From card to green, step by step.

Install tuu

tuu runs on macOS 11 or later and on Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit). On a Mac, the download is a DMG that is signed and notarized by Apple, so macOS opens it without warnings. On Windows, run the installer; it installs for your user without admin rights. The installer is not code-signed yet, so Windows may say “Windows protected your PC”: click “More info”, then “Run anyway”. The Final Cut Pro handoff is Mac only, and on Windows the client report opens in your browser, where you save it as PDF.

1. Download tuu from tuuapp.de and open the DMG.
2. Drag tuu onto the Applications folder in the window.
3. Open tuu from Applications or Launchpad. Eject the DMG afterwards.

Everything tuu needs is built in. exiftool, which reads serial numbers and clip details from the files, ships inside the app. If ffmpeg is installed through Homebrew, the client report also shows a preview frame for every clip. That part is optional.

When you set up your first project, tuu offers to turn on notifications. Say yes if you want to know when a card is done while you work in another app.

The 14-day trial

From the first start, tuu runs with every feature for 14 days: verification, backups, reports, ASC MHL, backup sync and the handoff to Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve. No card details, no sign-up. The footer of the app shows how many days are left.

Enter your license

When you buy a license or a subscription on tuuapp.de, you get a license key by email. The same field works for both.

1. Click Settings in the top right of the main window.
2. Scroll to License, paste the key from your purchase email and click Activate.
3. The toast License activated appears and the license is listed above the field.

• A license works on two computers, Mac or Windows. Before you move to a new computer, remove it on the old one in the same place. The activation is released and can be used again.
• tuu checks the license online now and then. Without internet it keeps working for 30 days.
• The one-time license includes 12 months of updates. With the subscription, you always get the newest version.

tuu Free, after the trial

Without a license, tuu continues as tuu Free. A banner at the top says so, with Buy and Enter license. tuu Free still detects the camera and the operator, creates the folders and copies each card once to your main drive. It does not verify that copy, so its tiles never turn green. They read Copied · not verified.

Enter a license at any time and everything comes back. Your projects, cameras and card log stay as they are.

Create a project

tuu opens on the project overview: Where do today's cards go? Each project is one production with its own drives, folder structure and card log. Card numbers count per project.

1. Click + New project.
2. Enter the project name, e.g. Townhall 2026. It becomes the main folder on every drive.
3. Choose the main drive and add your backups (next step).
4. Pick how folders are named and how they are structured, then click Create project.

To switch productions, click the project name in the top left (‹ Townhall 2026) to get back to the overview. Projects you used last are at the top.

Main drive and backups

Click Choose next to Main drive and pick a drive or a folder on it. Then click + Add backup drive for every backup you want. tuu copies to all of them at the same time, so a second or third backup costs no extra time.

• Room for ~14 cards in the footer is tuu's forecast of how many more cards of the size you shoot fit on the fullest drive. When space runs out, it tells you which drive is the bottleneck.
• tuu never treats your main or backup drives as a card, even if they are external USB drives.

Name folders by operator or by camera

Under Name folders by you choose who a card belongs to:

• Operator: the first time tuu sees a camera, it asks who shoots with it, e.g. Lena. Cards go to Townhall 2026 › Lena › Lena_Card 01.
• Camera: tuu asks for a camera name and suggests the next free number (Cam01, Cam02 …) or the model, e.g. FX6. The client report and the certificate then label the column Camera.

You can switch this later in Settings. That only changes how tuu asks and labels. Existing folders stay as they are.

Set the folder structure

Pick one of the presets or build your own from blocks. A live preview shows the result on every drive before the first card.

The last folder must contain {name} and {card}, so every card gets its own folder. Card numbers keep counting per name across the whole project, even with the date in the path. Folders that already exist are skipped, never overwritten.

RAID-A/
└─ Townhall 2026/
   ├─ Lena/
   │  ├─ Lena_Card 01/
   │  │  ├─ ascmhl/
   │  │  └─ PRIVATE/M4ROOT/CLIP/C0001.MP4 …
   │  ├─ Lena_Card 01 certificate.html
   │  └─ Lena_Card 02/
   └─ Tom/
      └─ Tom_Card 01/

Insert a card

Open the project and insert the card into your reader. There is nothing to click: tuu notices the card, shows a tile with Reading and looks for the camera.

• tuu reads the serial number from the clip metadata or from Sony and Canon XML sidecar files.
• Some recorders and drones write no serial number. tuu then recognizes the device by its folder layout and file naming. Two identical units without serial numbers cannot be told apart: assign those cards manually.
• If no project is open, tuu asks Which project does this card belong to? Pick one, or create a new project right there.
• tuu only reads from the card. It never formats or erases it.

Assign a new camera

The first time tuu sees a camera, the tile shows Who? and a dialog asks who shoots with it. Click one of the names you already use, or type a new one, then click Assign and back up. tuu remembers it: every later card from this camera is handled automatically.

Click Later to leave the card waiting. To rename a camera or start over, open Settings › Cameras: change the name or click Forget camera, and tuu asks again next time.

