Which ExifTool Version Should You Pair with ExifToolGui?

ExifToolGui needs ExifTool — Phil Harvey’s command-line application and Perl library — paired beside it, and ExifTool’s version numbers contain a distinction most download pages flatten: as of this writing, the latest version overall is 13.59 (released May 27, 2026), while the latest production release is 13.55 (April 7, 2026). Those are both true, they mean different things, and Harvey’s own history page draws the line explicitly. This page explains the distinction exactly as its author states it, then helps you choose which of the two belongs beside your GUI. Both the GUI and ExifTool are linked from our download page; pairing mechanics live in the Troubleshooting hub, and platform context in the Platforms & Versions hub.

The distinction, in the author’s own terms

ExifTool’s history page states: ‘The most recent production release is Version 13.55. (Other versions are considered development releases, and are not uploaded to MetaCPAN.)’ So the numbering after 13.55 — 13.56, 13.57, 13.58 and 13.59 — are development releases: real, published, downloadable releases, but not what the author designates as the production line. And 13.59 is simultaneously the latest release overall: a security update (May 27, 2026) that also added a NewUUID Extra tag and new decoding, including a Canon RF lens and the Sony ILCE-7RM6. Any page that calls 13.59 ‘the latest production release’ is wrong per the author; any page that hides 13.59’s existence is incomplete. The vocabulary matters because ‘production’ is Harvey’s stability designation, and ‘latest’ is a calendar fact — you are choosing which of the two properties you value, with full knowledge of both.

Choosing: stability designation or newest changes

  • Pair production 13.55 if you want the release the author designates for production use — the conservative choice for a working photo library, where the value is a settled, designated-stable engine under your edits. It is also the line distributed through MetaCPAN, per the history page’s note.
  • Pair latest 13.59 if you want the newest work: the security update and the newest camera and lens decoding (a new Canon RF lens and Sony ILCE-7RM6 support arrived in this release). For users whose newest camera files are the ones being tagged, development releases are how support reaches them first.
  • Either way, the GUI does not care which you picked. ExifToolGui drives exiftool.exe as its engine; both 13.55 and 13.59 pair by the same rules. Switching later is a folder swap, not a reinstallation of the GUI.

One framing rule this site follows, and recommends: when you describe your setup to anyone — a forum, a colleague — name the number and its status (‘13.59, the latest development release’ or ‘13.55, the production release’). Half the confusion in ExifTool discussions is two people saying ‘latest’ and meaning different lines.

Pairing the version you chose

The mechanics are identical for both versions, and they are ExifTool’s own documented ones. Download the Windows zip for your chosen version (for 13.59, the 64-bit zip is exiftool-13.59_64.zip; a 32-bit zip is also published). Extract it fully. The executable inside is named exiftool(-k).exe — rename it to exiftool.exe for command-line and GUI use (or to plain exiftool if your Windows hides extensions). And keep the exiftool_files folder with the exe: ExifTool’s documentation states that if you move the exe, that folder must move too. If you use the ExifToolGui installer instead, it can fetch ExifTool during setup — Harvey’s zip, renamed into the install folder, or Oliver Betz’s self-installing package (the Windows builds rest on Betz’s launcher work). Failure at any of these steps presents as the classic error, fixed in the not-found guide. The GUI version you pair the engine with should itself be current: V6.3.12, whose changes are itemised in What’s New in V6.3.12.

Verify your download against the publisher’s checksums

ExifTool is one of the tidy cases in software distribution: the publisher posts a checksum file for each release (checksums-13.59.txt for the current one), so the file you pair can be checked against the author’s own record. The 13.59 64-bit zip downloaded for this site’s research measured 11,183,675 bytes, and its SHA-256 — 44b512b25af500724ba579d0a53c8fc5851628b692dd5e5d94ae4a15c2cba9ec — matched the published checksum file exactly, as did its MD5. Verifying takes a minute and closes the one gap the version choice cannot: that the file on your disk is the file the number on the label promises. Note also where the file comes from: exiftool.org’s download links currently redirect to SourceForge, to reduce load on the project’s server — a redirect there is the expected route, not a warning sign.

Frequently asked questions

Is 13.59 safe to use if it is ‘only’ a development release?

‘Development release’ is the author’s classification, not a warning label this site can upgrade or downgrade: Harvey publishes these releases, designates 13.55 as production, and notes development versions are not uploaded to MetaCPAN. 13.59 is, additionally, described in the history as a security update. Choose by the criterion that matters to you — the production designation, or the newest changes — with both facts in view.

Does ExifToolGui require a specific ExifTool version?

The V6 documentation’s requirement is that ExifTool be downloaded and installed — the pairing itself — rather than one pinned version. The practical discipline is to run a current, deliberately chosen release (13.55 production or 13.59 latest) and to keep its files together.

What licence does ExifTool carry?

Harvey’s wording, which this site uses verbatim rather than abbreviating: ExifTool is free software that you can redistribute and/or modify under the same terms as Perl itself. That is a different licence statement from the GUI fork’s GPL-3.0 — one more reason the GUI and the engine should never be merged into a single product description. Their relationship is traced in V5 vs V6 for the GUI side.

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