OSXPhotos provides the ability to interact with and query Apple's Photos.app library database on MacOS. Using this package you can query the Photos database for information about the photos stored in a Photos library on your Mac--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 10.12.6 / Photos 2.0, 10.13.6 / Photos 3.0, MacOS 10.14.5, 10.14.6 / Photos 4.0, MacOS 10.15.1 / Photos 5.0. Requires python >= 3.6
This package will read Photos databases for any supported version on any supported OS version. E.g. you can read a database created with Photos 4.0 on MacOS 10.14 on a machine running MacOS 10.12
osxmetadata uses setuptools, thus simply run:
python3 setup.py install
This package will install a command line utility called osxphotos that allows you to query the Photos database. Alternatively, you can also run the command line utility like this: python3 -m osxphotos
If you only care about the command line tool, I recommend installing with pipx
After installing pipx:
pipx install osxphotos
Then you should be able to run osxphotos on the command line:
> 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:
albums Print out albums found in the Photos library.
dump Print list of all photos & associated info from the Photos...
export Export photos from the Photos database.
help Print help; for help on commands: help <command>.
info Print out descriptive info of the Photos library database.
keywords Print out keywords found in the Photos library.
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...
To get help on a specific command, use osxphotos help <command_name>
Example: osxphotos help export
Usage: osxphotos export [OPTIONS] [PHOTOS_LIBRARY]... DEST
Export photos from the Photos database. Export path DEST is required.
Optionally, query the Photos database using 1 or more search options; if
more than one option is provided, they are treated as "AND" (e.g. search
for photos matching all options). If no query options are provided, all
photos will be exported.
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
--keyword KEYWORD Search for keyword KEYWORD. If more than one
keyword, treated as "OR", e.g. find photos
match any keyword
--person PERSON Search for person PERSON. If more than one
person, treated as "OR", e.g. find photos
match any person
--album ALBUM Search for album ALBUM. If more than one
album, treated as "OR", e.g. find photos
match any album
--uuid UUID Search for UUID(s).
--title TITLE Search for TITLE in title of photo.
--no-title Search for photos with no title.
--description DESC Search for DESC in description of photo.
--no-description Search for photos with no description.
--place PLACE Search for PLACE in photo's reverse
geolocation info
--no-place Search for photos with no associated place
name info (no reverse geolocation info)
--uti UTI Search for photos whose uniform type
identifier (UTI) matches UTI
-i, --ignore-case Case insensitive search for title,
description, or place. Does not apply to
keyword, person, or album.
--edited Search for photos that have been edited.
--external-edit Search for photos edited in external editor.
--favorite Search for photos marked favorite.
--not-favorite Search for photos not marked favorite.
--hidden Search for photos marked hidden.
--not-hidden Search for photos not marked hidden.
--shared Search for photos in shared iCloud album
(Photos 5 only).
--not-shared Search for photos not in shared iCloud album
(Photos 5 only).
--burst Search for photos that were taken in a
burst.
--not-burst Search for photos that are not part of a
burst.
--live Search for Apple live photos
--not-live Search for photos that are not Apple live
photos.
--portrait Search for Apple portrait mode photos.
--not-portrait Search for photos that are not Apple
portrait mode photos.
--screenshot Search for screenshot photos.
--not-screenshot Search for photos that are not screenshot
photos.
--slow-mo Search for slow motion videos.
--not-slow-mo Search for photos that are not slow motion
videos.
--time-lapse Search for time lapse videos.
--not-time-lapse Search for photos that are not time lapse
videos.
--hdr Search for high dynamic range (HDR) photos.
--not-hdr Search for photos that are not HDR photos.
--selfie Search for selfies (photos taken with front-
facing cameras).
--not-selfie Search for photos that are not selfies.
--panorama Search for panorama photos.
--not-panorama Search for photos that are not panoramas.
--only-movies Search only for movies (default searches
both images and movies).
--only-photos Search only for photos/images (default
searches both images and movies).
--from-date [%Y-%m-%d|%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S|%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S]
Search by start item date, e.g.
2000-01-12T12:00:00 or 2000-12-31 (ISO 8601
w/o TZ).
--to-date [%Y-%m-%d|%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S|%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S]
Search by end item date, e.g.
2000-01-12T12:00:00 or 2000-12-31 (ISO 8601
w/o TZ).
-V, --verbose Print verbose output.
--overwrite Overwrite existing files. Default behavior
is to add (1), (2), etc to filename if file
already exists. Use this with caution as it
may create name collisions on export. (e.g.
if two files happen to have the same name)
--export-by-date Automatically create output folders to
organize photos by date created (e.g.
DEST/2019/12/20/photoname.jpg).
--export-edited Also export edited version of photo if an
edited version exists. Edited photo will be
named in form of "photoname_edited.ext"
--export-bursts If a photo is a burst photo export all
associated burst images in the library. Not
currently compatible with --download-
misssing; see note on --download-missing.
