EagleFiler Testimonials
And incidentally, my congratulations to you on creating such a robust, useful and secure notekeeping app. I just imported over 3,000 Evernote records into my new EagleFiler library. I can kiss Evernote goodbye (with much relief), thanks again to EagleFiler - and to your support
I love EagleFiler, and use it all the time. I just archived twenty years of email into an Eaglefile db, and it was a smooth and easy operation that proceeded as expected. That is a rare thing with software these days.
I use Tooth Fairy and DropDMG as well, and am similarly impressed with them.
Thank you for making excellent software.
I am using EagleFiler 1.9.13 on macOS Sonoma 14.4.1. I am also blind and so use VoiceOver. I really really love EagleFiler and couldn’t be more thrilled about the keyboard shortcuts that let me easily do just about everything. […]
Again, thanks so much for developing such a fantastic app. As I slowly move the disaster that is my jumble of documents, Emails, and other disorganized files into one place, I already see how EagleFiler is going to make a huge difference for me.
I’ve been using EagleFiler for a few years, but have never migrated my email archive from MailSteward, assuming that the dedicated solution would be more capable. But the MS database is so large that both Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner choke on it, ruining my whole set-it-and-forget-it backup strategy. Today, I bit the bullet and imported 92,851 the messages. I tried a few queries, and set smart folders for each year. So far, I haven’t found any mail management task that EF can’t handle, and it’s much quicker to use (perhaps because I have it open routinely). But the biggest advantage is that my backup utilities will treat each message individually. There are many very powerful features in EF, but to my mind the true genius of EF is that it manages files in the file system, rather than sucking them into its own database. And my perception is that you were doing that when everyone else was moving in the opposite direction, creating proprietary everything buckets. The pendulum now seems to be swinging back in the other direction. I’m glad you charted your own course. Well done.
A second exemplary item is the proliferation of AppleScripts that massively extend functionality. Except perhaps for BBEdit, I’ve not used another app that comes close to this level of leverage. Again, well done.
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Thanks for an excellent tool.
I love eagle filer!!
EagleFiler. It’s fabulous!
I do all my business by email. I’m a publisher and global activist. I generate loads of documents which I attach to emails.
EagleFiler makes retrieval and reprising this material a walk in the park.
Many thanks!
I’m posting this to celebrate an app many of you have already found helpful, and also to document my process in case anyone here runs into this issue.
I recently decommissioned an ancient Google account, which involved exporting almost 30GB of email using Google Takeout. I chose to keep it in a single file because I have fast internet and it seemed tidier. But I didn’t realize that all my power apps would hang up on importing such a large file. I haven’t been able to access the emails because I couldn’t find a program that could handle opening it. Thankfully EagleFiler was able to get the file open, and it didn’t even seem too taxing!
I downloaded the app, clicked Import File, selected the large .mbox file that I downloaded from Google, and waited a few minutes. It’s still “indexing” the nearly 400k messages, and it has been for a while, but I can search and access everything already.
Thanks, EagleFiler!
EagleFiler is awesome. Blazingly fast, iCloud-aware while at the same time being purely filesystem based, thus compatible with other tools (I mix it with Notebooks.app)
The “bucket” app without the bucket lock-in just keeps getting better.
DEVONthink, No. EagleFiler, yes!
EagleFiler is a brilliant and marvelous piece of work, through and through. I applaud your invention and care. As an old Mac user from the early days, this creation shows the deep design continuity that was much more familiar once upon a time.
It will serve here in many ways; but today it will serve as a rescue station and organizer for a huge collection of art and writings from an app that has now failed to operate reliably.
I’m very glad you’re there, that your blog is there, and that there are folks like you out there with extraordinary skill and trustworthiness.
Thank you.
I used to archive my company emails as on-my-mac folders in Mail.app for many years, until it started to show these instabilities during moving a few years back. Since then - every year - I tried out new options to save IMAP folders independent of Mail.app reliably (python scripts etc), and then find a way to make them searchable (I ended up importing them back into Mail as local folders). But as you know the stability issues got worse and worse and my recovered messages folder after a rebuild became un-mergable by my grep skills. Worst of all was of course this nagging feeling that you don’t know what you might have lost, because progress indication or error messages in Mail.app are sold separately...
Last week I got a new MacBook and wanted to avoid carrying over that Mail folder which has been upgraded over 5 macOS generations... I wanted to archive instead, and just download the current year from IMAP into an empty Mail.app.
EagleFiler has been amazing for this task (which included the challenge of merging recovered messages, some but not all of which were duplicates). Thanks for those AppleScripts! It cheered me up at every step. Standard file format, excellent logging... Great documentation. File based operations helped me archiving on one Mac and then move some archive files to my new Mac. It is so flexible, and if I encountered yet another Mail.app issue, the documentation already had an answer for it.
Totally awesome. Thanks for maintaining this product over the years. Great work!
I’m using EagleFiler with Resilio Sync to mirror the entire library across all family computers and iOS devices, works like a charm
One of the greatest apps I have ever had on my Mac.
This is the single most useful piece of software I have.
I’m really impressed with the concept and design of the program. The open database, built-in support for mail archiving, tagging, and folders puts it well ahead of other information managers. I’ve been waiting for a sensible Email archiving tool for a long time.
Your software is one of the best tools I have ever purchased. […] I have over 20GB of data in Eagle Filer libraries and everything is rock solid. For anyone who truly cares about the information they have, they couldn’t put it in a more trustworthy tool.
I use it daily and love it. Basically, when in doubt, I stick it in EagleFiler and know I can find the info later!
I’m coming to the end of my 8th year as an EagleFiler user and just wanted to say thank you for your excellent work, for your continued development and for your first class user support. I use it every day and have never had cause to regret choosing your brilliant application.
I’m very impressed with EagleFiler. EagleFiler is a crucial part of my setup. It is totally reliable, I researched high end document management systems extensively but EagleFiler does 99% of what they do at a much lower cost and does not maroon my data in custom formats. I think I’m using only a small portion of what it can do but it’s still great.
And it solves the problem of saving website data that you know is going to change. This is common with news sites but also with idiosyncratic sites that are likely to disappear. Academic pages are particularly subject to this in both having very interesting information and being likely to disappear. Even if the page moves or is redone having the full original page makes it possible and often easy to find the new page or redone information.
Works Beautifully! What I needed was a simple mbox file viewer to look at my email archive I had downloaded from Gmail. I always wanted to reach inbox zero and this app made it possible. It was exaclty what I was looking for...simple to import and easy to search through. Had no hiccups at all.
EagleFiler (EF) is a good filing program. You drag files or e-mail into EF, which then saves and indexes the content so that you can later easily find the exact file that is otherwise hidden among the many. The user interface is as simple as e-mail. EF stores the files in a quite ordinary subfolder for the index file so that you can be sure of being able to use the files, also from Finder or Windows, of course without having EF installed. All in all, a very robust and well thought out file archiver. I use it i.a. for manuals, articles, software licenses, etc., etc. And EF also works on older mac computers.
Clever and versatile
My primary reason for buying this was to safely archive my email in case Apple Mail mangles my old messages during a macOS upgrade. But it’s obviously useful for many more organizational needs. […] After only a week or two of testing with my files, I decided this was a definite BUY.
EagleFiler brings order to chaos. It makes chaos less daunting by helping you contain it in flexible ways and part of that process is seeing thousands of files fast (without the spinning “index” wheel in the lower right corner or the OSX directory window).
