https://github.com/kasparsd/photos-sync

Sync OS X Photos to Anywhere (NAS, Dropbox, Amazon S3 or Glacier, Backblaze B2)
https://github.com/kasparsd/photos-sync

macos photos rsync symlink

Last synced: 6 months ago
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Sync OS X Photos to Anywhere (NAS, Dropbox, Amazon S3 or Glacier, Backblaze B2)

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/kasparsd/photos-sync
• Owner: kasparsd
• Created: 2015-12-26T11:09:18.000Z (almost 10 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2017-12-26T13:44:49.000Z (almost 8 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-04-30T17:02:16.589Z (6 months ago)
• Topics: macos, photos, rsync, symlink
• Language: PHP
• Homepage:
• Size: 47.9 KB
• Stars: 35
• Watchers: 3
• Forks: 6
• Open Issues: 1
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

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README

          
# Sync and Backup OS X Photos to Any Location

![Screenshot of a synchronized Photos folder](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kasparsd/photos-sync/master/screenshot.png)

A script that creates a folder with symbolic links (symlinks) to all of the OS X Photos originals which can be _rsynced_ to any location. I use it to share all my photos with the rest of the family using a shared WD EX2 drive. This allows me to avoid adding everything to the Family shared album on iCloud Photos.

	$ git clone https://github.com/kasparsd/photos-sync.git

	$ php photos-sync/symlink-photos.php

It reads the OS X Photos database (SQLite) at `~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/database/Library.apdb` (a copy of it) and creates symlinks to all original photos and videos in the `photos-sync/links` folder organized by month and filenames prepended with an `md5` hash of the file path to avoid collisions.

It can then be sent to any location using rsync or any other tool of preference. Here is a sample bash script which could be added to cron:

	#!/bin/bash

	# Ensure that we're always relative to the current directory

	cd "$(dirname "$0")"

	# Symlink photos and rsync to the network share

	php symlink-photos.php

	# Mount the network share

	mount_afp afp://western.local/Public /Volumes/Public

	# Resolve and synchronize symlinks to the network share

	rsync -avL links/ /Volumes/Public/Photos

where `-L` ensures that rsync resolves the symlinks.

Run it every hour via cron `crontab -e`:

	30 * * * * pgrep -f sync.sh || /path/to/sync.sh

where `pgrep -f sync.sh` will ensure that no other sync process is in progress.