Audio recorder cards

Cards from audio recorders such as Sound Devices, Zoom or Tascam are backed up like camera cards: copied to every drive, verified by checksum, listed in ASC MHL. tuu recognizes them by their Broadcast WAV files (BWF with bext or iXML metadata) and reads the recorder model and serial number from them.

The first time tuu sees a recorder, the dialog asks Who records sound with this recorder? Type the sound mixer's name, e.g. Tom, and click Assign and back up. From then on, every card from this recorder goes to that name's folder automatically. If your folders are named by camera, tuu asks for a recorder name instead, e.g. Sound or Mix01.

Townhall 2026/
├─ Lena/Lena_Card 01/   ← Sony FX6
└─ Tom/Tom_Card 01/     ← Sound Devices 833 · SN 12345678
   ├─ T001.WAV
   └─ T002.WAV

• Audio formats: WAV, BWF, RF64, W64, AIFF, FLAC and MP3.
• In the client report and the Excel clip sheet, each audio file shows its format (e.g. WAV · 48 kHz · 24-bit · 8 ch) and start timecode instead of a picture size.
• A recorder without a serial number is recognized by its file and folder pattern, like any other device without one.

Copy, verify, green

As soon as the camera is known, tuu creates the card folder on every drive and starts.

1. Copy. tuu reads the card once and writes it to the main drive and every backup in parallel. While it reads, it computes an XXH3 checksum of every file.
2. Verify. tuu reads every file back from every drive and computes the checksum again. Nothing is taken from a cache: it is what is really on the disk.
3. Green. Only when every file matches on every copy does the tile turn green: Verified on 3 drives (XXH3) · ASC MHL. Now the card may be formatted in the camera.

• Does a client, insurer or archive ask for a specific checksum? In Settings, under Additional checksums, pick any of MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-512, XXH32, XXH64, XXH128 and C4. tuu then checks every copy with those as well, lists them in the offload certificate, adds MD5, SHA-1, XXH64, XXH128 and C4 to the ASC MHL and saves one list per checksum next to each card folder, e.g. Lena_Card 01.md5 or Lena_Card 01.sha256. You can check these lists with shasum -c, md5sum -c or xxhsum -c. Each extra checksum makes offloads a little slower.
• If a checksum does not match or a drive is full, the tile turns red with the reason, e.g. Checksum mismatch or Not enough space on SSD-B. The card is not green, so do not format it. Fix the cause and insert it again.
• Several readers? Insert several cards. Each gets its own tile.

Cards saved before

tuu takes a fingerprint of every card. If you insert a card that is already saved in this project, tuu does not copy it again. The tile reads Already saved and names the card folder, e.g. Already saved in Lena_Card 03.

If the operator kept shooting on that card, tuu finds the new files and asks what to do. It never adds files to a card folder that is already saved, because the verified copy and its ASC MHL must stay untouched. You choose what goes into the new card folder:

Eject and notifications

• Eject card when it's verified: as soon as a card is green, checked on the main drive and every backup, tuu ejects it so you can pull it and reuse it.
• Notifications: tuu tells you when a card is verified, a new camera needs a name or something goes wrong, even when tuu is in the background.

Both are switches in Settings. Click Save at the bottom of Settings after changing them.

Client report: PDF, Excel, CSV

Click Card log ▾ in the top bar and choose PDF report, Excel (.xlsx) or CSV, then where to save it. The report lists every card of the project: operator or camera, card number, device, folder, files, size, runtime, time saved and status. The Excel file has a second sheet with every clip: duration, resolution, fps, codec and timecode.

Card log · Townhall 2026Created 26.10.2026 with tuu

Operator	Card	Device	Files	Size	Runtime	Status
Lena	01	Sony FX6 · SN 5021388	42	118.4 GB	01:12:08	Verified · 3 drives
Lena	02	Sony FX6 · SN 5021388	37	96.1 GB	00:58:40	Verified · 3 drives
Tom	01	Canon EOS C70 · SN 0123	29	74.9 GB	00:44:15	Verified · 3 drives

ASC MHL and Offload Certificate

Every verified card gets two kinds of proof, on the main drive and on every backup:

• ASC MHL v2.0 in the folder ascmhl/ inside the card folder: a manifest with the XXH3 checksum of every file (plus MD5, SHA-1, XXH64, XXH128 or C4, if you turned them on) and a chain file in which each manifest is identified by its C4 ID. ASC MHL is the format many studios and streamers ask for as proof of a verified offload.
• Offload Certificate next to the card folder, e.g. Lena_Card 01 certificate.html: production, operator, card, camera, every file with its checksum and the method used. Open it in a browser and save it as PDF for your client.

Townhall 2026/Lena/
├─ Lena_Card 01/
│  ├─ ascmhl/
│  │  ├─ 0001_Lena_Card 01_2026-10-26_143012Z.mhl
│  │  └─ ascmhl_chain.xml
│  └─ PRIVATE/ …
├─ Lena_Card 01 certificate.html
└─ Lena_Card 01.sha256   ← one list per extra checksum (.md5, .sha256 …)

Check your production's delivery specs for their exact requirements. tuu is not affiliated with or endorsed by Netflix or the ASC.