I have to say, EagleFiler is amazing. I’m so grateful that you created it, and support it the way you do. The more I use it, the more ways I find to use it, if that makes sense. It has become the go-to information capture tool and “brain” of my Mac—seems like whatever I want to do, there’s a way to do it with EagleFiler! :)
EagleFiler is a rock-solid, elegantly simple platform for organizing and storing your digital life. It’s robust without being confusing and keeps things organized as files that can be accessed in Finder, further adding to its reliability. Customer service is exemplary; updates are regular and well-tested. I trust this developer and this software implicitly. Overall, it’s the best piece of software I own.
For document management, flexibility, searching, tagging, organization, etc., EagleFiler is my first choice.
I’ve recently switched to using EagleFiler as my main information organising app. I’m not sure how I didn’t properly discover it until now, but after using Evernote for years, EagleFiler is like a glass of cold water in the desert. Really appreciating it.
I was really happy to discover EagleFiler could easily open a fairly large (1GB+) email .mbox file and easily browse and search the messages inside (after taking some time to index the content). If it can work with much larger mbox files even better.
Great feature and purchased EagleFiler for this functionality alone.
I love EagleFiler. In fact, right now it is the only application keeping me from dumping Apple completely and switching to Windows only (I use both now).
Every time I use your program, I mean to thank you again. This morning I realized how useful smart folders can be.
I scan documents that I receive frequently. I categorize them by company and date. I usually look them over and go over them before scanning them. However, like many people in life, I often get busy with other things and the piles of unscanned documents get larger and larger.
This morning, while sitting down with my breakfast coffee and lamenting how messy my desk area was, I realized that I could very easily scan the ones that I haven’t yet looked over and just mark them with something like “not checked.” Then, I set up a smart folder that is distinct from my individual smart folders with each company, that includes the tag for the company as well as the “not checked” phrase. And, these scanned documents, appear both in the appropriate place, and in the folder of ones that I have in the dealt with.
Clears my desk, makes them still accessible easily, and makes me feel a little bit more in control of my life.
Your product is truly wonderful.
Unable to fix my Spotlight crashes, I looked for a better way to store and search my email archive.
I rediscovered @mjtsai’s EagleFiler, and it’s perfect for that job (and many more!). As a bonus, my archive now syncs to my laptop, so I always have it.
Capture and file everything. This is my goto app for capturing everything from pdf’s, web pages, notes, books... the list goes on. What I like most about EagleFiler, compared to similar apps, is that EagleFiler does not keep my files in a database but instead a simple folder structure. The files are there unchanged in any way. This means I can see them and access/edit all my information from my phone or iPad. I often have to edit notes from my phone ‘on the move’. EagleFiler lets me do just that without any special app (although I do like Readdle’s Documents). But what good is data if you can’t find what you’re looking for? EagleFiler’s search is first class! It makes finding that pdf, text file, or web page I saved last year a doddle and it’s lightening fast. If you’re looking for something to collate and make sense of your digital life then this is the app!
For me one of the best apps on my Mac. I’ve been using EagleFiler for years. Rather without thinking great about it, I was not only able to manage documents but also participate. Now I am in a phase of my life where I have to apply and I was looking for software that would support me in researching employers on the Internet ... until I remembered that I already had it. And I’m more than thrilled. One push of a button and the website or mail is in the archive. Thanks and greetings to the author.
i am so glad i found this app! had a mac since 1992. first time to have a laptop. have a TON of pop email to archive but be searchable. running into all sorts of issue since i’m not using migration assistant. want to start fresh. enter eaglefiler. tried a few apps before i found this beauty. wasn’t what i was wanting, then bam! easily + quickly i had about 62,000+ emails organized by mailbox and searchable. saw that i could also use it for websites and did a few to check it out. will be like having a searchable brain. just what i need! happy camper.
I recently reported a bug to the EagleFiler developer and he immediately wrote back and promised a fix. Sure enough just a few days later he sent me a beta that fixed the issue. I tested EagleFiler [and other products] - all 3 had the features I needed (storing away receipts and other pdf’s, tagging, smart folders and the ability to add a quick note), but EagleFiler won me over with customer service. It’s been around forever and the developer is still dedicated to constantly improving it.
Once again, a few minutes ago, EagleFiler saved my day: I was looking for a message from only three months ago, Apple Mail reacted like a sloth, a lazy sloth, a lazy sloth in a comatose state: after minutes (!) it gave up the search by not finding anything. EagleFiler found it immediately. If only I had known earlier about EagleFiler!
EagleFiler from C Command Software archives Mail archives (mbox files) really well. I’m using it for everything in the Documents folder. Everything’s in native format and is accessible from the Finder. Very fast searching.
I’ve used EagleFiler user for years to grab Web pages for offline archiving. It’s never given me a moment’s grief. I’m kind of a packrat so I probably write to it 95% of the time and read from it 5% of the time. But that 5% is really nice to have when I need it. And no online bookmark manager can match EagleFiler’s lookup speed.
I continue to be grateful for the wonderful product EagleFiler is. It is second only to email as the most valuable application I have. […] My other comment about EF is that just when I think of a feature/capacity I wish EF had, I discover it is already built in. And the technical support is amazing!
Over the past few weeks, I have been putting EagleFiler and SpamSieve through their paces. I have concluded these are the best software purchases I have made in years! The applications work seamlessly with all the apps I use on a daily basis in my workflow. I am extremely happy with the software as well as the excellent support the developer (Michael Tsai) provides.
If anyone is considering EagleFiler or any other app C-Command offers, I can assure you, you will be pleased!
Thank you Michael for an excellent product!
Thank you one more time for your EXCELLENT support and your kindness.
I can attest that Michael Tsai is one of the most responsible developers in the entire Applesphere, and EagleFiler is an excellent app.
I just wanted to express my appreciation for EagleFiler. I have been using it for almost 20 years to archive my over 100,000 email messages. It always worked flawlessly and is continually updated. Definitely worth every penny!
Just a note to say thanks for EagleFiler! Such a great app, saved me a lot of time archiving a ton of old emails.
Fast, efficient, no frills, simple to use.
Indispensable! I store everything here: tax documents, check images for bookkeeping, invoices, thousands of web links, notes. Before EagleFiler, i had bought and tried Journler, Yojimbo, and Devonthink Pro Office, in that order, each for over a year. Each fell short. I’ve used EF since 2009.. I’ve asked many questions and reported a bug or two over the years. The dev, Michael Tsai, replies quickly and always with helpful answers or explanations. His updates are always substantive. Highly recommended!
I used EagleFiler to archive my messages, which was painless. The archive is very easy to search and I have found no need to re-import.
I just tried EagleFiler, and I think that’ll at least protect my mail. (And its an awesome archive app otherwise. Should’ve gotten it long ago)
EagleFiler has become essential to my work. It’s so useful that I’m embarrassed to have paid only $40 for it—so I’ve bought a few copies for friends.
I recently completed a year-long litigation project as an expert witness. By the end, I had 13,000 documents. Once I got over 500, EF was essential to keeping track of them. It has so many ways of providing assistance that I’m still discovering them. The biggest features for my daily use included extremely fast full-text searches, and instant previews of documents. And because it stores all files in their native formats, I was able to interoperate transparently with all of my applications, and with non-Mac people on the project.
I also keep a running database of every academic article I read. For that task, I appreciate the multiple ways to move documents into the database.
The level of support from the developer is amazing.
I am finding your product extremely useful for managing e-mail in connection with a legal proceeding. In such a proceeding, each side requests of the other “all communications in regards to this or that,” and EagleFiler’s features for archiving and tagging have been invaluable in managing this process, and in reconstucting events from years past.
I work as a computer programmer and unix system administrator and need to keep many notes about many things. EagleFiler has been a revolution in my notekeeping. My paper notes were voluminous and it was difficult to find things especially if it was a couple of years since I made the note. EagleFiler allows me to keep searchable notes and reorganize them if I wish. I also use it to organize projects and keep notes and documents of various types together pertaining to the project. I make use of EagleFiler frequently throughout my day. I chose EagleFiler over similar products because it keep documents in the native filesystem which I felt was more secure and allowed me more flexibility (I can look at my notes remotely in an ssh session).
