icloud_photos_do VS icloud_photos_downloader

> They don't offer an appropriate API to get photos out.

There's this: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/photokit "The framework provides access to photos on the person’s device and in iCloud."

If you want to use undocumented APIs on non-Apple devices directly, there are projects like https://github.com/steilerDev/icloud-photos-sync and https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do... that appear to be able to do this.

I use https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do... running on my NAS to regularly download photos from my wife's iCloud account. The photos are stored in full resolution on iCloud with the EXIF data, unlike Google Photos, so that's nice. The only annoyance is that you need to reauthorize the tool every three months. But it sends you a reminder when the time is coming up.

To avoid future data lose, you can backup all your icloud photos locally. Checkout icloud_photos_downloader[1], they have a docker container that is drop-dead simple to use. I run this[3] about once a month, I could probably automate it, but that feel like it'll take more time than it'll save[2].

[1] https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do...

[2] https://xkcd.com/1319/

[3]

I have recently switched to a M1 Mac Mini, and just have each family member sign in to that using Remote Desktop. It brings the added bonus of working as a content cache for anything iCloud.

My only gripe is that it downloads the shared photo album (new in iOS 16) once for each account, and when your photo library is 1.8TB, that suddenly becomes a lot of wasted space. When it comes to backing it up the backup software deduplicates the data, but not for the initial storage.

I really wish Apple would implement some kind of method for backing up photos stored in the cloud without the need for mirroring them.

Before the M1 I was using iCloud photo downloader ( https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do... ) on a Raspberry Pi 4 which also worked well, but in the end I got tired of iCloud credentials expiring every ~90 days, requiring each family member to login again through a console.

Considering the M1 idles at roughly 20% more than a RPi4 (M1 at 4.5W) it was an easy sell. I just got the cheapest model and added a large USB drive. Using a Mac also gives you the possibility of using something like Backblaze Personal with unlimited backup storage, if that’s your thing :-)

- a hyperbackup task backs up the (encrypted) photos to Backblaze B2.

That way i have my photos in apple's cloud, on my nas and in another cloud.

What do I use to download/sync the photos from iCloud to the NAS, you ask?? It's an awesome project called "iCloud Photos Downloader" - https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do...

I have it running in a docker container on the nas and it periodically syncs and keeps itself up to date, no hassle. https://hub.docker.com/r/boredazfcuk/icloudpd

icloud-photo-downloader: https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do...

I've used this to great success! As far as I could tell, it grabbed every photo and video at the highest quality. Very happy.

I've been using icloud-photos-downloader[0] for a while now, running as a Scheduled Task on my Synology. It supports 2FA as well, I just have to re-auth every 3-4 months.

[0] : https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do...

> They don't offer an appropriate API to get photos out.

There's this: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/photokit "The framework provides access to photos on the person’s device and in iCloud."

If you want to use undocumented APIs on non-Apple devices directly, there are projects like https://github.com/steilerDev/icloud-photos-sync and https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do... that appear to be able to do this.

If you have iCloud, you can use icloud.com to get all your photos in a zip.

Or you can use scripts like this one : https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do...

I use https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do... running on my NAS to regularly download photos from my wife's iCloud account. The photos are stored in full resolution on iCloud with the EXIF data, unlike Google Photos, so that's nice. The only annoyance is that you need to reauthorize the tool every three months. But it sends you a reminder when the time is coming up.

I keep my photos in iCloud and sync them up to a Synology NAS (using icloudpd) which is backed up to Backblaze B2.

Direct project link https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader

I was able to download 2 x 2TB (4TB) icloud photos accounts using this in 2 days if you are comfortable with the command line https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader There’s no other solution the mac app was very slow and was gonna takes weeks for me but this app downloaded everything in 2 days

A set of PowerShell scripts to download and organize iCloud media. The scripts use the awesome iCloud downloader from https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader to do the actual download. And the organization happens in a specific way…