--export-live If a photo is a live photo export the
associated live video component. Live video
will have same name as photo but with .mov
extension.
--original-name Use photo's original filename instead of
current filename for export.
--sidecar FORMAT Create sidecar for each photo exported;
valid FORMAT values: xmp, json; --sidecar
json: create JSON sidecar useable by
exiftool (https://exiftool.org/) The sidecar
file can be used to apply metadata to the
file with exiftool, for example: "exiftool
-j=photoname.json photoname.jpg" The sidecar
file is named in format photoname.json
--sidecar xmp: create XMP sidecar used by
Adobe Lightroom, etc.The sidecar file is
named in format photoname.xmp
--download-missing Attempt to download missing photos from
iCloud. The current implementation uses
Applescript to interact with Photos to
export the photo which will force Photos to
download from iCloud if the photo does not
exist on disk. This will be slow and will
require internet connection. This obviously
only works if the Photos library is synched
to iCloud. Note: --download-missing is not
currently compatabile with --export-bursts;
only the primary photo will be exported--
associated burst images will be skipped.
--exiftool Use exiftool to write metadata directly to
exported photos. To use this option,
exiftool must be installed and in the path.
exiftool may be installed from
https://exiftool.org/
--directory DIRECTORY Optional template for specifying name of
output directory in the form
'{name,DEFAULT}'. See below for additional
details on templating system.
-h, --help Show this message and exit.
**Templating System**
With the --directory option, you may specify a template for the export
directory. This directory will be appended to the export path specified in
the export DEST argument to export. For example, if template is
'{created.year}/{created.month}', and export desitnation DEST is
'/Users/maria/Pictures/export', the actual export directory for a photo would
be '/Users/maria/Pictures/export/2020/March' if the photo was created in March
2020.
In the template, valid template substitutions will be replaced by the
corresponding value from the table below. Invalid substitutions will result
in a an error and the script will abort.
If you want the actual text of the template substition to appear in the
rendered name, use double braces, e.g. '{{' or '}}', thus using
'{created.year}/{{name}}' for --directory would result in output of
2020/{name}/photoname.jpg
You may specify an optional default value to use if the substitution does not
contain a value (e.g. the value is null) by specifying the default value after
a ',' in the template string: for example, if template is
'{created.year}/{place.address,'NO_ADDRESS'}' but there was no address
associated with the photo, the resulting output would be:
'2020/NO_ADDRESS/photoname.jpg'. If specified, the default value may not
contain a brace symbol ('{' or '}').
If you do not specify a default value and the template substitution has no
value, '_' (underscore) will be used as the default value. For example, in the
above example, this would result in '2020/_/photoname.jpg' if address was null
I plan to eventually extend the templating system to the exported filename so
you can specify the filename using a template.
Substitution Description
{name} Filename of the photo
{original_name} Photo's original filename when imported to
Photos
{title} Title of the photo
{descr} Description of the photo
{created.date} Photo's creation date in ISO format, e.g.
'2020-03-22'
{created.year} 4-digit year of file creation time
{created.yy} 2-digit year of file creation time
{created.mm} 2-digit month of the file creation time
(zero padded)
{created.month} Month name in user's locale of the file
creation time
{created.mon} Month abbreviation in the user's locale of
the file creation time
{created.doy} 3-digit day of year (e.g Julian day) of file
creation time, starting from 1 (zero padded)
{modified.date} Photo's modification date in ISO format,
e.g. '2020-03-22'
{modified.year} 4-digit year of file modification time
{modified.yy} 2-digit year of file modification time
{modified.mm} 2-digit month of the file modification time
(zero padded)
{modified.month} Month name in user's locale of the file
modification time
{modified.mon} Month abbreviation in the user's locale of
the file modification time
{modified.doy} 3-digit day of year (e.g Julian day) of file
modification time, starting from 1 (zero
padded)
{place.name} Place name from the photo's reverse
geolocation data, as displayed in Photos
{place.country_code} The ISO country code from the photo's
reverse geolocation data
{place.name.country} Country name from the photo's reverse
geolocation data
{place.name.state_province} State or province name from the photo's
reverse geolocation data
{place.name.city} City or locality name from the photo's
reverse geolocation data
{place.name.area_of_interest} Area of interest name (e.g. landmark or
public place) from the photo's reverse
geolocation data
{place.address} Postal address from the photo's reverse
geolocation data, e.g. '2007 18th St NW,
Washington, DC 20009, United States'
{place.address.street} Street part of the postal address, e.g.
'2007 18th St NW'
{place.address.city} City part of the postal address, e.g.
'Washington'
{place.address.state_province} State/province part of the postal address,
e.g. 'DC'
{place.address.postal_code} Postal code part of the postal address, e.g.
'20009'
{place.address.country} Country name of the postal address, e.g.
'United States'
{place.address.country_code} ISO country code of the postal address, e.g.
