Importing XMP presets and LUTs on iPhone and iPad

From Files or iCloud Drive

Open the Presets screen and choose the Files route. The iOS document picker opens on whatever Files can reach: On My iPhone (On My iPad on an iPad), iCloud Drive, and any other storage provider you have added to Files, which is most of them.

Select one .xmp or .cube file or several. They are copied into the app, so the look keeps working when you are out of signal — nothing is streamed at capture time.

From Google Drive or OneDrive

Both are an in-app sign-in rather than a hand-off: the app lists the .xmp and .cube files in your account, you multi-select, and they import in one pass. Neither the Google Drive app nor the OneDrive app has to be installed on the phone.

The token that sign-in returns is stored in the iOS Keychain on your device. It reads the presets and LUTs you import, and writes only when you save a preset back to your own account — the app asks for that permission the first time. It never reaches a server operated by xMosaique, because there isn't one.

A whole folder at once

A preset pack usually arrives as a folder of dozens of files. Importing the folder takes all of them in a single pass rather than making you tap through the list, which is the difference between a two-minute job and a twenty-minute one.

From another app

An .xmp or .cube file that arrives in Mail, Messages or a chat app opens straight in xMosaique: tap it, choose xMosaique from the share sheet, and it is imported and applied in one step. A file already in your library is found again rather than imported twice.

LUTs, and the footage they expect

A .cube LUT imports exactly like a preset and is tagged LUT in the list. It is read as a Rec.709 / sRGB table — what creative LUTs for photographs and graded video are built for — and set with the same intensity slider as any other look.

A conversion LUT for an S-Log, V-Log or LogC camera expects log footage, which the iPhone or iPad camera does not produce, so it will look wrong here. The app marks such LUTs as made for log footage when their title says so.

If a preset does not look right

Check it against the compatibility page first. Nearly every colour and tone panel is read, but a preset built around AI masks, brush work or an Adobe creative profile will render without those parts — the rest of it still applies.

A preset that fails to appear at all is usually not a preset: Lightroom mobile also exports .dng files described as presets, and a camera or creative profile is a different thing again. Among LUTs, a 1D LUT or any format other than .cube is refused rather than guessed at.

Into Lightroom on iPhone or iPad

The same .xmp file goes into the Lightroom app too. Open a photo, choose Presets in the Edit panel, then Yours, open the Options menu, choose Import Presets and pick the files. They appear under Yours, in User Presets. Lightroom does not open a .zip, so unzip a pack in Files first.

The difference is when the look is applied. Lightroom applies a preset to a photo you have already taken; xMosaique runs the same file live in the viewfinder, so you frame and expose for the finished picture before you press the shutter.