diff --git a/lib/date_extractors/exif_extractor.dart b/lib/date_extractors/exif_extractor.dart
index 2816dc7c..4eae4dec 100644
--- a/lib/date_extractors/exif_extractor.dart
+++ b/lib/date_extractors/exif_extractor.dart
@@ -2,11 +2,18 @@ import 'dart:io';
 import 'dart:math';
 
 import 'package:exif/exif.dart';
+import 'package:gpth/utils.dart';
+import 'package:mime/mime.dart';
 
 /// DateTime from exif data *potentially* hidden within a [file]
 ///
 /// You can try this with *any* file, it either works or not 🤷
 Future<DateTime?> exifExtractor(File file) async {
+  // if file is not image or >32MiB - DO NOT crash :D
+  if (!(lookupMimeType(file.path)?.startsWith('image/') ?? false) ||
+      await file.length() > maxFileSize) {
+    return null;
+  }
   final bytes = await file.readAsBytes();
   // this returns empty {} if file doesn't have exif so don't worry
   final tags = await readExifFromBytes(bytes);
diff --git a/lib/media.dart b/lib/media.dart
index 56bacf03..42c205f2 100644
--- a/lib/media.dart
+++ b/lib/media.dart
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import 'dart:io';
 
 import 'package:crypto/crypto.dart';
+import 'package:gpth/utils.dart';
 
 /// Abstract of a *media* - a photo or video
 /// Main thing is the [file] - this should not change
@@ -34,7 +35,10 @@ class Media {
   Digest? _hash;
 
   /// will be used for finding duplicates/albums
-  Digest get hash => _hash ??= sha256.convert(file.readAsBytesSync());
+  /// WARNING: Returns same value for files > [maxFileSize]
+  Digest get hash => _hash ??= file.lengthSync() > maxFileSize
+      ? Digest([0])
+      : sha256.convert(file.readAsBytesSync());
 
   Media(
     this.file, {
diff --git a/lib/utils.dart b/lib/utils.dart
index 16687e44..d4e6669c 100644
--- a/lib/utils.dart
+++ b/lib/utils.dart
@@ -9,6 +9,9 @@ import 'package:proper_filesize/proper_filesize.dart';
 // remember to bump this
 const version = '3.3.2';
 
+/// max file size to read for exif/hash/anything
+const maxFileSize = 64 * 1024 * 1024;
+
 /// convenient print for errors
 void error(Object? object) => stderr.write('$object\n');