iphoto-dirtree-to-flat-tree

A bash script to convert the directory tree and image files created by iphoto in to a flat single directory. This is useful for people who no longer use iphotos, and want to more easily view their old photos on a Linux computer. It copies the old files in to flattened version of the directory tree structure created by iphotos. It gives each file a unique name based on it’s location in the original directory structure.

Example

If the input source directory contains directories and files like this:
./pictures/iPhoto Library.photolibrary/Masters/2014/11/23/1234/birthday.mov, ./pictures/iPhoto Library.photolibrary/Masters/2016/03/16/1234/barbecue.jpg, ./pictures/iPhoto Library.photolibrary/Masters/2017/09/03/1234/beach.png

This script will output the following in to the destination directory:
2014-11-23-1234-birthday.mov, 2016-03-16-1234-barbecue.jpg, 2017-09-03-1234-beach.png

Test Mode

./convert_files.sh by default (Meaning no source or destination directory arguments given) is run in test mode. Test mode will create a ‘Masters/‘ directory and a ‘converted_files/‘ directory in the current working directory. ‘Masters/‘ will contain 4 folders, with 5 jpgs located in the end/bottom directory of each. Test will then copy/rename the 20 files over in to ‘converted_files/‘.

I recommend you try out the test mode first, to make sure it works the way that you want it to.

Instructions

1) Clone the repository locally to your machine.

Open up terminal
Go to desired directory e.g. cd ~\myNewDirectory
Enter in git clone https://github.com/ryanpaixao/iphoto-dirtree-to-flat-tree

2) Go into newly cloned repository’s directory

Enter in cd ./iphoto-dirtree-to-flat-tree

3) Run the convert_files.sh script in the default test mode

Enter in ./convert_files.sh
- A prompt will appear asking if you want to run it in test mode.
Enter in y

4) Check that the test mode created the source directory ‘Masters/‘ and the destination directory ‘converted_files/‘

Use ls to see that both directories are present
Enter in cd ./Masters to check ‘Masters/‘ directory contains 4 directories
Enter in cd ../converted_files, and see that there are 20 files present (created from 4 different folders containing 5 files)
Return to the parent directory by entering in cd ..

5) Once you have check that test worked sucessfully, run the convert_files.sh script. Make sure to supply it with the source directory location and the destination directory location.

The source directory should not be a sub-directory of iphoto’s ‘Masters/‘ directory. For this to work you have to specifiy the exact location of ‘Masters/‘.
e.g. If source is ‘./my/old/source/directory/Masters’ and the destination is ‘./my/new/destination/directory’ then you would use the command: ./convert_files.sh ./my/old/source/directory ./my/new/destination/directory

6) Check your destination directory. All you files should be there, copied over, and renamed!!

Change Log

v1.2

Fix space character in dir/file name issue.
v1.1
Add error handling. Add LICENSE.
v1.0
initial version

Error Log

Before the copying process starts, a ‘convert_files_error.log’ file is created with the time and date at the top of the log. If an error occurs during the copy process, the source and destination paths/name will be recorded in the log. Check the log after the copying is finished.

Troubleshooting

1) If you attempt to run ./convert_files.sh and you get an error message saying “Permission denied”, do the following:

enter in sudo chmod 755 ./run_first.sh
- You will have to enter in your root password
enter in ./run_first.sh
- The scripts should now have full permission to run
  2) If you’re still getting “Permission denied” messages, try running sudo ./convert_files.sh. It’s possible that your source directory requires higher permission levels to have the files copied.