EagleFiler is an incredible database program for my files. If I click F1 while viewing a Web page, word document, or e-mail, it is saved to my database in a folder called “To be filed.” When I get free time, I move the unfiled docs to the proper file. I am very impressed with the robustness of this program. (It will work in conjunction with a [MobileMe] account to allow for synced access [and email using Mobile Files] of your files on your iPhone.)
I’m finding EagleFiler very handy, and really enjoying using it. It has just the right balance between functionality, customisability and ease-of-use to suit my needs. Thank you for developing such a great piece of software!
Let me reiterate how much I like EagleFiler. I looked at a dozen related products before making my choice.
I was just struck by an idle thought, I have been using EagleFiler for several years and I never think about it. It is always open and I continually use it to store and manage all of my professional and personal data. I have a relationship of complete trust with a computer application; I can’t think of another example.
Your product is excellent as are the choices you make regarding its development and the clear and concise reasoning and support that you provide to your users.
This is just to let you know how pleased I am. I just imported a 500 MB Thunderbird mail folder (coming from a Windows machine at that…) containing over 100 mailboxes, many of them nested, into EagleFiler. It took less than 10 minutes (on a 2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon) to finish everything. And it seems to be absolutely perfect.
Just a quick thank-you note for EagleFiler. I’m a writer and journalist and I have a complicated workflow. It is especially important for me to consolidate research and quickly edit and annotate textual and PDF info on my iPad (using Good Reader.)
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EagleFiler’s simplicity is what makes it perfect. I can get stuff into my iPad simply by syncing over my EagleFiler folders (and as long as I don’t forget to quit EF, I can make changes directly to my EF files in Good Reader.) I can access the Dropbox folders on my desktop and notebook, or anywhere I like, really. And EF’s simplicity doesn’t extend to how it can be extended: using your scripts, I can get it to do just about anything I want. I’ve tried and tried other solutions, but nothing works as easily or well as EagleFiler. I don’t think your product gets a lot of credit—maybe it isn’t glamorous enough—or maybe your users are too busy actually getting work done to boast.
Even though C-Command has my trust and respect through years of using SpamSieve, I wanted to do my own evaluation of EagleFiler. There are a number of good programs available for archiving of e-mail on Mac, and I wanted the best for my needs—to index and manage more than 100,000 e-mails from four different accounts. I tested them all. For my demanding needs, EagleFlyer wins my praise with five-stars-plus.
Gotta say, I’ve used apps with rich functionality and I’ve used apps that are very solid, but I can’t think of an app that beats EagleFiler for (richness) * (robustness) * (years I’ve used it). The area under that curve is going to be very hard to beat.
Very steady development. Much more simple than DT yet as efficient. Just like an old friend to me…
Terrific for managing masses of data. This program does everything it promises and then some. […] Certainly one of the better buys I’ve made for my Mac.
EagleFiler is the first application that I open when I turn on my computer. It’s the best way to capture and organize information that I’ve found. Thanks!!!
There are very few software vendors that will a) pay this amount of attention to an issue that it turns out had nothing to do with their software and b) have the capabilities in place with excellent logging to help track down these type of things.
As a graduate student with little money, I decided to pay for EagleFiler. Three of the main reasons: 1. It maintains the Finder folder structure 2. Multiple libraries 3. Unbeatable support from the developer.
Thank you too for a great program! It is so elegant, it almost works as if it were written for me. Not too often any of us come across a program of this calibre!
I’ve been using [EagleFiler] just over a year now and it remains one of my favorite productivity tools. I heartily recommend it.!
Excellent. I originally got this app to archive email messages natively—it does that extremely well, allowing you to search and even open the archived mail in your mail application. But it also allows you to store other information, create multiple libraries of archived information and search it all quickly and easily. It does this by sitting on top of the OS so the native formats of the imported files are kept intact. This is a very well thought out program, and Michael the developer is very responsive—he helped me with a small UI bug continuing with it until it was found and corrected.
EagleFiler just was one of the key factors that made me decide to remain on Mac OS X instead switching to Ubuntu.
This program is a huge part of my workflow and you provided some features that make the program easier and my work more effective.…I have tried lots of programs for effectiveness and stopped using lots of programs, but EagleFiler is the one that I started using and never looked back. So, thanks again for all the work to keep improving it.
All I can say is WOW! What a terrific update [1.4]. Every new feature makes EagleFiler incredibly more usable and versatile.
The new custom smart folders are a huge leap forward in terms of being able to filter and modify one’s data in EF. The sheer flexibility of the criteria one can use (17 different kinds, from tags to notes to labels to file size to URL to creation date to just about you-name-it), combined with the ability to nest criterion give me unmatched horsepower in terms of seeing my gigabytes of research data the way I want to see. If such powerful smart folders weren’t enough, I can now add actions to the smart folders and further modify my data. Unbelievably cool! I’m only just beginning to see all that I can do with the new power of these smart folders. This is the first time I’ve begun to think that I could find a replacement for DevonThink Pro in my daily use; this version of EagleFiler is that much more powerful.
The new Stationery Folder function has immediately become a huge time saver for me—for example, I can now create MS Word files, or MindJet MindManager mind map files, instantly, from within EagleFiler based on templates I’ve created in these, or other, programs. Sweet!
I am especially loving and using the new tag cloud window for quickly see what tags I’m using with an item and for quickly adding or changing the tags I have assigned.
Now that I can drag individual e-mail messages into EF as free-standing .eml files, I’m finally going to start using EF as my mail archive database, because I really wanted to be able to store individual e-mail messages along side my other kinds of data in my EF folders. Now I can make a individual message a “to do” or “next action” based on tags and other criteria within the e-mail message. And to top it off, I can search for these individual files with Spotlight, and not just within EF.
Although it’s short bullet in the list of changes, perhaps the most important new function for me as writer/researcher has been the addition of a Find panel for searching within PDF and Web archives. This was one area where DevonThink Pro really outperformed EagleFiler for my daily research. I really needed to see inside the hundreds of PDFs I had, not just look at titles or tags. And what’s more, EagleFiler does this search within PDFs and Web Archives much faster than DevonThink Pro does, though DTPro still has some advantages in its interface on searches.
As a user of Punakea, I’m really pleased to see the new options for importing tags, especially since the “Import as notes and tags” helps me get Punakea-style tags into EagleFiler without having to lose my non-Punakea style info in my Spotlight comments.
Finally, I’ve used the new contextual menus dozens of times today—how cool is it to be able to select text and instantly make it the title of the something you’ve grabbed from the Internet or some PDF, or instantly to make a keyword in record a tag? Huge time-saver.
Yes, this is a rave review, but I think these improvements deserve my rave. I make my living as a writer/editor and I’m constantly doing research. EagleFiler has always been great in terms being able to instantly grab or import just about anything anywhere on my iMac or the Internet. But with these new features, it takes a huge leap forward in helping the end user filter, classify, and categorize data and research quickly and efficiently.
I want to keep all my “current” files where they can be searched! The new library that I just made was an archive library for my e-mail… but only my “sent” e-mail. I had over 8000 files in my sent mail folder. I didn’t want to delete those files because I will often go back to get a file that I had sent to someone—a file that I had thrown away because I wouldn’t “need” it anymore because I had sent it to someone. But it actually existed in my sent mail. Just the other day someone asked me for a copy of a file I had sent because they had lost the one I sent somehow. It was nice to be able to go into my eagleFiler and search for the e-mail and have it pop right up to me. Then it was a simple procedure to extract the file and send it again.
