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https://github.com/bskp/signal-bildexport

Exporting photos from Signal-Desktop to iCloud Photos
https://github.com/bskp/signal-bildexport

icloud-photos signal-desktop

Last synced: 5 days ago
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Exporting photos from Signal-Desktop to iCloud Photos

Host: GitHub
URL: https://github.com/bskp/signal-bildexport
Owner: bskp
Created: 2022-12-30T12:35:52.000Z (almost 2 years ago)
Default Branch: main
Last Pushed: 2024-01-03T17:44:30.000Z (11 months ago)
Last Synced: 2024-04-28T02:26:44.092Z (7 months ago)
Topics: icloud-photos, signal-desktop
Language: Python
Homepage:
Size: 3.26 MB
Stars: 8
Watchers: 1
Forks: 0
Open Issues: 0
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md

Awesome Lists containing this project

README

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![demo](demo.jpeg)

## Why «Signal Bildexport» had to be done

Ever wanted to save images from **Signal** messages? It is a chore:

- Every **single photo** needs to be **exported separately**

- All metadata is lost – and even with a **wrong Timestamp**. This messes up your (iCloud) photo timeline!

Unlike Whatsapp, Signal does not provide automatic saving of received images to the camera roll. The discussion is still going on:

- Github Feature Request #1567: [Option to auto-save received images/video to camera roll](https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-iOS/issues/1567)

- Signal Community Discussion Thread: [Automatically save attachments to device](https://community.signalusers.org/t/automatically-save-attachments-to-device-and-possibly-link-to-them-from-inside-the-app/5147)

Due to this hassle, friends and family were **threatening to switch back** from **Signal** to **Whatsapp**. Things were getting serious! But, fear not:

## What «Signal Bildexport» does

Since the images cannot be saved directly from Android/iOS, this script **exports photos from** **Signal Desktop** on Mac or Windows to a chosen **folder** or **iCloud Photos**

1. Reads Signal Desktop's encrypted sqlite database

2. Collects all messages which were received (since Signal Desktop was installed)

3. Exports every found JPEG Photo to the *iCloud Photos* folder (Windows) or the *Photos* App (Mac) with the following metadata annotations:

   - Timestamp (the closed we can get: the instant when the picture was sent)

   - Who send it (Full contact name or Signal Name, if not in contacts)

   - Name of the Chat group

   - The message that came with it as the image's title

## Usage

~~~~bash

cd signal-bildexport/

python export.py

~~~~

On the first run, `config.yaml` will be created. The defaults should be fine, but it allows you to restrict which photos should be exported:

~~~~yaml

import_photos_from_messages:

  any_with_my_reaction: ['🤩'] # only export images for which your reaction was 🤩

                               # use ['*'] as a wildchar, or an empty list ('[]') to

                               # disable filtering by reactions

  in_conversation:

    exclude: [] # Add conversations from which you don't want to import anyting (work?)

    include:

    - '*' # Every other conversation. Feel free to move the '*' to 'exclude'

          # and specify the desired chats here

last_run: 0 # epoch timestamp of last run. Set to 0 to trigger a full export

output_path: images # output path for the images (different for Mac and Windows)

x-advanced:

  pre_copy: false

  pre_decrypt: false

  signal_path: /Users/matthiasroggo/Library/Application Support/Signal

  sqlcipher_bin: ./sqlcipher/bin/sqlcipher # Only required if pre_decrypt = True (Windows)

~~~~

Installation on Windows using WSL

-------

#### Prerequisites

- iCloud for Windows is installed

- Signal Desktop is installed and configured (and some Photos have been received already)

#### Powershell

~~~~powershell

# Install Windows Subsystem for Linux

wsl --install

~~~~

#### Ubuntu Shell (Bash)

~~~~bash

# Clone repo

# Choose a directory for this script.  

# Make sure the path does not contain any spaces! Eg:

cd /mnt/c/users/

git clone https://github.com/bskp/signal-bildexport.git

cd signal-bildexport/

# Install build tools and build sqlcipher

sudo apt-get update  

sudo apt install build-essential libsqlite3-dev tclsh libssl-dev

# Feel free to put sqlcipher anywhere else. Make sure to adapt

# config.yaml (which will be generated) accordingly.

git clone https://github.com/sqlcipher/sqlcipher.git

cd sqlcipher/

./configure --enable-tempstore=yes CFLAGS="-DSQLITE_HAS_CODEC" LDFLAGS="-lcrypto -lsqlite3"

make

# Install required python modules

cd ..

apt-get install python3-pip  

pip install -r requirements.txt

~~~~

## Installation on Mac

#### Prerequisites

- Signal Desktop is installed and configured (and some Photos have been received already)

- [Homebrew](https://brew.sh) is installed

#### Terminal (zsh or bash)

~~~~bash

# Clone repo

git clone https://github.com/bskp/signal-bildexport.git

cd signal-bildexport/

# Install sqlcipher

brew install sqlcipher

# Install required python modules

pip install -r requirements.txt

pip install pysqlcipher3

~~~~

Thanks

----

While getting `pysqlcipher3` to work was a walk in the park on Mac, it almost got me quitting on Windows. Big thanks to [Chris Arderne](https://github.com/carderne) for his fantastic write-up on solving this for [signal-export](https://github.com/carderne/signal-export), where the pre-decrypt approach is taken from!