'US'
The following substitutions may result in multiple values. Thus if specified
for --directory these could result in multiple copies of a photo being being
exported, one to each directory. For example: --directory
'{created.year}/{album}' could result in the same photo being exported to each
of the following directories if the photos were created in 2019 and were in
albums 'Vacation' and 'Family': 2019/Vacation, 2019/Family
Substitution Description
{album} Album(s) photo is contained in
{keyword} Keyword(s) assigned to photo
{person} Person(s) / face(s) in a photo
Example: export all photos to ~/Desktop/export, including edited versions and live photo movies, group in folders by date created
osxphotos export --export-edited --export-live --export-by-date ~/Pictures/Photos\ Library.photoslibrary ~/Desktop/export
Note: Photos library/database path can also be specified using --db option:
osxphotos export --export-edited --export-live --export-by-date --db ~/Pictures/Photos\ Library.photoslibrary ~/Desktop/export
Example: find all photos with keyword "Kids" and output results to json file named results.json:
osxphotos query --keyword Kids --json ~/Pictures/Photos\ Library.photoslibrary >results.json
Example: 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}"
""" Simple usage of the package """
import os.path
import osxphotos
def main():
db = os.path.expanduser("~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary")
photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB(db)
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-parameterosxphotos.PhotosDB() # not recommended, see Note below
osxphotos.PhotosDB(path)
osxphotos.PhotosDB(dbfile=path)Reads the Photos library database and returns a PhotosDB object.
Pass the path to a Photos library or to a specific database file (e.g. "/Users/smith/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary" or "/Users/smith/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/database/photos.db"). Normally, it's recommended you pass the path the .photoslibrary folder, not the actual database path. The latter option is provided for debugging -- e.g. for reading a database file if you don't have the entire library. Path to photos library may be passed either as first argument or as named argument dbfile. Note: In Photos, users may specify a different library to open by holding down the option key while opening Photos.app. See also get_last_library_path and get_system_library_path
If an invalid path is passed, PhotosDB will raise FileNotFoundError exception.
Note: If neither path or dbfile is passed, PhotosDB will use get_last_library_path to open the last opened Photos library. This usually works but is not 100% reliable. It can also lead to loading a different library than expected if the user has held down option key when opening Photos to switch libraries. It is therefore recommended you explicitely pass the path to PhotosDB().
The default library is the library that would open if the user opened Photos.app.
import osxphotos
photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB(osxphotos.utils.get_last_library_path())In Photos 5 (Catalina / MacOS 10.15), you can use get_system_library_path() to get the path to the System photo library if you want to ensure PhotosDB opens the system library. This does not work on older versions of MacOS. E.g.
import osxphotos
path = osxphotos.get_system_library_path()
photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB(path)also,
import osxphotos
path = osxphotos.get_system_library_path()
photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB(dbfile=path)import osxphotos
photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB(dbfile="/Users/smith/Pictures/Test.photoslibrary/database/photos.db")or
import osxphotos
photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB("/Users/smith/Pictures/Test.photoslibrary")Pass the fully qualified path to the Photos library or the actual database file inside the library. The database is called photos.db and resides in the database folder in your Photos library. If you pass only the path to the library, PhotosDB will add the database path automatically. The option to pass the actual database path is provided so database files can be queried even if separated from the actual .photoslibrary file.
Returns a PhotosDB object.
Note: If you have a large library (e.g. many thousdands of photos), creating the PhotosDB object can take a long time (10s of seconds). See Implementation Notes for additional details.
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
keywords = photosdb.keywordsReturns a list of the keywords found in the Photos library
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
albums = photosdb.album_namesReturns a list of the albums found in the Photos library.
Note: In Photos 5.0 (MacOS 10.15/Catalina), It is possible to have more than one album with the same name in Photos. Albums with duplicate names are treated as a single album and the photos in each are combined. For example, if you have two albums named "Wedding" and each has 2 photos, osxphotos will treat this as a single album named "Wedding" with 4 photos in it.
Returns list of shared albums found in photos database (e.g. albums shared via iCloud photo sharing)
Note: Only valid for Photos 5 / MacOS 10.15; on Photos <= 4, prints warning and returns empty list.
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
persons = photosdb.personsReturns a list of the persons (faces) found in the Photos library
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
keyword_dict = photosdb.keywords_as_dictReturns a dictionary of keywords found in the Photos library where key is the keyword and value is the count of how many times that keyword appears in the library (ie. how many photos are tagged with the keyword). Resulting dictionary is in reverse sorted order (e.g. keyword with the highest count is first).
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
persons_dict = photosdb.persons_as_dictReturns a dictionary of persons (faces) found in the Photos library where key is the person name and value is the count of how many times that person appears in the library (ie. how many photos are tagged with the person). Resulting dictionary is in reverse sorted order (e.g. person who appears in the most photos is listed first).
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
albums_dict = photosdb.albums_as_dictReturns a dictionary of albums found in the Photos library where key is the album name and value is the count of how many photos are in the album. Resulting dictionary is in reverse sorted order (e.g. album with the most photos is listed first).