Backup sync

Turn on Keep backup in sync in Settings. Files you add to the project yourself, such as sound, stills or a project file, are then copied to every backup too. tuu checks once a minute.

• Only missing files are copied, and each one is verified by checksum.
• Nothing on the backup is ever overwritten or deleted. If a file differs, the footer shows Backup: 1 conflict with the file names, and you decide.
• Files changed in the last 60 seconds are left alone until they are finished, and the sync pauses while a card is being saved.
• The footer shows the state: Syncing backup …, Backup in sync or a conflict.

Check drive

Weeks later, before you hand over a drive or delete a card, check that nothing has changed. Click Check drive in the top bar and pick a drive or a production. tuu reads every file back and compares it with the ASC MHL checksums it wrote when the card was saved.

Changed or missing files are listed card by card. Check drive changes and deletes nothing. Every passed check is recorded in the card's ASC MHL history as a new verified generation.

Final Cut Pro

1. In Settings, turn on Send to Final Cut Pro after backup.
2. After each verified card, tuu creates an event for that card, e.g. Townhall · Lena Card 02, with keyword collections per operator and card. Final Cut asks once which library to use.
3. Want one big event? Select the events in Final Cut and choose File › Merge Events.

BRAW and R3D footage needs the Blackmagic or RED plugin in Final Cut, as with any manual import.

Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve

1. In Settings, turn on Prepare for Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.
2. After each verified card, tuu saves an XML in Movies › tuu with a bin per operator and card and a sequence of all clips.
3. Import it in Premiere Pro with File › Import, or in DaVinci Resolve with File › Import › Timeline.

Sound in sync

When the sound mixer records on a separate audio recorder, tuu puts that sound under the picture for you. It matches every video clip with its recording across all cards of the project, no matter whether the camera card or the sound card comes in first. No new files are created: picture and sound stay the original files on your main drive.

1. In Settings, turn on Sync sound to picture. It is on by default and works together with the Final Cut and the Premiere/Resolve handoff, so one of them must be on as well.
2. Back up camera cards and recorder cards as usual. After each green card, tuu looks for matching pairs and shows e.g. 12 clips synced with sound (10 by timecode, 2 by waveform).
3. Final Cut Pro opens an event such as Townhall · Synced · Tom Card 01 with synced clips: picture with camera sound, the recorder sound connected below. Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve get an XML in Movies › tuu with one sequence per clip (picture, camera sound on A1–A2, every recorder track below) and one sequence with all synced clips. Import it as described above.

• By timecode: if camera and recorder share timecode, tuu compares the clip's start timecode with the recorder's on the same shoot day. Exact to the sample in Final Cut, to the frame in Premiere and Resolve.
• By waveform: if the camera has no matching timecode, tuu compares the camera's own sound with the recordings. It needs scratch audio on the camera; only clear matches are used, everything else is left alone.
• The client report notes the partner of every synced file, e.g. T001.WAV · timecode.
• On a Mac without ffmpeg, the waveform comparison works for MOV, MP4, WAV and AIFF. For MXF clips without matching timecode it needs ffmpeg (e.g. via Homebrew).

Frame.io Coming soon

With the subscription, tuu will upload the clips of every verified card to your Frame.io project, in the same folder structure as on your drives, so the edit can start while you shoot. Each clip will carry operator, camera, card and verification as Frame.io metadata. You will connect your account in Settings › Frame.io with an Adobe sign-in in your browser and choose the project for uploads. Upload errors never stop a backup.

iPhone and Apple Watch Subscription Coming soon

The free tuu app for iPhone and Apple Watch shows every card on every computer, live, and notifies you when a card turns green or something needs you. It is only a display: nothing is started or changed from the phone.

1. In Settings on the computer, open iPhone & Apple Watch and click Pair iPhone.
2. Scan the QR code with the iPhone camera or in the tuu app. The code is valid for 10 minutes and works once.
3. Card progress and alerts reach your phone end-to-end encrypted. Unpair all removes every paired device.

Updates

tuu looks for a new version when it starts and every few hours. When one is ready, a button appears in the footer.

1. Click Update to …. tuu downloads the signed update and checks its signature.
2. The update starts the next time you open tuu. While a card is being saved, tuu waits until it is done.

The one-time license includes updates for 12 months after purchase. If a newer version is outside that period, tuu says so and keeps running the version you have.

Feedback and support

Missing something or found a bug? On the project overview, click Send feedback, choose Idea or Bug and describe it. Add your email only if you'd like a reply. The line at the bottom with the tuu and system version helps with bugs; you can delete it.

Or email support@tuuapp.de. Tell us your computer (Mac or PC), the camera and what you see in tuu. The card log as CSV or Excel helps us find the cause faster.

Delete a project

Open the project, then Settings › Delete project and type DELETE to confirm. This removes the project and its card log from tuu, so you can no longer export a report for it. Your footage, folders, ASC MHL and certificates on the drives stay untouched: tuu deletes no files.