The more I use EagleFiler, the more I appreciate it! I still want all my regular files in one library. But those files I’ve archived can safely rest in another library, and I know just where to look should there be a need.
Initially sceptical when I read about @eaglefiler via @LucCogZest. My physical docs world is chaotic but EagleFiler key to my workflow now: I drop all records with metadata for easy searching.
I’ve tried most all of these types of organizers. Nothing like EF.
I have been very satisfied with EagleFiler – not only robust but great features and excellent support.
I am so impressed with the app and it’s capabilities but mostly I am impressed with how responsive the developer is! My goodness, it seems to me he never rests-he is always willing to tweak the software to accommodate everyone’s wants/needs in using his app. When you post to the EF Forum and say that there is something that isn’t working right or you wish it could do this or that, Michael is always on top of things and will work with you to get it right. As far as I am concerned, Michael gets a Gold Star!
EagleFiler is a great program and a joy to use. I searched for quite a while to find something that can do what it does. The thing that makes it even better is the developer’s dedication and responsiveness to his customers. Highly recommended!
In my opinion, for document management, flexibility, searching, tagging, organization, etc., EagleFiler [1.4] is now the top of the heap.
I just want to say that I’m a big fan of your excellent software. My wife and I both have SpamSieve installed and I do recommend it to my clients all the time.
I just bought EagleFiler to move some (lots) of my old email. It works perfectly and I’m very happy with it.
I’m glad to see that EagleFiler is getting some attention, as it is one of the best third party applications I have ever used. Not only does it allow users to accomplish all the goals this article seeks, but what sets it apart from all the competition is that is does not use a proprietary database. Your data never leaves the Finder: the program merely copies or moves your data as you instruct, much like iTunes.
This gives the user much peace of mind over data corruption and/or obsolescence of the software. Oh, and the developer is extremely communicative and responsive to user input and suggestions for future versions.
An incredibly Apple-like piece of software: versatile and user-friendly. Highly recommended.
This is an absolutely incredible new application. It surpasses Yojimbo, SOHO, even DEVONthink (which has other useful features though which set it apart in many ways from EagleFiler). The rate of development is breathtaking. At this pace, Michael Tsai will have knock-your-socks of v.2 in no time.
Multiple library support, transparent capture, amazing tag flexibility. Ability to archive e-mail (including IMAP)—this is not a one-trick pony. importing Mail messages also transparently imports MailTags data. It’s fast, reliable (no proprietary database) and searching is very powerful (read the Help).
All of this and it comes from a developer we can trust to provide good support and continued development. A winner!
I just thought I’d drop you a line to say how impressed I am with EagleFiler—I’ve tried a few of the rival organisers out there (as well as various Finder-based methods to keep things organised) and this is the first one that I could grasp at a glance, and start using immediately. I’m a journalist, so I have an unweildy number of text files sitting around—interview transcripts, rough drafts, published articles, &c.—and in about five minutes I had all my current and upcoming projects neatly organised, tagged and sortable, instead of sitting in one big folder waiting for me to sort them out (which never happens!).
I haven’t been using it long enough for the Mail integration and Web archiving features to have had an effect on the way I work, but suspect that having mail messages, Web research and related text files in one place, filterable by tag is going to make my life a hell of a lot easier. Honestly, the last time I had this ‘Ooh, this is going to change the way I work’ feeling was with Quicksilver (the only other application where I’ve bothered to write a gushing fan letter to the developer, too).
I absolutely love EagleFiler. (I just bought a family license.) I’m just getting started with it, but I’m definitely in the camp of users who envision your application fundamentally changing the way they use their computer. It’s very exciting!
I just want to thank you for EagleFiler. I’ve tried iDocument, DEVONthink Pro, Paperless, Together, Papers, and 100 other apps in hope to make a good paperless office. EagleFiler fits the best: it’s fast, very easy to use (so my wife can add and find files, too), it works with Dropbox (and it’s not a single huge DB), it lets me sort “papers” exactly after their real-life attributes: “from” and “creation date”—and I can edit these too (important by gathering old files), it lets me set labels (to differentiate between papers that demand something from me and those I expect to get some reaction from others). Anyways—I’m very happy to use your program, thanks a lot!
I am really enjoying using your product. I like the active development status, the open format structure, and the ability to tag and search PDFs (as a grad student, I have lots of PDF manuscripts and articles). But I think the integration with Skim is perhaps the best feature—what a great way to make my highlights and notes easily searchable. I can finally remember what I found important about that article when I read it six months ago!
What is the ‘junk drawer’ app of choice? That is a question for the ages. The place where you go to be able to drop information—text, links, images, webpages—and find it later, or have it be suggested to you, is one of the most actively developed fields in the OS X software realm. Zillions of them have sprung up. My own favorite is EagleFiler. It’s completely filesystem-based, ie, all of the stuff it stores is organized in directories on your drive where any other app can read them; it’s got a global automatic capture hotkey that can talk to the application you’re working in—Finder, Mail, Firefox—and automatically import whatever it is you’re working on; it’s got Smart Groups; et cetera.
I’ve tried pretty much every app in that field, and I like EF the best. The file-based storage is what does it for me. It makes it extremely modular, so that I can have it also indexed by DEVONthink for free, or synced with all my other computers.
I work out of EagleFiler all the time. I work from home, so the vast majority of the direction I get is in e-mails. There are at least 3 stakeholders for any one project that I’m on, so there is a ton of feedback, requests, changes, etc.
I could not keep it together without EagleFiler. I can dump all of the e-mail I get into there, tag it for the appropriate project, and forget about it. When I need to find a particular e-mail, I can search within the tag. 99% of the time I find the exact message I want in a few seconds. The other 1% I haven’t tagged the message correctly.
I also keep all of the files related to my projects in EagleFiler, with the same tag. This is also nice because I can easily find everything and it is all in one place. For me, EagleFiler has replaced the Finder for all project files.
EagleFiler is fantastic! I’ve wanted something like this for a long time, and the support for multiple file formats and the transparent organization of the internal library make it something I could imagine really committing to.
Essential Application. I use EagleFiler all the time. It has become indespensible to me—my digital filing cabinet. I have several different libraries—a personal one in which I keep recipies, photography articles, pet information, etc.; a school library in which I keep articles relevant to my students and my teaching; a research and writing library in which I keep articles for research, writing tips, etc. The hotkey setup makes saving a Web archive so simple. I can use tags to organize information. EagleFiler is just terrific (and I tried other “fancier” programs and settled on this one because it suited my work style perfectly).
As with SpamSieve, EagleFiler is working very well, and I’m extremely impressed. To paraphrase John Gruber’s comment regarding SpamSieve, EagleFiler doesn’t try to take a “kitchen sink” approach by loading the program with superfluous features. It does a small amount of things very well: import, file, and search documents. The integration with the OS and other software (including Safari, OmniWeb, a host of e-mailers, and other programs) is beautiful. I’ve paid for several organizers, including Aquaminds’ NoteTaker, Hog Bay Notebook, and Mori, and extensively used and tested trial versions of several others, including Circus Ponies Notebook, DevonThink, VoodooPad, and Yojimbo, but this is the first that has really grabbed me with its elegance and ease of use. It is also the first of these apps that I have paid for on the same day that I started testing it! Whereas previous software has made me feel tentative about storing more than a small amount of clippings, notes, and such, Michael Tsai has presented something that has caused me to import a couple of hundred megabytes worth of documents of various types, from various Applications, all over my hard drive. Thank you very much for this fantastic software.
