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Apple now lets you transfer your iCloud Photos to Google Photos

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Re: Apple now lets you transfer your iCloud Photos to Google Photos

#201
post #194

Does rclone[1] interface with iCloud Photos ? It works just fine with google photos[2] ... Without installing rclone and without using any of your own bandwidth, you should be able to: ssh user@rsync.net rclone icloud:/blah gphotos:/blah Or maybe you just want to keep a copy in your rsync.net account: ssh user@rsync.net rclone icloud:/blah /your/dir/tree [1] https://rclone.org [2] https://rclone.org/googlephotos/

iCloud photos aren’t just jpegs in a directory

Take a look at the rclone targets list:

https://rclone.org/

In fact, most of them are not files in a directory - that's what makes most of the rclone use-cases so impressive. If they can interact with gdrive/photos/S3/etc. they should be able to interact with iCloud Photos ...

Re: Apple now lets you transfer your iCloud Photos to Google Photos

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, someone (who?) comes out with a standard, and then everyone just freezes capabilities then? Nothing evolves? Or if it does, it does so very unequally? Already in this announcement is the non-transfer of Live Photos because presumably Google doesn't support it. Apparently they also have a 20k per album cap, which at that point you get different behavior than you're expecting. These are just a few examples of where…

>and then everyone just freezes capabilities then? Nothing evolves? Or if it does, it does so very unequally? every client provider can do whatever they want, that'd be the beauty of it. Someone could write a stripped down, privacy respecting Facebook client and charge users five bucks instead of running ads, if that's what users want. Someone could offer a chronological news-feed free of algorithmic meddling, or one…

> every client provider can do whatever they want

I feel like you're missing his point a bit, which is that sure they can do whatever they want, but it would be within a well-defined and highly regulated system, and would need to conform to an interface that would be difficult to change and evolve.

A bit like how IRC never really got updated with features people like to see in newer IM apps, like conversation history, read receipts, sending images and videos, threading, and so on. Or HTTP. Or email. Federation always leads to ossification.

Re: Apple now lets you transfer your iCloud Photos to Google Photos

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

force protocols to be open would just about do it. People would trivially write cross-service applications on top and we could have an internet where people can freely move data around. Apple and Google would be delegated to the backend and users could choose the clients they want. It's honestly so trivial and uninvasive of a regulatory matter it's ridiculous. We're stuck in the 19th century railroad industry.

>It's honestly so trivial and uninvasive of a regulatory matter it's ridiculous You can't honestly believe this. Even if one agrees with making some things open protocols, potentialy by law (messenger, social networks), stating "it's trivial" to do such a thing is just the height of hyperbole.

I’m afraid some people really do seem to believe this. Hard to understand, I know. Fixed, regulator defined protocols everyone would be forced to use. Sheesh.

Re: Apple now lets you transfer your iCloud Photos to Google Photos

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

force protocols to be open would just about do it. People would trivially write cross-service applications on top and we could have an internet where people can freely move data around. Apple and Google would be delegated to the backend and users could choose the clients they want. It's honestly so trivial and uninvasive of a regulatory matter it's ridiculous. We're stuck in the 19th century railroad industry.

There is a lot of secret sauce in protocols. Those decisions can have serious positive/negative implications on performance and features. Making those easily available to everyone could potentially destroy a business. Don't get me wrong, I've had to reverse engineer my share of proprietary protocols to get behavior I wanted (and would have loved to see them be open), but I don't think I can get onboard with the idea…

The secret sauce in Apple/Google photos is not the API for accessing the data.

Re: Apple now lets you transfer your iCloud Photos to Google Photos

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

force protocols to be open would just about do it. People would trivially write cross-service applications on top and we could have an internet where people can freely move data around. Apple and Google would be delegated to the backend and users could choose the clients they want. It's honestly so trivial and uninvasive of a regulatory matter it's ridiculous. We're stuck in the 19th century railroad industry.

So, someone (who?) comes out with a standard, and then everyone just freezes capabilities then? Nothing evolves? Or if it does, it does so very unequally? Already in this announcement is the non-transfer of Live Photos because presumably Google doesn't support it. Apparently they also have a 20k per album cap, which at that point you get different behavior than you're expecting. These are just a few examples of where…

> Already in this announcement is the non-transfer of Live Photos because presumably Google doesn't support it.

Google Photos definitely supports Live Photos, I've successfully uploaded and shared lots of Live Photos via the Google Photos for iOS app.

Which then raises the question of why doesn't the tool support it?

Re: Apple now lets you transfer your iCloud Photos to Google Photos

#206
post #42
post #10

I was surprised that Google's iOS app ignores iOS Photos' albums and favorites, and is practically the only app on my phone that doesn't allow me to share a picture into it from the camera/photos app. I went ahead and wrote my own app that provides the share extension and hooks up to the Google Photos API, but even with that I can't write photos to albums that weren't created by my app. It seems like Google _really_…

The Google Photos iOS app just uploads all photos that my iPhone takes automatically, regardless of album. Yours doesn't?

This is something I miss from Android. I could tell Google Photos to ignore my downloads and screenshots albums, but iOS you either need to manually select photos to upload, or upload all photos.

Re: Apple now lets you transfer your iCloud Photos to Google Photos

#207

They don't do any favour. They are supposed to allow it by law because of GDPR. If GDPR was not passed, I personally doubt Apple would do anything. They should allow export not only to Google Photos but also for yourself to download in a way that you could import it to any other photo storage service.

How are they obligated by GDPR to support server side data transfer to Google in particular? My understanding is that they are only required to make it possible for you to download your data so that you can upload it elsewhere if you'd like to.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protectio...

The right to data portability allows individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services.

It allows them to move, copy or transfer personal data easily from one IT environment to another in a safe and secure way, without affecting its usability.

It doesn't say that they have to implement moving from one provider to another without you having to download the data, but I think the key phrase is "easily from one IT environment to another in a safe and secure way, without affecting its usability".

Re: Apple now lets you transfer your iCloud Photos to Google Photos

#208
post #166
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GDPR gives you this button. You can do a full data request. This was introduced for exactly this usecase, to make it possible to switch service providers. Now only Google needs to be able to read Apple's format.

Pretty sure even if Google doesn't support it explicitly, you'll have open source tools that can download + re-upload to Google.

That assumes Google provides API and authorizes the access, or else you're stuck scraping complex web apps with a Chrome extension.

Custom 3rd party software is usually banned from a consumer cloud API for security reasons.

Re: Apple now lets you transfer your iCloud Photos to Google Photos

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were required to do this by law in the EU.

Could you please elaborate on that? Which particular law are they abiding?

It is covered by right to data portability included in GDPR passed in 2018.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protectio...

Re: Apple now lets you transfer your iCloud Photos to Google Photos

#210
post #194

Does rclone[1] interface with iCloud Photos ? It works just fine with google photos[2] ... Without installing rclone and without using any of your own bandwidth, you should be able to: ssh user@rsync.net rclone icloud:/blah gphotos:/blah Or maybe you just want to keep a copy in your rsync.net account: ssh user@rsync.net rclone icloud:/blah /your/dir/tree [1] https://rclone.org [2] https://rclone.org/googlephotos/

Frustratingly, support for Google Photos in rclone is handicapped by the limitations of the Google Photos API: you can't download Photos at original resolution. This is documented on your second link.
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