osxphotos 0.22.10

Manipulate (read-only) Apple's Photos app library on Mac OS X

OSXPhotos

• OSXPhotos
  • What is osxphotos?
  • Supported operating systems
  • Installation instructions
  • Command Line Usage
  • Example uses of the module
  • Module Interface
    • PhotosDB
    • PhotoInfo
    • Utility Functions
    • Examples
  • Related Projects
  • Contributing
  • Implementation Notes
  • Dependencies
  • Acknowledgements

What is osxphotos?

OSXPhotos provides the ability to interact with and query Apple's Photos.app library database on MacOS. Using this module 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.

Supported operating systems

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 module 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

Installation instructions

osxmetadata uses setuptools, thus simply run:

python3 setup.py install

Command Line Usage

This module 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 database file.
  --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.
  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(s).
  --person PERSON                 Search for person(s).
  --album ALBUM                   Search for album(s).
  --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.
  --uti UTI                       Search for photos whose uniform type
                                  identifier (UTI) matches UTI
  -i, --ignore-case               Case insensitive search for title or
                                  description. 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
  --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.
  --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.
  -h, --help                      Show this message and exit.

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 uses of the module

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.albums)

    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 ~/Desktop/export
    If file has been edited, export the edited version, 
    otherwise, export the original version """

import os.path
import osxphotos


def main():
    db = os.path.expanduser("~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary")
    photosdb = osxphotos.PhotosDB(db)
    photos = photosdb.photos()

    export_path = os.path.expanduser("~/Desktop/export")

    for p in photos:
        if not p.ismissing:
            if p.hasadjustments:
                exported = p.export(export_path, edited=True)
            else:
                exported = p.export(export_path)
            print(f"Exported {p.filename} to {exported}")
        else:
            print(f"Skipping missing photo: {p.filename}")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Module Interface

PhotosDB

Read a Photos library database

osxphotos.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().

Open the default (last opened) Photos library

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())

Open System Photos library

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)

Open a specific Photos library

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.

keywords

# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
keywords = photosdb.keywords

Returns a list of the keywords found in the Photos library

albums

# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
albums = photosdb.albums

Returns 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.

albums_shared

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.

persons

# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
persons = photosdb.persons

Returns a list of the persons (faces) found in the Photos library

keywords_as_dict

# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
keyword_dict = photosdb.keywords_as_dict

Returns 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).

persons_as_dict

# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
persons_dict = photosdb.persons_as_dict

Returns 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).

albums_as_dict

# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
albums_dict = photosdb.albums_as_dict

Returns 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.

albums_shared_as_dict

# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
albums_shared_dict = photosdb.albums_shared_as_dict

Returns 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.

library_path

# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
photosdb.library_path

Returns the path to the Photos library as a string

db_path

# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
photosdb.db_path

Returns the path to the Photos database PhotosDB was initialized with

db_version

# assumes photosdb is a PhotosDB object (see above)
photosdb.db_version

Returns 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 True
• movies: bool; if True, returns movies/videos; default is False
• from_date: datetime.datetime; if provided, finds photos where creation date >= from_date; default is None
• to_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
>>>

PhotoInfo

PhotosDB.photos() returns a list of PhotoInfo objects. Each PhotoInfo object represents a single photo in the Photos library.

uuid

Returns the universally unique identifier (uuid) of the photo. This is how Photos keeps track of individual photos within the database.

filename

Returns the current filename of the photo on disk. See also original_filename

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

date

Returns the create date of the photo as a datetime.datetime object

date_modified

Returns the modification date of the photo as a datetime.datetime object or None if photo has no modification date

description

Returns the description of the photo

title

Returns the title of the photo

keywords

Returns a list of keywords (e.g. tags) applied to the photo

albums

Returns a list of albums the photo is contained in

persons

Returns a list of the names of the persons in the photo

path

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).

path_edited

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.

ismissing

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.

hasadjustments

Returns True if the picture has been edited, otherwise False

external_edit

Returns True if the picture was edited in an external editor (outside Photos.app), otherwise False

favorite

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

location

Returns latitude and longitude as a tuple of floats (latitude, longitude). If location is not set, latitude and longitude are returned as None

shared

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.

isphoto

Returns True if type is photo/still image, otherwise False

ismovie

Returns True if type is movie/video, otherwise False

iscloudasset

Returns True if photo is a cloud asset, that is, it is in a library synched to iCloud. See also incloud

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.

uti

Returns Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) for the image, for example: 'public.jpeg' or 'com.apple.quicktime-movie'

burst

Returns True if photos is a burst image (e.g. part of a set of burst images), otherwise False. See burst_photos

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.JPG

live_photo

Returns True if photo is an Apple live photo (ie. it has an associated "live" video component), otherwise returns False. See path_live_photo.

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.

json()

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,)

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
• 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 IPTC data 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 IPTC data; 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

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

Returns the full path to the exported file

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.

Utility Functions

The following functions are located in osxphotos.utils

get_system_library_path()

MacOS 10.15 Only Returns path to System Photo Library as string. On MacOS version < 10.15, returns None.

get_last_library_path()

Returns path to last opened Photo Library as string.

list_photo_libraries()

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.

dd_to_dms_str(lat, lon)

Convert latitude, longitude in degrees to degrees, minutes, seconds as string. lat: latitude in degrees lon: 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.

create_path_by_date(dest, dt)

Creates a path in dest folder in form dest/YYYY/MM/DD/ dest: valid path as str dt: 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.

Examples

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.albums)

    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()

Related Projects

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.

Contributing

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 module, 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.

Implementation Notes

This module 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 module 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.

Dependencies

• PyObjC
• PyYAML
• Click
• Mako

Acknowledgements

This project was originally inspired by photo-export by Patrick Fältström, Copyright (c) 2015 Patrik Fältström [e-mail]

I use py-applescript by "Raymond Yee / rdhyee" to interact with Photos. Rather than import this module, I included the entire module (which is published as public domain code) in a private module to prevent ambiguity with other applescript modules on PyPi. py-applescript uses a native bridge via PyObjC and is very fast compared to the other osascript based modules.