Session cards
Session cards is a way of grouping Frames. Instead of rows of frames under headings, Frames draws one card per session, and each card says whether that session has a take yet. That holds while the pass has a frame with a capture time; the last section says what the cards are when it has none. Reach for it to see a whole shoot at the height of sessions — a wedding's morning, ceremony and evening — rather than frame by frame.
Opening the cards
Choose Session cards — the last row of the grouping menu's first level on the Frames header, or the last chip of Group by in the Organise and filter pane. Choosing it puts any second level down, because a card has nothing under it, and leaves you on the frame you were on. The header now reads Grouped by Session cards · from the gap between captures, 45 min · similar frames stacked. The gap phrase is a menu of four gaps (15, 30, 45 and 90 minutes) and is what cuts the cards. There is no sort or sections phrase: the cards are in capture order, and a card is not a section.
What a card shows
Left to right:
- Its number — 01, 02 — in capture order.
- A collage of up to three of its frames, with a stack-count chip on it when the session holds stacks and similar frames are stacked.
- Three lines of words. On top, in small type, the date, the span of capture times and the frame count: 14 June 2026 · 09:12–11:40 · 84 frames. Once the library holds a place or a journey (see Places and journeys), that line ends with the session's place, or No location data on this card; until then it carries neither. In a pass that also holds frames with capture times, a session of frames without one reads No capture time in place of the date and times. Under it is the session's name, built from its named people, the time of day and the place (see Sessions). Under the name are up to three small chips for what the session was shot on: the camera bodies first, then the lenses, as the files name them. A session whose files name neither shows no chips.
- The coverage column, on the right.
Click the number, the collage or the words and Single opens on that session's first frame. G brings you back to the cards, grouped as you left them.
The coverage column
The status line is a glyph and a count of the session's takes against its target: 2 of 2 takes, 0 of 1 take. When the target is met, the glyph is a ticked circle and the line is green. When it is not, the glyph is a warning triangle and the line is amber. When Vixlo cannot tell, the line reads Can't tell yet and the card offers nothing to do. A proposal is never counted as a take.
The target is how many takes you want from this session, an instruction rather than a measurement. It sits between the stepper's − and +, reading target 1 to start with (the caution below has the one case where it starts higher). − and + change it; it never goes below one. It follows the session through a change of gap where it can and otherwise goes back to one. It is kept for this sitting only: every session starts at 1 the next time you open the library.
Resolve gap appears only on a session that is short of its target. It takes you to the session's first Hold, or to its first frame when it has no holds, and opens Compare on that frame: the cards give way to the pass, with that frame at the left and, at the right, the best other frame Vixlo can find, so you can choose the take. It changes no decision by itself. See Compare and Keys in Compare.
To leave Compare, press C again, press Esc with nothing else open, press ⌘1, or click Single on the views line. Each shows Single on the same frame, and G from there returns to the cards. G in Compare shows the cards too without leaving Compare: G or Esc on the cards brings it back. Leaving Compare has the whole of it.
When proposals are on and the app has proposed a take for a session that has none, the card offers a small Accept in place of Resolve gap — the two never show together — and the status line wears the proposal's hollow dashed tick. Accept writes that session's proposed takes and nothing else; one ⌘Z puts them back. See What a proposal is.
When no frame in the pass has a capture time
The cards are sessions only while the pass holds at least one frame with a capture time. When it holds none, because the pass is empty or every frame in it is undated, Frames draws the library's import groups instead: one card for each group the library has ever filed a frame under, whether or not any of its frames is in the pass. Each card is headed by the import label, such as 14 Jun · 42 min (see The import label), with a month such as June 2026, or the name of a chapter, above it in place of the date and times. The group of undated frames reads No capture date recorded above Undated. A card with no frame in the pass has an empty collage. A target starts at the figure the import gave its group, which can be 2.
When the pass is empty, nothing on the sheet says so: the pass line reads 0 frames, but the sheet is a column of cards. To get sessions back, put down the chip hiding the frames with its ×, or click All on the views line. A library with no capture times at all draws these cards whenever you choose Session cards; group by something else to see its frames in rows.
The cards and the rest of the page
The cards are the same pass as any other grouping: the chips on the views line narrow them, the strip at the bottom shows the same frames, and the count line above the cards counts the pass. A card's pictures load as it comes on screen, so in a long shoot the cards further down fill in as you scroll.