Add --backup export option

[RhetTbull]

Add a --backup option that exports with all settings needed to easily re-import the library to re-create it.

osxphotos export --backup /path/to/backup would be sufficient to create a full backup with edits, AAE, etc.

See #1751

[oPromessa]

Would it also make sense for sync --import to use a database from an export ? Thus avoiding two steps: export and sync --export ?

[RhetTbull]

Would it also make sense for sync --import to use a database from an export ? Thus avoiding two steps: export and sync --export ?

Yes, that would be a good option. I'll open a separate issue. For this issue, I'd also add osxphotos import --backup to import from the backup.

[yatesco]

hiya - I'm looking for exactly this. I want to treat Photos as a black box and want the security of an independent copy of the (~250GB) database "just in case". I can't simply copy/backup the actual folder because of optimised images, so this looks perfect.

I'll be blunt - having read through the docs and the linked issue I have very little idea of how to achieve this ;-). I simply want a backup for disaster recovery, and whilst this looks like it is more than powerful enough, the cognitive load between a higher level osxphotos export --backup /path/to/backup and the current magic incantation is simply too much for a simple brain :-).

What would you suggest a safe starting point set of options would be?

Thanks!

[RhetTbull]

@yatesco The following config file should work. Save the photos_backup.toml file to your Pictures folder then you can run osxphotos via:

osxphotos export /path/to/export --load-config ~/Pictures/photos_backup.toml

The contents of the TOML file with annotations are:

[export]
download_missing = true # download missing photos from iCloud, remove if not using iCloud
export_aae = true # export .AAE sidecar files for re-creating edits in Apple Photos
export_by_date = true # export in YYYY/MM/DD/ format
not_shared = true # skip photos in shared albums
preview_if_missing = true # export preview if original is missing
ramdb = true # use in-memory database for faster processing with external disks
sidecar = [ "xmp",] # export sidecar files in XMP format
touch_file = true # touch file to set modify date to photo date
update = true # update the export with any changes made in Photos since the last export

photos_backup.toml.zip

If you want the backup to also sync deletions (delete photos from the backup that were also deleted in Photos since the last backup), then add this line to the toml file:

cleanup = true

These settings will give you enough data to preserve all metadata (titles/captions/keywords, etc) and recreate the Photos library if something catastrophic happened.

[yatesco]

awesome - thanks @RhetTbull