Manatee opens damaged video, PDFs, archives, photos and documents on your Mac and writes out everything it can still read.
This project is scheduled for launch
Launch date: Saturday, October 23, 2027 at 08:00 AM UTC
Manatee opens damaged video, PDFs, archives, photos and documents on your Mac and writes out everything it can still read. Sometimes that is all of it. Sometimes it is 34 of 41 pages, and it says which. The original is never touched: a new file appears beside it, and the row shows how much came back.
Key Features
Repair: most "corrupt" files are not destroyed; one structure is broken and everything after it is fine. Manatee rebuilds the index a video needs to play (mp4, mov, mkv), repairs a PDF's cross-reference table and then checks every page, rebuilds damaged zip, docx, xlsx and epub archives from the entries still on disk, and fixes the encodings and cue timings of srt, csv and txt files.
Convert: drop first, then pick the target once per kind. Images (JPEG, PNG, HEIC, TIFF), video (MP4, MOV, GIF), audio (MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC), documents, spreadsheets and presentations. A folder of mixed photos, clips and documents does the right thing in one go.
Reduce: not just smaller, but under the limit a form or chat app actually enforces, such as 16 MB for WhatsApp or 20 MB for email, or a number you type. Manatee finds the best quality that fits and checks its own output.
Clean: strips EXIF, GPS, camera serials and maker notes from photos, metadata from video and audio, and author, title and producer from PDFs, while the picture stays exactly as you see it.
Honest results: some files are missing bytes that no software can invent. Manatee recovers what survived, tells you exactly how much, and shows the size before you decide.
How it works
A small window and a menu-bar icon both take a drop. Drop a file or a folder onto the window, the menu-bar icon, or from Finder's right-click menu. Each file goes to the engine built for its kind.
Use Cases
Rescue a wedding video that will not play, recover the readable pages of a damaged scan, get a backup archive open again, shrink a screen recording to fit a chat app, or remove location data before sharing photos.
Getting Started
Download Manatee (macOS 12 or later, Apple silicon and Intel), drop a damaged file on it and preview the fix.
Pricing and Plans
Preview the fix for free, then pay $9 once to save it. Nothing is uploaded.
Ask AI
Opens your assistant with a ready-made prompt about Manatee
IndieHuntPrompt-to-working native mini-apps, instantly usable inside our mobile app3 upvotes
EarlyHuntSifarData: ask questions about large CSV and Excel files without uploading them3 upvotesEarlyHuntTurn a hum, MIDI or a vocal stem into notes, see which lines fall flat, and fix them note by note.3 upvotes
MakerHuntDiscover the Japan tourists don't see1 upvote
SideHuntTurn YouTube videos, Looms, webinars, podcasts, and tutorials into branded clips for LinkedIn, YouTu1 upvoteIndieHuntFree Browser Life Simulator1 upvoteDetail-rich AI-friendly Markdown · structured for AI citations
Manatee
Story and launch context
The launch story will be published after this project completes its launch.
Need help with content + distribution? Posting Dude.
Launches go live at 8:00 UTC.
Projects in the same category with overlapping tech, pricing, or platform fit
Productivity · SwiftUI
Productivity · Swift
Productivity
Productivity
Productivity · SwiftUI
Productivity
Comments
Comments will be available once the project is launched.