Note: In Photos 5.0 (MacOS 10.15/Catalina), It is possible to have more than one album with the same name in Photos. Albums with duplicate names are treated as a single album and the photos in each are combined. For example, if you have two albums named "Wedding" and each has 2 photos, osxphotos will treat this as a single album named "Wedding" with 4 photos in it.
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
albums_shared_dict = photosdb.albums_shared_as_dictReturns a dictionary of shared albums (e.g. shared via iCloud photo sharing) found in the Photos library where key is the album name and value is the count of how many photos are in the album. Resulting dictionary is in reverse sorted order (e.g. album with the most photos is listed first).
Note: Photos 5 / MacOS 10.15 only. On earlier versions of Photos, prints warning and returns empty dictionary.
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
photosdb.library_pathReturns the path to the Photos library as a string
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
photosdb.db_pathReturns the path to the Photos database PhotosDB was initialized with
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
photosdb.db_versionReturns the version number for Photos library database. You likely won't need this but it's provided in case needed for debugging. PhotosDB will print a warning to sys.stderr if you open a database version that has not been tested.
photos(keywords=None, uuid=None, persons=None, albums=None, images=True, movies=False, from_date=None, to_date=None)
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
photos = photosdb.photos([keywords=['keyword',]], [uuid=['uuid',]], [persons=['person',]], [albums=['album',]],[from_date=datetime.datetime],[to_date=datetime.datetime])Returns a list of PhotoInfo objects. Each PhotoInfo object represents a photo in the Photos Libary.
If called with no parameters, returns a list of every photo in the Photos library.
May be called with one or more of the following parameters:
photos = photosdb.photos(
keywords = [],
uuid = [],
persons = [],
albums = [],
images = bool,
movies = bool,
from_date = datetime.datetime,
to_date = datetime.datetime
)keywords: list of one or more keywords. Returns only photos containing the keyword(s). If more than one keyword is provided finds photos matching any of the keywords (e.g. treated as "or")uuid: list of one or more uuids. Returns only photos whos UUID matches. Note: The UUID is the universally unique identifier that the Photos database uses to identify each photo. You shouldn't normally need to use this but it is a way to access a specific photo if you know the UUID. If more than more uuid is provided, returns photos that match any of the uuids (e.g. treated as "or")persons: list of one or more persons. Returns only photos containing the person(s). If more than one person provided, returns photos that match any of the persons (e.g. treated as "or")albums: list of one or more album names. Returns only photos contained in the album(s). If more than one album name is provided, returns photos contained in any of the albums (.e.g. treated as "or")images: bool; if True, returns photos/images; default is Truemovies: bool; if True, returns movies/videos; default is Falsefrom_date: datetime.datetime; if provided, finds photos where creation date >= from_date; default is Noneto_date: datetime.datetime; if provided, finds photos where creation date <= to_date; default is None
If more than one of (keywords, uuid, persons, albums,from_date, to_date) is provided, they are treated as "and" criteria. E.g.
Finds all photos with (keyword = "wedding" or "birthday") and (persons = "Juan Rodriguez")
photos=photosdb.photos(keywords=["wedding","birthday"],persons=["Juan Rodriguez"])Find all photos tagged with keyword "wedding":
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
photos = photosdb.photos(keywords=["wedding"])Find all photos of Maria Smith
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
photos=photosdb.photos(persons=["Maria Smith"])Find all photos in album "Summer Vacation" or album "Ski Trip"
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
photos=photosdb.photos(albums=["Summer Vacation", "Ski Trip"])Find the single photo with uuid = "osMNIO5sQFGZTbj9WrydRB"
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
photos=photosdb.photos(uuid=["osMNIO5sQFGZTbj9WrydRB"])If you need to do more complicated searches, you can do this programmaticaly. For example, find photos with keyword = "Kids" but not in album "Vacation 2019"
# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
photos1 = photosdb.photos(albums=["Vacation 2019"])
photos2 = photosdb.photos(keywords=["Kids"])
photos3 = [p for p in photos2 if p not in photos1]By default, photos() only returns images, not movies. To also get movies, pass movies=True:
photos_and_movies = photosdb.photos(movies=True)To get only movies:
movies = photosdb.photos(images=False, movies=True)Note PhotosDB.photos() may return a different number of photos than Photos.app reports in the GUI. This is because photos() returns hidden photos, shared photos, and for burst photos, all selected burst images even if non-selected burst images have not been deleted. Photos only reports 1 single photo for each set of burst images until you "finalize" the burst by selecting key photos and deleting the others using the "Make a selection" option.
For example, in my library, Photos says I have 19,386 photos and 474 movies. However, PhotosDB.photos() reports 25,002 photos. The difference is due to 5,609 shared photos and 7 hidden photos. (Note Shared photos only valid for Photos 5). Similarly, filtering for just movies returns 625 results. The difference between 625 and 474 reported by Photos is due to 151 shared movies.