I have been switching between StickyBrain (SOHONotes) and Yojimbo as my primary file manager for months. Neither of them completely capable of my needs. Yesterday I noticed a mention of EagleFiler on John Gruber’s Web site Daring Fireball. I installed EagleFiler and imported my saved files from SOHO and Yojimbo, spent some time tagging the files and I have to say EagleFiler performs flawlessly. The ability to tag the files with Keywords is necessary for a great File Manager. Both StickyBrain and Yojimbo force the user to use categories for filing which is very limiting. EagleFiler is awesome; give it a try and you won’t be disappointed.
The larger the [mail] app’s database gets, the more of a performance drag it incurs. Offloading either individual emails, or entire mail boxes, helps, and EagleFiler is the first application I’ve felt safe with to do just that.
EagleFiler is an example of why the Mac OS platform is the greatest system. This application is amazing.
EagleFiler has helped me organize my stuff by effectively extending the OS—not replacing it. I can still find my PDFs and other documents through spotlight, or I can navigate my stuff through EagleFiler. That’s a big plus.
The features of EagleFiler are designed to maximize efficency while not complicating my life. Web page? No problem. PDF? Indexes it. Need to add tags? Yup. EagleFiler takes care of everything I need to ever file.
Finally, the software is regularly updated with new features, improvements and fixes.
Hearty thanks go out to Mike. You’ve helped me simplify my life!
I’m officially in love with EagleFiler. It’s the application I’ve been looking for forever. A nice lovely metadatacentric frontend onto my Documents folder, just as iTunes is on my Music folder and iPhoto on my Pictures folder.
Great for saving, organizing, and retrieving just about anything.
Select text from a Web page in Safari, drag it onto EagleFiler’s drop pad, and EagleFiler saves the text. Quite a few competing programs do this or similar. But EagleFiler goes one step further. It also appends the source URL to the text you’ve dragged. That way you’ll always be able to refer back to your source.
In addition to unusual touches like this, EagleFiler makes it a snap to tag items. And you can easily add icons of your choice to the tags. The icons are great for spotting items in a long list.
You can take a minimalist approach to organizing. Or you can add structure by putting stuff in folders nested several levels deep if that’s what works for you. Unlike with Yojimbo, which imposes a philosophy, EagleFiler leaves it up to you.
EagleFiler is also a great e-mail archiver. And so much more. The developer is incredibly responsive.
Highly recommended.
I’d just like to say how much I like this application, although I haven’t had time to delve into it in depth. I tend to collect large amounts of textual info, mostly from the Web. I have been a happy user of DEVONthink since its very early days, and would have been lost without it. However, I find EagleFiler is just so convenient for capturing a Web page that I have been using it a lot for that purpose. And its rich text capabilities are perfectly adequate for taking captured text and manipulating/formatting desired portions of text.
Great Stuff. I’ve been using EagleFiler for some months now and must say that it develops to one of the best notetaking, e-mail and data storing apps. I like the fact that all data is stored in native formats, so I can backup and retrieve all data the way I like. It can do nested folders. It has great search capabilities. It imports all my mail and I can search it. And much more.
This relatively new application is updated very often, and most bugs that I ever encountered are gone by now.
Comparing various notetaking apps, this one seems to develop into the creme de la creme of them all, it’s just really really great, and of course I do recommend it to anyone who’s looking for this kind of application!
EagleFiler has become completely indispensable for me. I do have a catch-all Reference library, but I also have specific use libraries. I have a Recipes library that allows me to categorize my recipes, track which ones we liked (and who liked them), which ones we haven’t tried, where they came from, etc. I also start a new library for each project I work on. I can dump all of the e-mail correspondence, random notes, research, requirements documents, etc. into this one library. Since it is searchable, I can easily find that one e-mail about how this drop-down is supposed to look on the page. Light years better than sifting through everything manually.
I’ve also started a Movies library to track my VHS tapes and DVDs. I tag them according to genre and media. This allows me to quickly see which movies I need to get on DVD. When I’m in the mood for a specific type of movie, I can easily find all of the comedies or horror movies. I can also easily track who borrowed one.…
Probably the best notes/archive program.
I tend to take contemporanous notes from many regular meetings (i.e. my personal minutes of meetings), and I also like a program I can drop various PDFs and documents onto and easily catalogue them for later reference. I’ve worked through most of the Mac notes-taking programs. I used to use DEVONthink Pro Office, and there wasn’t much wrong with it, though the versions aren’t particularly pretty in terms of design. Yojimbo also worked well. In the end, though, I’ve settled with EagleFiler. It archives e-mails easily, handles multiple libraries well, you can store private libraries in encrypted disk images (e.g. managed via Knox, or EagleFiler can do this itself). The encrypted library feature is the thing I that really sold EagleFiler to me. In the end, DEVONthink and Yojimbo aren’t bad programs, but having multiple libraries, including some kept privately, has been very handy.
I’d love it if it sync’d easily to the iPhone, but at least there are good instructions for getting files from EagleFiler to the iPhone via AirSharing or equivalent. Sadly no syncing, at least not yet.
Anyway: EagleFiler is robust, reliable, well-developed and with a responsive developer, can work with encryption and multiple libraries, searches quickly, and is easy to use. I can’t see me changing anytime soon.
General comment to anyone thinking of switching to EagleFiler: do it. Compared with alternative managers of unstructured files, EF handles more data types, well beyond PDF and Web pages. It stores all files using the native Mac file structure, so other programs can work with them transparently. (That is, you can still access your files without going through EF.) This is also safer with respect to multi-year storage. I don’t know about robustness of other applications, but EF seems very robust, and has never lost a spec of my data. The developer responds to questions/problems within hours, on average.
Here’s a data point: am using EF 1.2 with a 1.2 Gb library collection, of which roughly half are 80K+ e-mails, and most of the rest are several hundred PDF’s and Web archives. I can confirm that EF works impressively well on a modern high-end MacBook Pro. RAM use is in the dozens of MB’s and CPU use is 0% when idling—IOW, perfect. I can definitely see myself using this for many years to come, scaling up easily as more contents get added (and Moore’s law will do the rest).
Kudo’s and many thanks to M.T. for getting everything “just right.”
Having been a long time user of SpamSieve, and now using EagleFiler, it has been added to my list of must have apps. The question I have, unfortunately at work I am forced to use a PC, and I am wondering if anyone knows of a program that is similar that will run on XP? I’m addicted, and I’d like to make my work computer as organized as my Mac.
I just bought EagleFiler after reviewing it and Chronos SOHO Notes 6. Thanks for creating such a great application. It’s just what I was looking for to organize all the bits of information I have scattered across Sticky notes, draft messages in Mail, various TXT/RTF/DOC files and scraps of paper.
I wanted you to know that in my academic and professional work I am always on the lookout for new databases that will solve my problems. I’ve gone though DEVONthink, ChronosNotes, Yojimbo, and a few others. Each of those had some features I wanted, but not all. EagleFiler has them all. (One of the most important features of your program to me is the ability to tag while retaining a database of used tags that can be drawn from in subsequent tagging.) To summarize the purpose of this letter, Thanks! It is a beautiful piece of programming.
I recently moved from DEVONthink (Pro) to EagleFiler. After using DT for several years (and the scanning is a helpful feature) I was concerned about relying on an application that is poorly integrated into other Mac software, uses a proprietary database which can get corrupted and result in data loss, and that has been promising better export capabilities for years but hasn’t delivered. To be fair, after my database got corrupted I was able to recover from a backup, but it made me think very hard about relying on something other than the file system.
EagleFiler uses the filesystem and Apple’s Core Data for storage, and my impression (after importing my DT files) is that it’s faster, my safer (files remain in their original format) and it’s easier to edit files. DT doesn’t store excel files, and although it imports word files in RTF format, you have to retain the original word file somewhere else on your hard drive. So for me I like the fact that I can just keep 1 system of storage in EagleFiler.
