p.export() with "download_missing"

[moffat]

Hi,

I'm trying go write a script that exports all shared albums to backup/SHAREDALBUMNAME folder. I think something like this should work:

import osxphotos
import os 

photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB()
albums = photosdb.albums_shared

basedir = '~/Local/backups/shared_albums'



for a in albums:
    edir = os.path.join(basedir,a)
    for p in photosdb.photos(albums=[a]):
        p.export(edir)

(the code assumes the folders already exist)

Now, my problem is that with shared albums, many files are not downloaded, so I need to pass the download_missing options. But `p.export(edit,download_missing=True) returns

TypeError: export() got an unexpected keyword argument 'download_missing'

and indeed help(p.export()) doesn't list "download_missing". What am I... missing?

Thanks.

[RhetTbull]

Yeah, the export() interface exposed by PhotoInfo is pretty limited and meant for quick export but lacks a lot of options like download_missing. You could use "use_photos_export=True" and that will tell export to always use the interface to Photos to export the file (and download it if necessary). Perhaps I should add "download_missing" but there's a more robust PhotoExporter interface that exposes a lot more capability.

try this (I added a few lines so I could actually run the code to test):

import osxphotos
import os 
from osxphotos.photoexporter import ExportOptions, PhotoExporter

photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB()
albums = photosdb.albums_shared

basedir = '~/Local/backups/shared_albums'

for a in albums:
    edir = os.path.expanduser(os.path.join(basedir,a))
    os.makedirs(edir,exist_ok=True)
    for p in photosdb.photos(albums=[a]):
        PhotoExporter(p).export(edir, options=ExportOptions(download_missing=True))

[moffat]

I tried this and the export worked fine, as far as I can tell.

Interestingly, after I tried doing the manual export as you suggested, and trying osxphotos again, the entire album exported correctly.

[RhetTbull]

I've not been able to replicate this. Will try to figure out where to add some extra reporting in the code to make it more clear where the issue is. I just repaired my Photos library and shared photos are correctly being exported. (I'm not using Monterey though and I have had some reports (#545) of problems with shared photos on Monterey)

In the meantime, I suggest you try the osxphotos command you tried earlier but also add the --use-photokit flag in addition to --download-missing. Does that give a different outcome? If that doesn't work, one option is to try repairing your Photos library (hold down option+command when starting Photos) then try again. I've noticed that repairing the library can sometimes fix problems with shared photos.

[moffat]

Ok, so the behaviour is more inconsistent that I thought. I did try to repair my library before I read your last message, as I had read that could sort issues with regular export of photos.

I tried downloading a different album where my code had resulted in an empty folder. This time some of the photos/videos were downloaded (maybe 10 out of 125). I tried again, and the count went up to ~30.

As for your second suggestion, using --use-photokit fails with:

Error exporting photo (CED06217-BEC1-47CD-A539-3E36017C24FC: IMG_0107.JPG) as IMG_0107.JPG: Could not get authorizaton to use Photos: auth_status = 0

Add: python actually crashes when using --use-photokit. log attached.
osxphotos_crash.txt

[RhetTbull]

I created new issues for both these (#626 , #625 )

[moffat]

Great, thanks!

[RhetTbull]

Add: python actually crashes when using --use-photokit. log attached.

Ugh. The Terminal is supposed to request the authorization (that's what happens on Catalina and Big Sur). I won't be able to fix this until I get access to a machine with Monterey (and even then, it might be impossible to fix).

Ok, so the behaviour is more inconsistent that I thought.

When I get a chance I'll try to add some more instrumentation in so you can collect debugging info. Not really sure what the issue is.

[moffat]

@RhetTbull thank you, I appreciate all your feedback. I was able to backup some of my shared albums so this is very helpful.