how do I run this AppleScript in photos

[RazorBackXX]

hey my friends, my iCloud Photos library is having serious issues downloading the originals from the iCloud Photo Library. I did two factory resets & signed in & out of iCloud. I have the m1 Mac & high speed internet over 100mb download & upload & I'm only downloading 1 item every hour. so I did a lot of research & I found this post where this guy wrote an apple script but I don't know how to run it. I copied & pasted it into apple script & tried running it in automator. the guy who posted it did not go into detail at all on how to do it but I have the script. apparently this will fix my problem. thank you guys I really appreciate it.

 

[RhetTbull]

That script is meant to run in Automator. Open Automator, Add a new action "Run Applescript", paste that code, then run the action.

I think that key code is the "~" key. Not sure what pressing that 10000 times (which will take 3 hours the way this script is written) will do.

I'm not sure the following will work but it might as it forces Photos to download each original image from iCloud:

Install osxphotos using these instructions. This is a free command line tool for working with Photos which I've written.
Creating a temporary folder to export all your images to. For example, in your Pictures folder, "export" and run this command in Terminal.app

osxphotos export ~/Pictures/export --download-missing

This will use osxphotos to export all your images (in this case to `~/Pictures/export` but you can substitute whichever path you want)

If your disk is formatted using APFS (standard for all Macs since Catalina, you can check in Disk Utility), then the export command won't take any extra space on your disk (APFS uses something called "copy-on-write" so a copied file doesn't take more space unless the copy is edited. If you have an older Mac that is using HFS+ and you don't have enough internal storage to store a copy of all photos, you could export to an external disk.

 

[bogdanw]

but I have the script. View attachment 2286276

That is a terrible script, don't waste your time with it.

 

[RazorBackXX]

That script is meant to run in Automator. Open Automator, Add a new action "Run Applescript", paste that code, then run the action.

I think that key code is the "~" key. Not sure what pressing that 10000 times (which will take 3 hours the way this script is written) will do.

I'm not sure the following will work but it might as it forces Photos to download each original image from iCloud:

Install osxphotos using these instructions. This is a free command line tool for working with Photos which I've written.
Creating a temporary folder to export all your images to. For example, in your Pictures folder, "export" and run this command in Terminal.app

osxphotos export ~/Pictures/export --download-missing

This will use osxphotos to export all your images (in this case to `~/Pictures/export` but you can substitute whichever path you want)

If your disk is formatted using APFS (standard for all Macs since Catalina, you can check in Disk Utility), then the export command won't take any extra space on your disk (APFS uses something called "copy-on-write" so a copied file doesn't take more space unless the copy is edited. If you have an older Mac that is using HFS+ and you don't have enough internal storage to store a copy of all photos, you could export to an external disk.

Thanks My Friend the guys who posted this said it would kickstart the download in photos because you have to open them one at a time to get the thumbnail. he means go to recent photos it starts at the bottom & it presses the up arrow that many times.

 

[RazorBackXX]

That is a terrible script, don't waste your time with it.

lol, bogdanw do you know a way to kickstart the downloads I have blazing fast internet & yes its over 2000 videos & photos combined at around 570GB but still went fast on Ventura & Monterey. I need a script that opens each photo one at a time. by the way apple scripts is pretty cool. I didn't know the MacBook was so machine learning like.

 

[RazorBackXX]

That script is meant to run in Automator. Open Automator, Add a new action "Run Applescript", paste that code, then run the action.

I think that key code is the "~" key. Not sure what pressing that 10000 times (which will take 3 hours the way this script is written) will do.

I'm not sure the following will work but it might as it forces Photos to download each original image from iCloud:

Install osxphotos using these instructions. This is a free command line tool for working with Photos which I've written.
Creating a temporary folder to export all your images to. For example, in your Pictures folder, "export" and run this command in Terminal.app

osxphotos export ~/Pictures/export --download-missing

This will use osxphotos to export all your images (in this case to `~/Pictures/export` but you can substitute whichever path you want)

If your disk is formatted using APFS (standard for all Macs since Catalina, you can check in Disk Utility), then the export command won't take any extra space on your disk (APFS uses something called "copy-on-write" so a copied file doesn't take more space unless the copy is edited. If you have an older Mac that is using HFS+ and you don't have enough internal storage to store a copy of all photos, you could export to an external disk.

Wow thanks amazing you're able to do that. are you able to write one that will download to the photos library? I have a 1TB Drive & my library in the cloud is 570GB lol idk if ill have enough room

 

[RazorBackXX]

I ran it just for fun & this was all that happened. photos didn't open literally nothing happened with his code. am I doing something wrong?

 

[RhetTbull]

For System Events scripting to work I think you need to enable AppleScript access in Accessibility or Privacy in System Settings but I don't remember the exact details. But as @bogdanw said, I wouldn't run this script. It won't do what you want.

 

[RazorBackXX]

For System Events scripting to work I think you need to enable AppleScript access in Accessibility or Privacy in System Settings but I don't remember the exact details. But as @bogdanw said, I wouldn't run this script. It won't do what you want.

ya your right brother its useless. I love the script you wrote. I spent hundreds of hours organizing & sorting them. RhetTbull are you able to write one that downloads to the photo library instead of externally? I mean if I have to do it all over again I will it's just man the time lol. also if you have any other ideas or suggestions id take it. if not then ill just use the script you created.

 

[RhetTbull]

ya your right brother its useless. I love the script you wrote. I spent hundreds of hours organizing & sorting them. RhetTbull are you able to write one that downloads to the photo library instead of externally? I mean if I have to do it all over again I will it's just man the time lol. also if you have any other ideas or suggestions id take it. if not then ill just use the script you created.

Sorry I wasn't clear. The purpose of the export is simply to force Photos to download the files from iCloud. After the export is done, you can delete the exported files. The act of doing the export with the `--download-missing` option forces Photos to connect to iCloud to get the images. The one thing osxphotos can't control is that sometimes Photos deletes the internal files after it downloads them. Ensure you have "Download originals to Mac" checked in `Photos > Settings > iCloud`

 

[RazorBackXX]

Sorry I wasn't clear. The purpose of the export is simply to force Photos to download the files from iCloud. After the export is done, you can delete the exported files. The act of doing the export with the `--download-missing` option forces Photos to connect to iCloud to get the images. The one thing osxphotos can't control is that sometimes Photos deletes the internal files after it downloads them. Ensure you have "Download originals to Mac" checked in `Photos > Settings > iCloud`

your amazing brother! thank you for helping me I really appreciate you.