>>> import osxphotos
>>> photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB("/Users/smith/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary")
>>> photos = photosdb.photos()
>>> len(photos)
25002
>>> shared = [p for p in photos if p.shared]
>>> len(shared)
5609
>>> not_shared = [p for p in photos if not p.shared]
>>> len(not_shared)
19393
>>> hidden = [p for p in photos if p.hidden]
>>> len(hidden)
7
>>> movies = photosdb.photos(movies=True, images=False)
>>> len(movies)
625
>>> shared_movies = [m for m in movies if m.shared]
>>> len(shared_movies)
151
>>>PhotosDB.photos() returns a list of PhotoInfo objects. Each PhotoInfo object represents a single photo in the Photos library.
Returns the universally unique identifier (uuid) of the photo. This is how Photos keeps track of individual photos within the database.
Returns the current filename of the photo on disk. See also original_filename
Returns the original filename of the photo when it was imported to Photos. Note: Photos 5.0+ renames the photo when it adds the file to the library using UUID. See also filename
Returns the create date of the photo as a datetime.datetime object
Returns the modification date of the photo as a datetime.datetime object or None if photo has no modification date
Returns the description of the photo
Returns the title of the photo
Returns a list of keywords (e.g. tags) applied to the photo
Returns a list of albums the photo is contained in
Returns a list of the names of the persons in the photo
Returns the absolute path to the photo on disk as a string. Note: this returns the path to the original unedited file (see hasadjustments). If the file is missing on disk, path=None (see ismissing).
Returns the absolute path to the edited photo on disk as a string. If the photo has not been edited, returns None. See also path and hasadjustments.
Note: will also return None if the edited photo is missing on disk.
Returns True if the original image file is missing on disk, otherwise False. This can occur if the file has been uploaded to iCloud but not yet downloaded to the local library or if the file was deleted or imported from a disk that has been unmounted and user hasn't enabled "Copy items to the Photos library" in Photos preferences. Note: this status is computed based on data in the Photos library and ismissing does not verify if the photo is actually missing. See also path.
Returns True if the picture has been edited, otherwise False
Returns True if the picture was edited in an external editor (outside Photos.app), otherwise False
Returns True if the picture has been marked as a favorite, otherwise False
hidden
Returns True if the picture has been marked as hidden, otherwise False
Returns latitude and longitude as a tuple of floats (latitude, longitude). If location is not set, latitude and longitude are returned as None
Returns a PlaceInfo object with reverse geolocation data or None if there is the photo has no reverse geolocation information.
Returns True if photo is in a shared album, otherwise False.
Note: Only valid on Photos 5 / MacOS 10.15; on Photos <= 4, returns None instead of True/False.
Returns True if type is photo/still image, otherwise False
Returns True if type is movie/video, otherwise False
Returns True if photo is a cloud asset, that is, it is in a library synched to iCloud. See also incloud
Returns True if photo is a cloud asset and is synched to iCloud otherwise False if photo is a cloud asset and not yet synched to iCloud. Returns None if photo is not a cloud asset.
Note: Applies to master (original) photo only. It's possible for the master to be in iCloud but a local edited version is not yet synched to iCloud. incloud provides status of only the master photo. osxphotos does not yet provide a means to determine if the edited version is in iCloud. If you need this feature, please open an issue.
Returns Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) for the image, for example: 'public.jpeg' or 'com.apple.quicktime-movie'
Returns True if photos is a burst image (e.g. part of a set of burst images), otherwise False. See burst_photos
If photo is a burst image (see burst), returns a list of PhotoInfo objects for all other photos in the same burst set. If not a burst image, returns empty list.
Example below gets list of all photos that are bursts, selects one of of them and prints out the names of the other images in the burst set. PhotosDB.photos() will only return the photos in the burst set that the user selected using "Make a Selection..." in Photos or the key image Photos selected if the user has not yet made a selection. This is similar to how Photos displays and counts burst photos. Using burst_photos you can access the other images in the burst set to export them, etc.
>>> import osxphotos
>>> photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB("/Users/smith/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary")
>>> bursts = [p for p in photosdb.photos() if p.burst]
>>> burst_photo = bursts[5]
>>> len(burst_photo.burst_photos)
4
>>> burst_photo.original_filename
'IMG_9851.JPG'
>>> for photo in burst_photo.burst_photos:
... print(photo.original_filename)
...
IMG_9853.JPG
IMG_9852.JPG
IMG_9854.JPG
IMG_9855.JPGReturns True if photo is an Apple live photo (ie. it has an associated "live" video component), otherwise returns False. See path_live_photo.
Returns the path to the live video component of a live photo. If photo is not a live photo, returns None.
Note: will also return None if the live video component is missing on disk. It's possible that the original photo may be on disk (ismissing==False) but the video component is missing, likely because it has not been downloaded from iCloud.
Returns True if photo was taken in iPhone portrait mode, otherwise False.
