AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
![]() ![]() In addition, to write the metadata into the files, I needed to install ExifTool This only works on a Mac, so if you have a photo library, but no access to a Mac, you’ll need to look for another solution, or borrow a Mac. I only used it for the former, therefor I didn’t need to worry about setting up the correct python environment, you can just download and run a pre-built executable release It’s a python application you can use to export the data, or interact with the Photos database programatically. Most of the work is done with the OSX Photos application. This also makes it naturally system independent, because if the application making these changes writes them into the photo, there’s no worry about having to read a database written only for one specific application. Yes, you can export a particular album into a folder (of the same name), but if the photo exists in multiple albums with various attributes, that information doesn’t get exported at the same time.Īnd that’s what I want, to have my photo collection managed in an easy to use interface, but with all the extra metadata safely written back into each photo, so at any time, the photo is complete both the actual picture, and its metadata in one place. There is also no good way to export this information natively in Photos. If the database gets corrupted, deleted, or isn’t readable, all this extra information is lost - Photos doesn’t write it back into the photo file’s EXIF or IPTC metadata, so the photo is not a complete stand-alone item. If you don’t have another computer with that software, like me, you can extract the. If you want the photo, plus the metatdata, you’re stuck with using Photos. This information is kept in a database within Photos, and that’s there the problem lies. Without this, it’s very hard to find anything, quickly anyway. You want to be able to sort and filter to find what you want, often by date, but also by event, location or people in the picture. For photos metadata is very important, otherwise any large collection is almost unusable. Generally both applications were OK 1, and had the advantage of being able to add metadata by grouping photos into albums or adding keywords. It’s not a huge collection, but at about 60 gigabytes, it’s about half my files by disk space. To manage my photos I started using iPhoto in 2006, and then its successor Photos. ![]() Other important documents you can get back, with time, money and effort even things like birth certificates and other legal documents, but not your photos. Photos are some of your most important files to back up because the ones you have are unique, and few people are likely to have a copy if you loose yours. , I sadly discovered that the biggest weak point was probably also the most important. When I discovered that I needed to use my backups in earnest You probably want to skip straight to the Tools section. ![]() If that’s what you want to do, and you’ve managed to wade through the useless search results round the very generic terms “Apple”, “Photos” and “Export”, and found this, then hopefully this will be of some use to you. This is how I exported 15 years worth of photos and their metadata from Apple Photos. So it’s worth making sure they’re safe and easy to search. Photos of loved ones, family, friends, times past and places travelled. What are the most important files you have? Photos. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |