dcimport 0.1.1

Import photos and videos from your iPhone to your computer via USB.

dcimport

dcimport copies photos and videos from an iPhone (or any iOS device) to a local folder, reading the camera roll (/DCIM) over USB via AFC. It bypasses iCloud and iTunes, installs nothing on the device, and only ever reads from it.

Runs are incremental: a local SQLite database records what was copied, so re-runs fetch only new or changed files. Downloads run in parallel and are committed by atomic rename, so an interrupted run resumes with a plain re-run. Original mtimes are preserved.

Beyond a plain copy: filename/folder layout templates, --since/--until date filtering, HEIC→JPEG conversion, skipping the video half of Live Photos, and a JSON manifest per run.

Install

Requires Python 3.11+.

uv tool install dcimport            # or: pip install dcimport
uv tool install "dcimport[heic]"    # to enable --convert-heic

Usage

dcimport ~/Pictures/iPhone

Connect the iPhone by USB, unlock it, and tap Trust. On Windows, iTunes or the Apple Devices app must be installed for the drivers.

dcimport ~/Pictures --layout "{mtime:%Y}/{mtime:%m}/{name}"   # sort into year/month folders
dcimport ~/Pictures --since 2024-01-01 --convert-heic         # recent photos, converted to JPEG
dcimport ~/Pictures --manifest run.json                       # also write a JSON report

Run dcimport --help for the full list of options.

Layout

--layout is a template of {name} (original filename) and {mtime:...} (capture time, strftime codes), and may contain / for subfolders. The default is {mtime:%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S}_{name} → 2024-01-02_03-04-05_IMG_0001.JPG. The layout is stored with the library on first use and reused on later runs; changing it requires --force.

How it tracks files

Each copied file is recorded — by on-device path, size, and modification time — in media.db inside the output directory, and skipped on later runs. Editing a photo on the phone changes its mtime, so it re-imports as a new file; deleting media.db re-imports everything. Local files are never overwritten — name clashes get a _1, _2, … suffix.

Development

git clone https://github.com/artificiadrian/dcimport.git
cd dcimport && uv sync --all-extras && uv run pytest