Returns True if photo was taken in High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode, otherwise False.
Returns True if photo is a selfie (taken with front-facing camera), otherwise False.
Note: Only implemented for Photos version 3.0+. On Photos version < 3.0, returns None.
Returns True if photo is a time lapse video, otherwise False.
Returns True if photo is a panorama, otherwise False.
Note: The result of PhotoInfo.panorama will differ from the "Panoramas" Media Types smart album in that it will also identify panorama photos from older phones that Photos does not recognize as panoramas.
Returns a JSON representation of all photo info
export(dest, *filename, edited=False, live_photo=False, overwrite=False, increment=True, sidecar_json=False, sidecar_xmp=False, use_photos_export=False, timeout=120, exiftool=False, no_xattr=False)
Export photo from the Photos library to another destination on disk.
- dest: must be valid destination path as str (or exception raised).
- *filename (optional): name of picture as str; if not provided, will use current filename. NOTE: if provided, user must ensure file extension (suffix) is correct. For example, if photo is .CR2 file, edited image may be .jpeg. If you provide an extension different than what the actual file is, export will print a warning but will happily export the photo using the incorrect file extension. e.g. to get the extension of the edited photo, look at PhotoInfo.path_edited.
- edited: boolean; if True (default=False), will export the edited version of the photo (or raise exception if no edited version)
- overwrite: boolean; if True (default=False), will overwrite files if they alreay exist
- live_photo: boolean; if True (default=False), will also export the associted .mov for live photos; exported live photo will be named filename.mov
- increment: boolean; if True (default=True), will increment file name until a non-existent name is found
- sidecar_json: (boolean, default = False); if True will also write a json sidecar with metadata in format readable by exiftool; sidecar filename will be dest/filename.json where filename is the stem of the photo name
- sidecar_xmp: (boolean, default = False); if True will also write a XMP sidecar with metadata; sidecar filename will be dest/filename.xmp where filename is the stem of the photo name
- use_photos_export: boolean; (default=False), if True will attempt to export photo via applescript interaction with Photos; useful for forcing download of missing photos. This only works if the Photos library being used is the default library (last opened by Photos) as applescript will directly interact with whichever library Photos is currently using.
- timeout: (int, default=120) timeout in seconds used with use_photos_export
- exiftool: (boolean, default = False) if True, will use exiftool to write metadata directly to the exported photo; exiftool must be installed and in the system path
- no_xattr: (boolean, default = False); if True, exports file without preserving extended attributes
Returns: list of paths to exported files. More than one file could be exported, for example if live_photo=True, both the original imaage and the associated .mov file will be exported
The json sidecar file can be used by exiftool to apply the metadata from the json file to the image. For example:
import osxphotos
photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB("/Users/smith/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary")
photos = photosdb.photos()
photos[0].export("/tmp","photo_name.jpg",sidecar_json=True)Then
exiftool -j=photo_name.json photo_name.jpg
If overwrite=False and increment=False, export will fail if destination file already exists
Implementation Note: Because the usual python file copy methods don't preserve all the metadata available on MacOS, export uses /usr/bin/ditto to do the copy for export. ditto preserves most metadata such as extended attributes, permissions, ACLs, etc.
PhotoInfo.place returns a PlaceInfo object if the photo contains valid reverse geolocation information. PlaceInfo has the following properties.
Note For Photos versions <= 4, only name, names, and country_code properties are defined. All others return None. This is because older versions of Photos do not store the more detailed reverse geolocation information.
Returns True if photo place is user's home address, otherwise False.
Returns the name of the local place as str. This is what Photos displays in the Info window. Note Photos 5 uses a different algorithm to determine the name than earlier versions which means the same Photo may have a different place name in Photos 4 and Photos 5. PhotoInfo.name will return the name Photos would have shown depending on the version of the library being processed. In Photos 5, the place name is generally more detailed than in earlier versions of Photos.
For example, I have photo in my library that under Photos 4, has place name of "Mayfair Shopping Centre, Victoria, Canada" and under Photos 5 the same photo has place name of "Mayfair, Vancouver Island, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada".
Returns None if photo does not contain a name.
Returns a PlaceNames namedtuple with the following fields. Each field is a list with zero or more values, sorted by area in ascending order. E.g. names.area_of_interest could be ['Gulf Islands National Seashore', 'Santa Rosa Island'], ["Knott's Berry Farm"], or [] if area_of_interest not defined. The value shown in Photos is the first value in the list. With the exception of body_of_water each of these field corresponds to an attribute of a CLPlacemark object. Note The PlaceNames namedtuple contains reserved fields not listed below (see implementation for details), thus it should be referenced only by name (e.g. names.city) and not by index.
country; the name of the country associated with the placemark.state_province; administrativeArea, The state or province associated with the placemark.sub_administrative_area; additional administrative area information for the placemark.city; locality; the city associated with the placemark.additional_city_info; subLocality, Additional city-level information for the placemark.ocean; the name of the ocean associated with the placemark.area_of_interest; areasOfInterest, The relevant areas of interest associated with the placemark.inland_water; the name of the inland water body associated with the placemark.region; the geographic region associated with the placemark.sub_throughfare; additional street-level information for the placemark.postal_code; the postal code associated with the placemark.street_address; throughfare, The street address associated with the placemark.body_of_water; in Photos 4, any body of water; in Photos 5 contains the union of ocean and inland_water
Note: In Photos <= 4.0, only the following fields are defined; all others are set to empty list:
countrystate_provincesub_administrative_areacityadditional_city_infoarea_of_interestbody_of_water
Returns the country_code of place, for example "GB". Returns None if PhotoInfo contains no country code.
