OSXPhotos provides both the ability to interact with and query Apple's Photos.app library on macOS directly from your python code as well as a very flexible command line interface (CLI) app for exporting photos. You can query the Photos library database -- for example, file name, file path, and metadata such as keywords/tags, persons/faces, albums, etc. You can also easily export both the original and edited photos.
Only works on macOS (aka Mac OS X). Tested on macOS Sierra (10.12.6) through macOS Monterey (12.3).
This package will read Photos databases for any supported version on any supported macOS version. E.g. you can read a database created with Photos 5.0 on MacOS 10.15 on a machine running macOS 10.12 and vice versa.
Requires python >= 3.9.
If you just want to use the command line application, I recommend you to install using pipx. See other advanced options below.
If you aren't familiar with installing python applications, I recommend you install osxphotos with pipx. If you use pipx, you will not need to create a virtual environment as pipx takes care of this. The easiest way to do this on a Mac is to use homebrew:
- Open
Terminal(search forTerminalin Spotlight or look inApplications/Utilities) - Install
homebrewaccording to instructions at https://brew.sh/ - Type the following into Terminal:
brew install pipx - Then type this:
pipx install osxphotos - Now you should be able to run
osxphotosby typing:osxphotos
You can also install directly from pypi:
python3 -m pip install osxphotos
This package will install a command line utility called osxphotos that allows you to query the Photos database and export photos.
Alternatively, you can also run the command line utility like this: python3 -m osxphotos
> osxphotos
Usage: osxphotos [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...
Options:
--db <Photos database path> Specify Photos database path. Path to Photos
library/database can be specified using either
--db or directly as PHOTOS_LIBRARY positional
argument. If neither --db or PHOTOS_LIBRARY
provided, will attempt to find the library to
use in the following order: 1. last opened
library, 2. system library, 3.
~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary
--json Print output in JSON format.
-v, --version Show the version and exit.
-h, --help Show this message and exit.
Commands:
about Print information about osxphotos including license.
albums Print out albums found in the Photos library.
diff Compare two Photos databases and print out differences
docs Open osxphotos documentation in your browser.
dump Print list of all photos & associated info from the Photos...
exiftool Run exiftool on previously exported files to update metadata.
export Export photos from the Photos database.
exportdb Utilities for working with the osxphotos export database
help Print help; for help on commands: help <command>.
info Print out descriptive info of the Photos library database.
inspect Interactively inspect photos selected in Photos.
install Install Python packages into the same environment as osxphotos
keywords Print out keywords found in the Photos library.
labels Print out image classification labels found in the Photos...
list Print list of Photos libraries found on the system.
persons Print out persons (faces) found in the Photos library.
places Print out places found in the Photos library.
query Query the Photos database using 1 or more search options; if...
repl Run interactive osxphotos REPL shell (useful for debugging,...
run Run a python file using same environment as osxphotos
snap Create snapshot of Photos database to use with diff command
theme Manage osxphotos color themes.
timewarp Adjust date/time/timezone of photos in Apple Photos.
tutorial Display osxphotos tutorial.
uninstall Uninstall Python packages from the osxphotos environment
uuid Print out unique IDs (UUID) of photos selected in Photos
version Check for new version of osxphotos.
To get help on a specific command, use osxphotos help <command_name>
osxphotos export --export-by-date ~/Pictures/Photos\ Library.photoslibrary ~/Desktop/export
Note: Photos library/database path can also be specified using --db option:
osxphotos export --export-by-date --db ~/Pictures/Photos\ Library.photoslibrary ~/Desktop/export
osxphotos query --keyword Kids --json ~/Pictures/Photos\ Library.photoslibrary >results.json
export photos to file structure based on 4-digit year and full name of month of photo's creation date:
osxphotos export ~/Desktop/export --directory "{created.year}/{created.month}"
(by default, it will attempt to use the system library)
export photos to file structure based on 4-digit year of photo's creation date and add keywords for media type and labels (labels are only awailable on Photos 5 and higher):
osxphotos export ~/Desktop/export --directory "{created.year}" --keyword-template "{label}" --keyword-template "{media_type}"
export default library using 'country name/year' as output directory (but use "NoCountry/year" if country not specified), add persons, album names, and year as keywords, write exif metadata to files when exporting, update only changed files, print verbose ouput
osxphotos export ~/Desktop/export --directory "{place.name.country,NoCountry}/{created.year}" --person-keyword --album-keyword --keyword-template "{created.year}" --exiftool --update --verbose
find all videos larger than 200MB and add them to Photos album "Big Videos" creating the album if necessary
osxphotos query --only-movies --min-size 200MB --add-to-album "Big Videos"
""" Simple usage of the package """
import osxphotos
def main():
photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB()
print(photosdb.keywords)
print(photosdb.persons)
print(photosdb.album_names)
print(photosdb.keywords_as_dict)
print(photosdb.persons_as_dict)
print(photosdb.albums_as_dict)
# find all photos with Keyword = Foo and containing John Smith
photos = photosdb.photos(keywords=["Foo"],persons=["John Smith"])
# find all photos that include Alice Smith but do not contain the keyword Bar
photos = [p for p in photosdb.photos(persons=["Alice Smith"])
if p not in photosdb.photos(keywords=["Bar"]) ]
for p in photos:
print(
p.uuid,
p.filename,
p.original_filename,
p.date,
p.description,
p.title,
p.keywords,
p.albums,
p.persons,
p.path,
)
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()""" Export all photos to specified directory using album names as folders
If file has been edited, also export the edited version,
otherwise, export the original version
This will result in duplicate photos if photo is in more than album """
import os.path
import pathlib
import sys
import click
from pathvalidate import is_valid_filepath, sanitize_filepath
import osxphotos
@click.command()
@click.argument("export_path", type=click.Path(exists=True))
@click.option(
"--default-album",
help="Default folder for photos with no album. Defaults to 'unfiled'",
default="unfiled",
)
@click.option(
"--library-path",
help="Path to Photos library, default to last used library",
default=None,
)
def export(export_path, default_album, library_path):
export_path = os.path.expanduser(export_path)
library_path = os.path.expanduser(library_path) if library_path else None
if library_path is not None:
photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB(library_path)
else:
photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB()
photos = photosdb.photos()
for p in photos:
if not p.ismissing:
albums = p.albums
if not albums:
albums = [default_album]
for album in albums:
click.echo(f"exporting {p.filename} in album {album}")
# make sure no invalid characters in destination path (could be in album name)
album_name = sanitize_filepath(album, platform="auto")
# create destination folder, if necessary, based on album name
dest_dir = os.path.join(export_path, album_name)
# verify path is a valid path
if not is_valid_filepath(dest_dir, platform="auto"):
sys.exit(f"Invalid filepath {dest_dir}")
# create destination dir if needed
if not os.path.isdir(dest_dir):
os.makedirs(dest_dir)
# export the photo
if p.hasadjustments:
# export edited version
exported = p.export(dest_dir, edited=True)
edited_name = pathlib.Path(p.path_edited).name
click.echo(f"Exported {edited_name} to {exported}")
# export unedited version
exported = p.export(dest_dir)
click.echo(f"Exported {p.filename} to {exported}")
else:
click.echo(f"Skipping missing photo: {p.filename}")
if __name__ == "__main__":
export() # pylint: disable=no-value-for-parameterReference full documentation on GitHub