apple-photos-export

This program exports all images and videos from an Apple Photos Library to a local directory, making the files easily accessible without the need to use the native Photos app. It is intended for backup purposes and does not modify the library in any way.

Important

The project works by reverse-engineering the Apple Photos Library database and file structure. Thus, it is not guaranteed to work with future versions of the Photos app or at all. Use it at your own risk and always keep a backup of your library.

Highlights

• Lists all albums of the library as an ascii tree
• Exports all images and videos from the Photos Library to a local directory
• Different export album structures are supported (overview below)
  • Flat (default)
  • Album
  • Year/Month
  • Year/Month/Album
• Optionally restores the original file names that were used when importing the files into the library
• Dry-run mode to test the export without actually copying any files

Compatibility

Note

Currently, each version of this app only works with a sepcific combination of macOS and the Photos app.
Backwards compatibility to older versions is planned for future releases.

The following versions of the app are compatible with the following macOS/PhotosLibrary version:

App version	macOS Name	macOS Version	Photos Version	Notes
0.4.0, 0.4.1, 0.5.0-snapshot	Sequoia	15.0	10.0
0.3.0	Sonoma	14.6	9.0	The internal schema of the Photos app has changed, making this release incompatible with other Sonoma releases
0.2.0, 0.1.0, 0.0.1	Sonoma	14.0 - 14.5	9.0

Changelog

For an overview of the changes made between each version, please have a look at the CHANGELOG.

Usage

Building and Running locally

$ cargo build --release
$ ./target/release/apple-photos-export --help

Installation via Homebrew

$ brew install haukesomm/repo/apple-photos-export

OR

$ brew tap haukesomm/repo
$ brew install apple-photos-export

Listing albums

$ apple-photos-export list-albums <LIBRARY_PATH>

Exporting assets

$ apple-photos-export export [OPTIONS] <LIBRARY_PATH> <OUTPUT_DIR>

Configuration options

-a, --by-album                       Group assets by album
-m, --by-year-month                  Group assets by year/month
-M, --by-year-month-album            Group assets by year/month/album
-i, --include-albums [<INCLUDE>...]  Include assets in the albums matching the given ids
-x, --exclude-albums <EXCLUDE>...    Exclude assets in the albums matching the given ids
-H, --include-hidden                 Include hidden assets
--must-be-hidden                 Assets must be hidden
-r, --restore-original-filenames     Restore original filenames
-f, --flatten-albums                 Flatten album structure
-e, --include-edited                 Include edited versions of the assets if available
-E, --only-edited                    Always export the edited version of an asset if available
-d, --dry-run                        Dry run
-h, --help                           Print help

Examples

The following snippets show as an example how to export assets from a Photos Library and may be used as a starting point.

Important

Remember to test the different configuration options using the -d flag (dry-run) before running any actual exports!

Snippets

Full export

• Exports everything, including hidden assets
  • Restores the original filenames used when importing the assets to the library
  • Groups the assets in a Year/Month/Album structure
  • Includes both the original and edited versions of each asset

$ apple-photos-export export <LIBRARY_PATH> <OUTPUT_DIR> -MHrfe

Only include assets from a list of specific albums

• Exports all assets that are part of any of the given albums (in this case 700 and 701)
  • Album IDs can be obtained via the list-albums command

$ apple-photos-export export <LIBRARY_PATH> <OUTPUT_DIR> -i 700 701

Exclude all assets being in a list of specific albums

• Exports all assets that are not part of any of the given albums (in this case 700 and 701)
  • Album IDs can be obtained via the list-albums command

$ apple-photos-export export <LIBRARY_PATH> <OUTPUT_DIR> -x 700 701

Export hidden files only

• Exports all hidden assets

$ apple-photos-export export [library_path] [output_path] --must-be-hidden