Returns the full postal address as a string if defined, otherwise None.
For example: "2038 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20009, United States"
Returns a PostalAddress namedtuple with details of the postal address containing the following fields:
citycountrypostal_codestatestreetsub_administrative_areasub_localityiso_country_code
For example:
>>> photo.place.address
PostalAddress(street='3700 Wailea Alanui Dr', sub_locality=None, city='Kihei', sub_administrative_area='Maui', state='HI', postal_code='96753', country='United States', iso_country_code='US')
>>> photo.place.address.postal_code
'96753'There is a simple template system used by the command line client to specify the output directory using a template. The following are available in osxphotos.template.
Render template string for photo. none_str is used if template substitution results in None value and no default specified.
template: str in form "{name,DEFAULT}" where name is one of the values in table below. The "," and default value that follows are optional. If specified, "DEFAULT" will be used if "name" is None. This is useful for values which are not always present, for example reverse geolocation data.photo: a PhotoInfo objectnone_str: optional str to use as substitution when template value is None and no default specified in the template string. default is "_".
Returns a tuple of (rendered, unmatched) where rendered is a list of rendered strings with all substitutions made and unmatched is a list of any strings that resembled a template substitution but did not match a known substitution. E.g. if template contained "{foo}", unmatched would be ["foo"].
e.g. render_filepath_template("{created.year}/{foo}", photo) would return (["2020/{foo}"],["foo"])
If you want to include "{" or "}" in the output, use "{{" or "}}"
e.g. render_filepath_template("{created.year}/{{foo}}", photo) would return (["2020/{foo}"],[])
Some substitutions, notably album, keyword, and person could return multiple values, hence a new string will be return for each possible substitution (hence why a list of rendered strings is returned). For example, a photo in 2 albums: 'Vacation' and 'Family' would result in the following rendered values if template was "{created.year}/{album}" and created.year == 2020: ["2020/Vacation","2020/Family"]
| Substitution | Description |
|---|---|
| {name} | Filename of the photo |
| {original_name} | Photo's original filename when imported to Photos |
| {title} | Title of the photo |
| {descr} | Description of the photo |
| {created.date} | Photo's creation date in ISO format, e.g. '2020-03-22' |
| {created.year} | 4-digit year of file creation time |
| {created.yy} | 2-digit year of file creation time |
| {created.mm} | 2-digit month of the file creation time (zero padded) |
| {created.month} | Month name in user's locale of the file creation time |
| {created.mon} | Month abbreviation in the user's locale of the file creation time |
| {created.doy} | 3-digit day of year (e.g Julian day) of file creation time, starting from 1 (zero padded) |
| {modified.date} | Photo's modification date in ISO format, e.g. '2020-03-22' |
| {modified.year} | 4-digit year of file modification time |
| {modified.yy} | 2-digit year of file modification time |
| {modified.mm} | 2-digit month of the file modification time (zero padded) |
| {modified.month} | Month name in user's locale of the file modification time |
| {modified.mon} | Month abbreviation in the user's locale of the file modification time |
| {modified.doy} | 3-digit day of year (e.g Julian day) of file modification time, starting from 1 (zero padded) |
| {place.name} | Place name from the photo's reverse geolocation data, as displayed in Photos |
| {place.country_code} | The ISO country code from the photo's reverse geolocation data |
| {place.name.country} | Country name from the photo's reverse geolocation data |
| {place.name.state_province} | State or province name from the photo's reverse geolocation data |
| {place.name.city} | City or locality name from the photo's reverse geolocation data |
| {place.name.area_of_interest} | Area of interest name (e.g. landmark or public place) from the photo's reverse geolocation data |
| {place.address} | Postal address from the photo's reverse geolocation data, e.g. '2007 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20009, United States' |
| {place.address.street} | Street part of the postal address, e.g. '2007 18th St NW' |
| {place.address.city} | City part of the postal address, e.g. 'Washington' |
| {place.address.state_province} | State/province part of the postal address, e.g. 'DC' |
| {place.address.postal_code} | Postal code part of the postal address, e.g. '20009' |
| {place.address.country} | Country name of the postal address, e.g. 'United States' |
| {place.address.country_code} | ISO country code of the postal address, e.g. 'US' |
| {album} | Album(s) photo is contained in |
| {keyword} | Keyword(s) assigned to photo |
| {person} | Person(s) / face(s) in a photo |
Class that provides easy access to formatted datetime values.
dt: a datetime.datetime object
Returnes DateTimeFormater class.
