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iCloud Photos Downloader

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Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#151

Post by gerdemb »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #145
gerdemb wrote: post #141

HN disclosure: I’m the author of Photos Backup Anywhere, but this thread mirrors the exact issues that pushed me to write it. One thing that surprised me when digging into Apple Photos is how much state isn’t represented by just files-on-disk. Albums, Live Photos (paired assets), bursts, slo-mo, edits, and even “simple” things like adjusted capture dates are all tracked separately, and most export/backup tools end up…

Thanks for commenting, do you support S3 compatible targets? Backblaze B2, for example.

Not directly, no. If you can mount the S3 target as a drive, it can be used as a backup destination.

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#152

Post by gerdemb »

SSLy wrote: post #143
gerdemb wrote: post #141

HN disclosure: I’m the author of Photos Backup Anywhere, but this thread mirrors the exact issues that pushed me to write it. One thing that surprised me when digging into Apple Photos is how much state isn’t represented by just files-on-disk. Albums, Live Photos (paired assets), bursts, slo-mo, edits, and even “simple” things like adjusted capture dates are all tracked separately, and most export/backup tools end up…

have you looked at parachute backup? they also boast ability to backup the more mercurial types of iPhotos data.

Backing up “mercurial” Photos data is only half the problem. The tricky part is restoring it in a way Photos actually recognizes as equivalent to the original library state. Photos Backup Anywhere restore works by re-importing items while explicitly reapplying Photos-level attributes: paired assets for Live Photos, burst membership and picks, slo-mo metadata, edits, locations, adjusted capture dates, and then reconstructing albums after the items exist again in the library.

In other words, the filesystem copy isn’t treated as the source of truth. The restore verifies items against what was backed up and only then rebuilds higher-level structure like albums. That’s the piece I didn’t see addressed elsewhere, and what originally motivated me to build it.

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#153

Post by troad »

reconnecting wrote: post #135
coder543 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're arguing with a lot of people who have personally seen this work. You can listen to other people. You can also go to an Apple Store and let them show you what's going wrong here.

Perhaps no one here has tried to download an entire iCloud library at once, or perhaps size is an issue, but that doesn't change the fact that there is no download button for iCloud Photos and iCloud Photos Downloader simply solves this. That's what this post is about.

I can personally confirm I've downloaded an entire iCloud library at once, to a brand new Mac, using the 'Download Originals to this Mac' option. As have many others here, I would think.

That's literally what that option is for.

If it's not working for you, you might be dealing with a bug, or perhaps you haven't given it enough time to sync. If you go to Photos > Library and scroll down, it should show you the sync status.

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#154

Post by nathancahill »

rykc wrote: post #142

Wish I’d seen this 3 days ago. Needed to backup our Shared Library and did the following (about 10K photos/videos at 300gb, had enough space so full downloaded to MacBook, not optimize. 1. Repair iPhoto library, (Wait 24 hrs to re-sync to iCloud) - initially looks like it moved all photos to personal. 2. Select small chunks, by year worked well enough - selecting All gave me the spinning ball. Then export unmodified…

Is there any difference in moving Photos Library.photoslibrary to an external HDD and then pointing Photos.app at that?

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#156

Post by zerkten »

open_ wrote: post #147
gerdemb wrote: post #141

HN disclosure: I’m the author of Photos Backup Anywhere, but this thread mirrors the exact issues that pushed me to write it. One thing that surprised me when digging into Apple Photos is how much state isn’t represented by just files-on-disk. Albums, Live Photos (paired assets), bursts, slo-mo, edits, and even “simple” things like adjusted capture dates are all tracked separately, and most export/backup tools end up…

My current process for offloading photos off the iPhone is to copy them in subsequent batches of '0-9999' from the 'Image Capture' app. This is because I usually have far more than 10K photos and apple starts renaming the files after 9999 as 00001(1) for the rest. This is pretty undesirable. Is there a way for me to export unmodified raw/jpeg/live/videos off the iphone to an external drive without a macbook with a la…

Does the PhotoSync app permit that? I use it to copy files to my NAS but it has some USB-related options I never explored. I used to use Image Capture but heard of PhotoSync and have never looked back.

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#157

Post by slimebot80 »

iCloud Photos.app seems to not be able to show some photos

But Photometor.app (owned by Apple) can...

So that's a little annoying... I wish I had more visibility on photos not showing up in Photos.app, and what it is that stops it showing them

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#158

Post by fizwidget »

reconnecting wrote: post #87
fizwidget wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn’t sound right. My photo library is larger than my iPhone’s storage yet downloads fine on my Mac. Just need to make sure “optimise storage” is enabled on the iPhone and disabled on the Mac. Once everything’s downloaded on the Mac, you can either export through the Apple Photos menu or just copy the “originals” directly from the Photos bundle.

This works because you had synchronised your iPhone with your Mac previously. If you start with an empty Photos library and phone, it is impossible to put all the photos on the phone and thus transfer them to your Mac.

No, I’ve downloaded the entire library to a new Mac. It worked fine.

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#159

Post by snorlax100 »

gerdemb wrote: post #141

HN disclosure: I’m the author of Photos Backup Anywhere, but this thread mirrors the exact issues that pushed me to write it. One thing that surprised me when digging into Apple Photos is how much state isn’t represented by just files-on-disk. Albums, Live Photos (paired assets), bursts, slo-mo, edits, and even “simple” things like adjusted capture dates are all tracked separately, and most export/backup tools end up…

Love this app! Kudos

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#160

Post by rykc »

nathancahill wrote: post #154
rykc wrote: post #142

Wish I’d seen this 3 days ago. Needed to backup our Shared Library and did the following (about 10K photos/videos at 300gb, had enough space so full downloaded to MacBook, not optimize. 1. Repair iPhoto library, (Wait 24 hrs to re-sync to iCloud) - initially looks like it moved all photos to personal. 2. Select small chunks, by year worked well enough - selecting All gave me the spinning ball. Then export unmodified…

Is there any difference in moving Photos Library.photoslibrary to an external HDD and then pointing Photos.app at that?

Not in my experience, previously ran it setup externally with a shared library for at least a year or longer, https://support.apple.com/en-ca/108345. Typically I backup to external drive 2 ways, copy of library itself and unmodified export, only had to go through above after I needed to rebuild the laptop. OP app and or https://photosbackup.app/ , seems like they might enhance my setup, will have to take a closer look.
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