I still scan my information using a third party scanner, and have found that I actually get better accuracy. So sometimes integrated is not always better, and it may be worth relying on separate programs (scanner and EagleFiler)
I wanted to write to you with an unqualified positive note of thanks, because I suspect that you, like umpires in baseball or referees in football, rarely hear anything from your clients unless it’s either a question or a complaint.
I became aware of you and your product(s) a few years ago, when several Mac-related Web sites spoke highly, nearly glowingly, of SpamSieve. At the time, I didn’t know what Bayesian spam filtering was, nor why I might want it, but the repeated occurrence of your product’s name in publications which I trusted was enough to convince me to purchase Mailsmith from BBEdit, which came bundled with SpamSieve.
And it was exactly as good as those various reviewers said it was. I was thrilled—especially with the idea that I could switch out of Mailsmith if I so chose, and take SpamSieve with me to another mail client, but also with the performance. My inbox is clean! And, after having (sadly) purchased [a competing product], I discovered EagleFiler. I wish I’d discovered it sooner. While I have been impressed with the attention to detail displayed by the folks at [company], theirs is a system which is proprietary, which is always troubling, at least to me. I will pay for any application I feel is well-designed, but if given a choice between an open-source application and a commercial one with proprietary mechanisms, I will always prefer the former. Perhaps it’s why I’ve never been a big fan of Microsoft, LOL.
And when I found EagleFiler, I knew I’d found the organization software for me. It was obvious from the very start of my “audition” of EagleFiler that you had devoted quite a bit of time to thinking about—and creating—a product which provides the people who use it with the greatest degree of flexibility and compatibility possible: in short, a product that you yourself would be likely to desire, were you interested in purchasing such a thing. And that impressed me a great deal. [Company]’s products—though thorough—require one to learn “The [company] Way™,” while yours opens each file contained within an EagleFiler database in its original application. So there’s no fear that I’ll be unable to get needed data out of a format which I no longer use (should that be the case) at any time in the future.
In short, your products function correctly—not only the way they’re supposed to, but the way a thoughtful user would want them to—and it makes each of them valuable beyond their retail price. Thank you, again, for your commitment to designing superior, best-in-class applications for the Mac platform.
I’m an academic, and I try to keep copies of every paper or article I read. (Given the vagaries of library contracts with publishers, documents that were accessible can disappear.) EF allows this in a very robust way. I used to track documents in EndNote (a bibliography program), but this is much easier—and EndNote is poorly supported on Mac, with lots of crashes etc.
EagleFiler has also became my default method of grabbing material from the Web that I wanted to keep for any reason. It is very flexible—it will import any kind of file, although it does not index everything. A nice feature, for example, is that it can capture either an entire Web page, or just the text. Once captured, the page can even be edited without leaving EF.
Developer response is fantastic.
It keeps all files in their native format, which is important for security and other reasons. For example, Spotlight treats them as normal documents, and when I need a file for another purpose there is no need to do a conversion.
Moving to EagleFiler was one of my largest workflow improvements in recent memory.
I am an academic working on a book project and have been looking for a piece of software to help me organize all of the news articles, academic papers, etc. that I am collecting. Your EagleFiler is just what I was looking for. I have spent a lot of time looking for an app and now spent a few days in the app and I am really happy. I just purchased it.
You’ve hit a home run with this one. I use barely any third party software, and when I do there needs to be a really good reason for it. In this case, the reason is that I’ve been wanting something that does what EagleFiler does for years now (decades?) and finally had to face the fact that Apple isn’t going to do it themselves.…What you’ve created with EagleFiler however is incredibly Mac-like in its usability, simplicity and power.
EagleFiler is a terrific app for organizing the thousands of documents and thousands more other types of files on my Mac.
Great App, My Hard Disk would be a mess without it and my dissertation too
This app is a must-have for everyone who wants to store a large number of files of different kinds, quickly find those files, and work with them in other applications.
I used to work with Evernote to tag files and store them in folder-like groups. But EagleFiler has a number of advantages that make it a much better option for serious work - such as my dissertation. The most important of these are: 1) EagleFiler folders are regular folders in the finder. 2) With EagleFiler you can make separate libraries that you can search separately. 3) EagleFiler stores every file that Mac can handle and interacts with almost every conceivable app. 4) You can quickly capture and import files from almost every other application.
1) EagleFiler folders are folders in the finder. This seems simple but it is a huge advantage over all other database programs that I know. My Evernote database woud reside somewhere in the library on my Mac hard drive, folders and files were totally renamed with numbers that make no sense to the user. I wasn’t comfortable to use this system to store my dissertation files. Any sync failure could make files inaccessable and I could never find them again in the finder. Evernote could therefore not replace the real file structure on my Mac. As a result I had two versions of most of the important files: one in Evernote and one in a normal folder in the finder - needless to say this took up way to much space. With EagleFiler I can file my files in regular folders and still tag and annotate these files as in other databas programs. In fact, EagleFiler just creates a database that stores metadata that relates to your files in your finder. This is perfect - it is safe and makes it very easy to make back-ups. I can find files both in the finder and in EF.
2) With EF you can make separate libraries: When you work on several projects with loads of files, databases such as Evernote tend to get slow. With EF you can break these up in several projects, keeping things lean and files quick and easy to find.
3) EagleFiler also makes all your files easily accessable through all other apps for editing (without having to find them first in finder). I can read PDFs in EF or double click them to open and edit them in Preview. Word Files are also visible as preview and you can edit them in word. RTF and Plain text files are editable within EF itself. It’s so great to annotate files in EF, to tag them and to create relationships between them through links in the note fiels (by simply dragging a file even from another EF library or even from another app or from the finder. EF is my digital database and notebook in one. If I want to brainstorm with my files I just drag the files from Ef into Curio.
4) EFiler’s capture hot key is a great way to quickly capture emails or webpages and store them in such a way that they can be easily tagged and found.
I really spend much more time in EF than in Finder. I couldn’t work without it anymore.
Try it, it is absolutely brilliant and not expensive for what it does. Highly recommended.
I just want to let you know how much I appreciate your software program EagleFiler. I recently downloaded the latest version and tried it out. I was so impressed with this program that I purchased it after using it for about two days.…EagleFiler suits my needs perfectly. I store some 17,000 files (mainly PDFs) in an archive that I regularly need to search. The tagging and search system is great.
Kudos to the developer. One of the few Mac programs that unfortunately has little buzz—but is worthy of much praise.
[…]
The way in which the data is saved is very reliable. And, I have had a few catastrophic crashes where I had to restart the computer after another program hanged (I know, not supposed to happen in X—but I found a way!) and the data I had been working on in EagleFiler was saved. Quite unexpected and pleasant—to say the least.
[…]
I should also mention that I have a PowerPC G4 (1 GHz)—a relatively slow & old computer—EagleFiler works well. An added bonus—since I use Tiger—the latest version of EagleFiler is still relevant.
I have been trying all kinds of Mac organizing programs and finally found EagleFiler. I absolutely love it.
Unlike others, it handles just about every type of file and keeps it intact as that kind of file. You click on it and it opens in the default application. I have PDFs, QuickTime movies, PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and more in it.
[…]
I really, really like this program. It has organized my whole chaotic life.
I’ve been using EagleFiler for at least 2 years now, and it has gradually taken over almost everything that I used to do with files and folders. I have 3 libraries: One for my main research and reading documents, one for the courses I teach, and one for computers and hobbies. Total documents approximately 10,000. One key to its value is that all files stay in their original formats and can be accessed by any other program.
One reason it’s faster to manage files than the Finder is ease and speed of searching; another is the automatic preview of almost any kind of document.