Has the following properties:
date: Date in ISO format without timezone, e.g. "2020-03-04"year: 4-digit yearyy: 2-digit yearmonth: month name in user's localemon: month abbreviation in user's localemm: 2-digit monthdoy: 3-digit day of year (e.g. Julian day)
The following functions are located in osxphotos.utils
MacOS 10.15 Only Returns path to System Photo Library as string. On MacOS version < 10.15, returns None.
Returns path to last opened Photo Library as string.
Returns list of Photos libraries found on the system. Note: On MacOS 10.15, this appears to list all libraries. On older systems, it may not find some libraries if they are not located in ~/Pictures. Provided for convenience but do not rely on this to find all libraries on the system.
Convert latitude, longitude in degrees to degrees, minutes, seconds as string.
lat: latitude in degreeslon: longitude in degrees returns: string tuple in format ("51 deg 30' 12.86\" N", "0 deg 7' 54.50\" W") This is the same format used by exiftool's json format.
Creates a path in dest folder in form dest/YYYY/MM/DD/
dest: valid path as strdt: datetime.timetuple() object Checks to see if path exists, if it does, do nothing and return path. If path does not exist, creates it and returns path. Useful for exporting photos to a date-based folder structure.
import osxphotos
def main():
photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB("/Users/smith/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary")
print(f"db file = {photosdb.db_path}")
print(f"db version = {photosdb.db_version}")
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 = Kids and containing person Katie
photos = photosdb.photos(keywords=["Kids"], persons=["Katie"])
print(f"found {len(photos)} photos")
# find all photos that include Katie but do not contain the keyword wedding
photos = [
p
for p in photosdb.photos(persons=["Katie"])
if p not in photosdb.photos(keywords=["wedding"])
]
# get all photos in the database
photos = photosdb.photos()
for p in photos:
print(
p.uuid,
p.filename,
p.date,
p.description,
p.title,
p.keywords,
p.albums,
p.persons,
p.path,
p.ismissing,
p.hasadjustments,
)
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()- rhettbull/photosmeta: uses osxphotos and exiftool to apply metadata from Photos as exif data in the photo files. Can also export photos while preserving metadata and also apply Photos keywords as spotlight tags to make it easier to search for photos using spotlight. This is mostly made obsolete by osxphotos. The one feature that photosmeta has that osxphotos does not is ability to update the metadata of the actual photo files in the Photos library without exporting them. (Use with caution!)
- patrikhson/photo-export: Exports older versions of Photos databases. Provided the inspiration for osxphotos.
- orangeturtle739/photos-export: Set of scripts to export Photos libraries.
- ndbroadbent/icloud_photos_downloader: Download photos from iCloud. Currently unmaintained.
- AaronVanGeffen/ExportPhotosLibrary: Another python script for exporting older versions of Photos libraries.
- MossieurPropre/PhotosAlbumExporter: Javascript script to export photos while maintaining album structure.
- ajslater/magritte: Another python command line script for exporting photos from older versions of Photos libraries.
Contributing is easy! if you find bugs or want to suggest additional features/changes, please open an issue.
I'll gladly consider pull requests for bug fixes or feature implementations.
If you have an interesting example that shows usage of this package, submit an issue or pull request and i'll include it or link to it.
Testing against "real world" Photos libraries would be especially helpful. If you discover issues in testing against your Photos libraries, please open an issue. I've done extensive testing against my own Photos library but that's a since data point and I'm certain there are issues lurking in various edge cases I haven't discovered yet.
This packge works by creating a copy of the sqlite3 database that photos uses to store data about the photos library. the class photosdb then queries this database to extract information about the photos such as persons (faces identified in the photos), albums, keywords, etc. If your library is large, the database can be hundreds of MB in size and the copy then read can take many 10s of seconds to complete. Once copied, the entire database is processed and an in-memory data structure is created meaning all subsequent accesses of the PhotosDB object occur much more quickly.
If apple changes the database format this will likely break.
Apple does provide a framework (PhotoKit) for querying the user's Photos library and I attempted to create the funcationality in this package using this framework but unfortunately PhotoKit does not provide access to much of the needed metadata (such as Faces/Persons). While copying the sqlite file is a bit kludgy, it allows osxphotos to provide access to all available metadata.
This project was originally inspired by photo-export by Patrick Fältström, Copyright (c) 2015 Patrik Fältström [email protected]
I use py-applescript by "Raymond Yee / rdhyee" to interact with Photos. Rather than import this package, I included the entire package (which is published as public domain code) in a private package to prevent ambiguity with other applescript packages on PyPi. py-applescript uses a native bridge via PyObjC and is very fast compared to the other osascript based packages.