backup copy.
After format conversion, the new file has no metadata.	The “Copy metadata” or similar option was not checked during conversion.	In the conversion settings dialog, carefully check and make sure options such as “Keep tags” and “Embed metadata” are checked.
The software cannot recognize or open certain “.wav” or “.flac” files.	The file may be corrupted, or it may use a specific encoding variant that Preserve does not support.	Try using another player or audio tool to verify whether the file is intact. If the file itself is fine, try updating Preserve to the latest version.

V. Preserve for Mac Keyboard Shortcuts Summary

Function Category	Action Description	Mac Shortcut
File Operations	Add File	Cmd + O
Add Folder	Cmd + Shift + O
Write Tags (Save Changes)	Cmd + S
Create Backup Copy	Cmd + Shift + B
Editing Operations	Find Metadata (Auto-fetch)	Cmd + I
Rename File	Cmd + R
Undo	Cmd + Z
Tool Operations	Convert File	Cmd + Shift + C
Preferences	Cmd + ,
View & Navigation	Select All	Cmd + A
Deselect All	Cmd + Shift + A
Toggle Sidebar Visibility	Cmd + Option + S
General	Get Help or Open User Manual	Cmd + ?

Tip: The shortcuts above are Preserve’s common default settings. Some may vary slightly depending on the software version. You can check the right side of the corresponding command in the menu bar or customize them in Preferences.