[…]
I really, really like this program. It has organized my whole chaotic life.
I’m a fairly recent discoverer of EagleFiler and would like to express my thanks. I really appreciate the ease, clarity, apparent stability, and UI functionality of the program and its web inter-operation. I’ve gone back and forth between DevonThink Pro and Together for several years and am now finding EagleFiler a welcome solution to my minor but cumulative dissatisfactions with those generally fine applications.
EagleFiler now fits with Things, Notational Velocity, and my email and calendar programs (Postbox and BusyCal) into a really pleasing workflow. I’ll welcome opportunities to recommend it to others as they arise.
It’ll soon become apparent that EagleFiler is just so much better. Gimmick-free, faster, simpler, better organised and a reliability which gives you confidence. Excellent Mac software from an established developer. I should have started using this years ago.
This is an excellent information organizer.…You may wonder if you really need a program like EagleFiler. Why not just use Finder? That was certainly how I felt at first, but I’m glad I tried it. I personally find it much easier to keep my data managed using EagleFiler.
I travelled a long (and expensive!) route to get to EagleFiler. It ran through Hogbay Notebook, Together, Mori, MacJournal, DevonThink Pro, Evernote, Google Docs, Penzu, and countless other online tools. Yeah, I know. Pretty obsessive. But I do a lot of writing and I manage thousands of documents in a myriad of file formats that I have collected over decades. I kept looking for the perfect tool that could handle almost any file format, make it easy to get new material in, and just as easy to locate even vaguely remembered documents when I needed them most. Well, EagleFiler turned out to be the ONE.
Best thing since sliced bread
I used in the past another notetaking tool, which changed a lot of its design and functionality over time to my dislike. I also missed tagging and a proper tag clould.
I searched around for a replacement and found the usual suspects as well as EagleFiler. I started with EagleFiler because it keeps the notes in a separate folder not in an properitery bucket. Hence, exporting is very easy and fully preserves the orginal format. That’s where I noticed that EagleFiler is actually not only a notetaking tool but a super Finder!!!
Super Finder, that means I cannot only create and manage notes, but I can put all possible files (spread sheets, presentations, word processing document, PDF, movie, images) into it and I get a full-fledged organisation on top of it, with labels, colors, hiearchies and/or tags. And yes, with tag-clouds (hooray). Since it preseveres the original files, I can also access all the files without even starting up EagleFiler. Sounds trival, but its a real gimmick—you don’t put your data into a data silo (like with the rest), you keep it open. Plus, if I ever decide to stop using it (very unlikely) I don’t have any hassle with exporting my data.
What is more, it uses OpenMeta to store the tags. OpenMeta is a tagging technology that works with Spotlight and other applications. That means, not only the files are available outside of EagleFiler, but also the metadata is. How cool is that.
This is a great application for filing and tagging just about any file that you have. Importing and searching are fast and simple. Searching is very accurate. I like the fact that you can create as many libraries as you want, for all the projects you may work on, or you can keep everything in one library. I feel very confortable with the fact that all my files are saved as normal files in the finder. This makes backing up your data a breeze, and it just makes the files more easily accessible through other means than EagleFiler alone. All tags and notes can be exported to the finder. I am filing a lot of data for my dissertation and not only do I need to be able to find my data, I also want to connect disparate files through tags. I can do that easily with this awesome app.
The developer is very responsive to suggestions. I work with a lot of images and I found the icons in the file list a bit small. He emailed me to tell me that addressing this issue is now on his to-do list for development.
Very good.
Robert Mohns asked:
I’d like to archive my decade-old mail from Mail.app into something that is a little more compact but still searchable. Doesn’t need to be online, or accessible from within Mail.app. I’d like to avoid file-per-message solutions.
You are describing EagleFiler! You can use it for much more than mail archiving, but mail archiving is definitely one of its best uses.
I’ve used Eagle Filer for archiving my e-mails for the past several years, and I’ve been happy with it. It can be used for more than just e-mail, but the way it works for that purpose is pretty slick. Relatively easy capture, and you can create folders within it to store by date, sender, subject, whatever.
I use EagleFiler for archiving e-mails into a searchable file.
I own DTPO, but for useful work I keep coming back to this. It is very well thought out and constantly improved.
I have used EagleFiler as an information manager for many years. I find it easy to use and well supported.
I’ve chosen to go a bit wild on my workflow, because I’m storing my EagleFiler libraries on the Goodreader folder in iCloud Drive. That way, I can read and annotate my PDFs on the iPad.
Since all iCloud Drive files are backed up with the rest of my things, I don’t worry about losing anything.
I’ve used and purchased pretty much every information manager available and always end up back with EagleFiler. I am anal about keeping solid records and information that I find useful. EagleFiler does everything I need it to do and much more. Has powerful searching capabilities and can handle 1000’s of documents and multiple libraries open at the same time.
Similar to MailMate as the power user’s mail app, EagleFiler is the power user’s file manager.
The developer is top notch, consistently updating EagleFiler and fixing any bugs/problems promptly. For the money EagleFiler can’t be beat.
I absolutely love C-Command Software’s software ;)
I just updated to your new 1.6.7 that I am using with OS X 10.11.3. First of all I want to thank you for a super app and your fantastic customer service. I hope you have patented your software technology so that Apple cannot steal it and incorporated into their own ecosystem without buying it from you and making you a wealthy man as you deserve it!
This is the one to beat. EagleFiler fills a niche and does it really well. When I first downloaded it, I though I might find it useful. After a year of use, I can’t imagine not using it. So many useful scenarios unfolded as I became more familiar with the software. Great stuff!
I bought this to create a backup of my Mail folder. I had over 400,000 messages that dated back to the 1990s and wanted to clean out the old stuff. I had some problems with it initially due to system problems with 10.11. Great support from Michael Tsai and fast feedback on my questions and problems. It’s working perfectly. Highly recommend both the product and the support.
So you are thinking should I buy this program. First I hate writing reviews but I’m going to take the time on this one. Documents, paper port, paperless, used them all… I have inexcess of 7000 documents and its a wonder I can find anything. EagleFiler changes the game. Believe it or not if you put a bit of logic to your tagging and your folder creation you can put your finger on what you are looking for in a second. The platform is stable but yet simple. It works! I would recommend the purchase of this for 2 primary reasons. 1. It uses the foundation of the ecosystem in tagging. Secondly it puts the file in a easy findable method in the raw data. So you can go to Finder and locate files in or out of the program. Also you can bring files in and sort them later or when you have time. It’s a shame this does not have more reviews but I can confirm I know of nothing that does it better. If you don’t find this to work well look at your own tagging and filing methodology chances are you are the problem not the application.
I love EagleFiler. I’ve been using it for a few years now. I hope you continue improving and updating it, since I will be using it for many more years, really for the rest of my life.
Love this application! Wish I would have discovered it years ago! Thank you! […] It solves a longtime email archiving problem that Apple never quite got right.
Love it. Use it every day to save online stuff, articles, pictures, PDF printouts, etc. […] One thing that makes this one of my favorite Mac apps of all time is the line above re. Requirements. 10.6.8!!! That is just fantastic customer service. I am able to use EagleFiler on an older MacBook Pro from 2006, running Snow Leopard, and 2 MacBook Airs from 2013 and 2014 running El Capitan. Greatly appreciated.
Love EagleFiler, been using it for years after hunting around to find a tool to manage notes and information that let me be in control of formats and storage, organize in folders, etc. Plain Old Files are outstanding; all the other similar tools I could find tend to want to manage everything in proprietary formats in backing database/datastore structures. EagleFiler plays nice in my Mac environment and is one of my favorite must-have tools.
