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iCloud Photos Downloader

github.com

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Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#91

Post by reconnecting »

SilverElfin wrote: post #81
ndegruchy wrote: post #73

While not free, and not for any other platform than macOS. The program Parachute[1] in the App Store is very nice in downloading both photos from your library as well as files from the various locations. [1]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/parachute-backup/id6748614170?...

Is there a way to verify this all is safe to use? Like it won’t do something weird privacy wise? Any equivalent for windows?

I have the same paranoia, so I was happy to learn that someone made an open-source downloader for iCloud.

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#92

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

reconnecting wrote: post #89
lostlogin wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s missing? The files are there on the Mac, they are there to download on the cloud (various mentions of method mentioned here).

There is NO button on Mac to download photos from iCloud. You can only do this from your phone and then synchronise them to your Mac.

You can use the Photos app on your Mac and download originals

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#93

Post by 8fingerlouie »

teamspirit wrote: post #86
ndegruchy wrote: post #73

While not free, and not for any other platform than macOS. The program Parachute[1] in the App Store is very nice in downloading both photos from your library as well as files from the various locations. [1]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/parachute-backup/id6748614170?...

Anyone know if it works with ADP? I emailed them months ago but no one ever replied. On a related question, is there a download solution that does work with ADP? I’m looking to mitigate any potential account lockout issues for family members (and, no, they will not switch out of the ecosystem).

It does. It uses PhotoKit to access photos, so it basically uses your Apple Photos app (iOS or Mac) to download the photos.

The only scripted solution I can think of that works with ADP is osxphotos[^1], but that also uses PhotoKit, and requires the user to be signed in.

Personally I use PhotoSync [^2] to backup our photos from phones to a NAS. It works reliably, and supports exporting unmodified originals as well as edited versions, and XMP/AAE metadata alongside it.

^1: https://github.com/RhetTbull/osxphotos

^2: https://www.photosync-app.com/home

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#94

Post by 8fingerlouie »

ndegruchy wrote: post #73

While not free, and not for any other platform than macOS. The program Parachute[1] in the App Store is very nice in downloading both photos from your library as well as files from the various locations. [1]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/parachute-backup/id6748614170?...

It works well enough, but it's not without flaws either.

The desktop version works reliably, if you can get macOS to keep shares mounted for long enough, and mount them on request. The scheduler is also kinda wonky.

The iOS version has so far never finished an incremental backup overnight of our ~1TB individual libraries. It handles resume/suspend well, but for some reason, while it exports unmodified originals, it doesn't include AAE files, which the desktop version does.

PhotoSync does everything right, with the exception of trying to keep state of what has been exported, which makes little sense as it doesn't support restoring photos.

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#95

Post by js2 »

reconnecting wrote: post #63
possiblerobot wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 to this method. After optimise storage is disabled on the Mac, wait for all photos to download. Then, open the photos library bundle and you'll see every photo there, full res. Copy them wherever you like. Also, if you leave optimise storage disabled and continue to use Photos, every photo will be cloned in any local or cloud backups of your machine. This strategy creates additional photo redundancy separate from…

Someone gave me a new iPhone (120GB) and a new MacBook Pro and asked me to download all their photos from iCloud. Long story short, after 120GB of photos were synchronised to the iPhone, the MacBook Pro refused to copy them, and now there's no storage left on the iPhone. Also, Photos on Mac doesn't have an option to download photos directly, so the only valid option Apple offers is to download them through the web in…

> Photos on Mac doesn't have an option to download photos directly

Yes it does. It's called Download Originals to this Mac.

https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/use-icloud-photos-pht...

You keep asserting to the contrary, but I've been syncing my entire photos library to my Mac for years, since it was iPhoto even.

Obviously if you have a larger photos library than storage space on a particular device, you cannot synchronize the entire library to that specific device. e.g. my photos library vastly exceeds my iPhone 13 mini storage, so on my iPhone, I don't sync everything. But my Mac has 2 TB of storage, and Photos is setup to sync all my photos, and does so, reliably, and has been, again, for years now.

Additionally, unlike with this open source tool, I can keep advanced data protection enabled.

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#96

Post by Barbing »

mbirth wrote: post #58
possiblerobot wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 to this method. After optimise storage is disabled on the Mac, wait for all photos to download. Then, open the photos library bundle and you'll see every photo there, full res. Copy them wherever you like. Also, if you leave optimise storage disabled and continue to use Photos, every photo will be cloned in any local or cloud backups of your machine. This strategy creates additional photo redundancy separate from…

Or use the great osxphotos tool that works with Apple Photo’s SQLite database to let you manage all the photos in your library. https://github.com/RhetTbull/osxphotos

Demo .gif sold me

(Been meaning to make a software demo gif gallery, best way to understand many categories of apps)

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#98

Post by mr_toad »

reconnecting wrote: post #89
lostlogin wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s missing? The files are there on the Mac, they are there to download on the cloud (various mentions of method mentioned here).

There is NO button on Mac to download photos from iCloud. You can only do this from your phone and then synchronise them to your Mac.

There are two options in the file menu - you can export the originals, and there is an option to export them as .jpg.

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#99

Post by coder543 »

reconnecting wrote: post #89
lostlogin wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s missing? The files are there on the Mac, they are there to download on the cloud (various mentions of method mentioned here).

There is NO button on Mac to download photos from iCloud. You can only do this from your phone and then synchronise them to your Mac.

Yes, there is a button on Mac: https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/use-icloud-photos-pht...

As long as you are signed into the Mac with the same iCloud account used on the iPhone, this will download them all. No, you do not need to get them all downloaded to the iPhone ever for any reason for this to work. Period. You need to stop repeating that, because it is wrong. How many people have to say the same thing?

Yes, you will have to go into a hidden folder to access the Originals once they're downloaded if you want to copy them somewhere else, but it's like two clicks.

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