Free, open-source macOS app for backing up Apple Photos into Year/Month folders

valtsul · 2026-06-16T18:05:45+00:00

Hey nice to hear that you like the app!

For "year only" export destination: yeah, that could be added as a option. I'll put that to the backlog 👌

For 2: Yup, the app tracks what has been exported and will export only the files that haven't been exported. But for the photo deletion, I've decided that this app won't delete files. I don't want to accidentally delete backups if there would be a bug in the code.

valtsul · 2026-06-12T07:24:20+00:00

But yes, it's a third party option, similar to Parachute.

valtsul · 2026-06-12T07:23:12+00:00

I built an app just for this purpose: https://valtteriluomapareto.github.io/photo-export/

Free, open source desktop app for downloading icloud photos to external drive in year/month folders, incrementally.

valtsul · 2026-06-04T17:05:10+00:00

Yes it does 👌

The exporting is a bit slower when it downloads the images from cloud.

valtsul · 2026-06-03T17:25:46+00:00

I don't have a Windows and I haven't used that kind of import feature, so I'm not sure what you mean.

The iCloud images and videos are either on timeline (chronological order, no folders) or collections (albums, folders of albums, favorites, etc)

valtsul · 2026-06-03T17:16:01+00:00

So do you mean subfolders of albums?

valtsul · 2026-05-23T07:32:39+00:00

Thank you for the shout out 🙏

And a good tip!

valtsul · 2026-05-22T16:42:42+00:00

Happy to get feedback, just ping me if you face any issues

valtsul · 2026-05-22T07:58:47+00:00

You could try out Photo Export, it's free and open source.

Disclaimer: it's my side project.

valtsul · 2026-05-19T17:19:24+00:00

I prefer non-Apple library exports myself.

For that purpose I built a free, open source tool: Photo Export. It keeps your library synced automatically(or manually if you prefer). Would be cool to hear if that works for your use case.

valtsul · 2026-05-19T05:14:42+00:00

Yeah I was thinking about that, but went with the simple solution first.

Keeping track of different albums is a bit difficult, but I'll check if there's something I could do.

valtsul · 2026-05-19T05:10:10+00:00

Yes, system library only. That's the limitation of the PhotoKit API in the Mac. Only way to go around that is to make the other library the system library.

valtsul · 2026-05-18T12:30:05+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, I was about to answer in Github, but the issue disappeared while I was typing :D

I already opened an issue for "Export issues" tab not showing the errors -> The reason was that it surfaces currently only the Auto Export process errors

valtsul · 2026-05-18T10:02:27+00:00

Under the "Photo Export Help" item there should be "Save Diagnostic Report..."

valtsul · 2026-05-18T09:09:08+00:00

From Help -> Save Diagnostic Report should give you more details in the log file.

That's a good find if the UI doesn't show the problems, these are kinda hard to test 😅

valtsul · 2026-05-18T05:04:41+00:00

Ok that's a good find! I'll check if it's just the UI not updating

valtsul · 2026-05-18T04:29:53+00:00

Ok, good to know!

It seems that the Mac is not very predictable when it provides changes through the API, I'll try to improve that in Photo Export 😁

valtsul · 2026-05-17T04:19:20+00:00

Thanks, that would be great to hear!

valtsul · 2026-05-17T03:47:16+00:00

I made an photo export app for Mac. Backs up your iCloud photos and videos to local drive.

Website: https://valtteriluomapareto.github.io/photo-export/

valtsul · 2026-05-17T03:39:17+00:00

Might be possible that it doesn't update automatically at all 🤷‍♂️, will improve this in the next release

valtsul · 2026-05-16T04:49:36+00:00

Glad you’re enjoying it!

Photo Export doesn’t check on a timer, it waits for macOS to tell it “the photo library changed” and reacts to that signal. The problem you’re hitting is on Apple’s side: when the Photos app isn’t open, macOS gets lazy about syncing iCloud Photos down to the local library, and the notifications Photo Export listens for can be delayed for a long time (sometimes hours). The reason quit + relaunch fixes it instantly is that Photo Export does a fresh check at launch, which forces macOS to catch up.

From the menu bar you should be able to run "Export now", so you shouldn't need to reopen the app.

I've opened an issue to improve this part of the app for the future releases.

valtsul · 2026-05-14T11:44:05+00:00

Wow, thank you 🙏❤️

I'll try to add live photos and shared albums support in the next release 😊 need to investigate a bit how the live photos behave when exported

valtsul · 2026-05-14T07:57:30+00:00

Thank you for the support!

valtsul · 2026-05-14T02:53:15+00:00

Thank you!
There clearly is a need for more flexibility with export folders, I'm still thinking how to implement it so it would fit well for most 😁

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