I switched to EagleFiler from years of using DEVONthink Pro. I finally got too annoyed with some of DTP’s user interface inconsistencies, and the obnoxious way that its Sorter gets reinstalled after every update, ignoring (and resetting) the Preferences to leave it uninstalled. DTP does a lot, and does a lot well, but I’ve really come to appreciate the core functionality of EagleFiler.
For one thing, all documents are easily found in the Finder if necessary. The user interface is clear, clean and consistent. And the email archive capability (which I haven’t started using yet) makes it look like I can dump MailSteward (a powerful app which looks and acts like a PC port).
I’m delighted that you covered EagleFiler. I have been using it since it was [first developed] and have yet to have it lose files, mangle data, or crash. Whenever I’ve had a question, there’s an active and welcoming community on the program’s website, but chances are Michael Tsai, the developer, will answer the question before anyone else gets to it. As always, I learned a lot here, even though I’m pretty familiar with the features of what I consider a great, well-established program.
I had the problem that my Apple Mail inbox had grown to be far over 100 gigabytes. The program is obviously not made for professionals with large amounts of emails. I had more and more issues and a very slow response within the software. I made a complete cut and restarted with a virgin email-setup. I now use EagleFiler to access all my old mails (essential for business)… the search is not perfect, but very good and best of all it’s superfast. EagleFiler just displays every single email as it came… including all attachments… awesome!
I originally wrote this review expressing concern about the apps performance. I was contacted by the developer and by working with them I was able to get it working. I thank them for reaching out and helping me to get this application working. It is going to make a big difference in my document management now. They have great customer support and this is a very good application. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for Document Management.
Great app and fantastic user support!
Been using SpamSieve for well over 2 years - LOVE IT.
Next, been searching for a solid e-mail archiving app for about 2 weeks now - tried MailSteward, Mail Archiver X, etc. Decent but not hitting the mark so to speak. Then I found a blurb somewhere about using EagleFiler…an app I had totally forgotten about…
So I cruise over to your site and right away, I remember seeing this when I first discovered SpamSieve…checked the testimonials and decided to try it our for my EM archiving needs…and GEEZ…this thing ROCKS. Really does a kick-butt job for this requirement - there are a few things that would be cool to have but not must haves…the app just works really well as is for my needs.
Anyway, you guys really make incredible software - seriously some of the best I have on my machine…and I’ve used well over 400 apps…you guys are top 1 or 2…seriously awesome devs you have…
Thanks a zillion for making killer software at a very affordable price and PLEASE never sell to some larger entity - if you ever get to that point where you wanna stop doing what you do, let me know and I’ll find a way to keep it lean and mean…
Best $40.00 I’ve Spent At The App Store!!!!!
So…my need. I have a small private practice where file management is EXTREMELY important. Over the 15 or so years I’ve been in business I’ve used numerous programs successfully, but the problem has always been that if I want to switch file management software, it’s all resident on the software I’m utilizing at the time. Again, I find myself having to make a switch because the my then current software wants to switch to a cloud based service and charge a monthly fee. In looking for a new choice I find Eagle. I’m hesitant, but I give it a try. It’s been about a month and all I have to say is THE PROGRAM ROCKS!!!!! I can append notes, organize by color, add tags and key words to search by, have alternate file names, capture what I’m working on and have it dropped in folders that I select, all while storing the information in a non proprietary format (all available in finder). The only downside I’ve found is that I have to refresh a folder in Eagle for it to see on occasion. A small price to pay. I had one support request, and that was answered within hours!! Just an amazing utility to help me keep track of my work. A thousand thanks to the Developer.
Great and useful App as well great support
Long time I had download the app not really using it. Now as getting overwhelmed by my thousands of documents - articles, news, press-releases, etc. - I started try again and found a real strong tool helping me much in quickly organize, rename and tagging of my files. Especially the tagging system is synchronized with the Apple tagging system, so once you have done, it also works in the normal Apple finder, which I think is a big advantage. Also the files are easily found in the Apple file system. In addition I found a fantastic way on how to archive my emails. By all this - and this is why I give 5 stars - I had one urgent question re email import and export and when contacting the help desk, I was much surprised by receiving a valuable answer on the same day - even Sunday. Really great! Keep this product and service style!!
The best application database organizer so far , i’ve tried in the past others but i’ve decide to keep EagleFiler for many reasons but one of them which personnaly I consider definitely essential , if something can happens to corrupt the database file i can still having access to my (ALL) data through the finder structuce without loosing it and that it’s a HUGE plus ..
I just like EagleFiler !
Good Work !
Terrific addition to the workflow toolbox!
Even though I use a mere fraction of EagleFiler’s powerful features, it gets used virtually every day since 2011. A great way to capture and archive web articles. Its search and retrieval capabilities have saved my bacon more than once.
Always improving software and a thorough manual, with responsive, intelligent support from a developer who cares.
Keeps me on top of things
I use this as a central repository of all my junk both at work and at home, and I am able to find stuff from years back because of it.
Great app to archive and organize
Just adding to the below review, that the latest update adds a lot of speed improvement. Specifically in my case importing batches of email from Apple Mail into EagleFiler.
Continues to work great, and is a fantastic way to archive email (and other uses!)
a hidden gem!
If you need to store information, and want to have meta data -tags- associated, then this is the app for you. you can bookmark stuff, documents, excellent import functions. very easy to use and to search. highly recommended.
great productivity app
I have been using this app for over two years, it has become essential in my workflow, and I am extremely happy with it. The fact that the app does not lock me into using it, and that the developer is very responsive to emails and is constantly (albeit slowly) improving the app make EagleFiler all the more compelling. Strongly recommended
I use this to archive emails. Does the job. Solid and well documented.
Great App
I use EagleFiler to keep my tax administration and other important documents organized and encrypted. It’s great to be able to keep emails next to pdf documents, rtf files, etc, and to be able to tag all files to find them quickly. Very versatile and easy application.
I want to thank you for digging me out of a deep hole. I had been trying since June 1—with senior-level Apple support—to load the new Mail app built into Mojave, which I had finally installed, thinking Apple had had time to work out the kinks we all read about when it was issued. The support tech kept walking me through various steps to enable loading some 25 years of email archives that had been ported from computer to computer ever since the early ‘90s or maybe even before that. Every attempt would tie up my MacBook Pro for 3 or 4 hours until it finally stopped because I ran out of “application memory.”
After you told me about writing EagleFiler, I bought it, installed it and ran it through the Mail Library. BINGO! It took a while, of course, to get through 3.3GB or so of old mail, but it never gave up, and the next day, I had all my emails stored on a external hard drive, where they are easily accessible if I need something. With the Apple tech on the phone, I nuked the old Apple Mail files and started over. It took about a minute to set up Mail again and quite a bit longer to automatically repopulate my folders with recent emails that were still on a Google server waiting to sync with Apple Mail.
So now it’s all done. I’ve got current emails in the Mail app and all the historical records in EagleFiler. I will probably use it again soon to store several years of Evernote data, since I hear that company is failing.
Many, many thanks for your help—and the Apple tech thanks you, too. He was really tired of telling the engineers day after day that their latest theory didn’t work.
EagleFiler saved my life, I have 535,951 emails stored in it, and it allows finding the ones I need surely and efficiently.
Wonderful
This is exactly what I wanted and more. It’s not good to leave all your files on the ‘cloud’. This helps remove them and protcts you from hack disasters. Thanks folks!
EagleFiler is my digital dump. I have everything I need to keep a record of in various EagleFiler files. Recipes, receipts, manuals of programs and things, and so on. It is fast, reliable and well-supported by the developer. In fact, there are two products from this developer which are crucial to my life. EagleFiler and SpamSieve, which takes me to the next crucial element of my digital life.
All testimonials were unsolicited.