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A command-line tool for transferring photos and videos from an iPhone to a folder on the local computer

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thomas694/iPhoneMediaTransfer

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iPhoneMediaTransfer

License: GPL v3

A command-line tool for transferring photos and videos from an iPhone to a folder on the local computer.

Overview

The tool downloads the media database from the iPhone, then it copies all photos and videos from the phone into the local media library path. The media files are stored inside DCIM and DCIM_deleted. Afterwards it replicates the album structure inside the folder Albums by using copies or optionally hardlinks.

Library Path
├── Albums
├── DCIM
└── DCIM_deleted

Requirements

The iTunesMobileDevice.dll and dependent DLLs from the packages "Apple Application Support" and "Apple Mobile Device Support" (driver) are needed.

How to download these packages?

Download an older iTunes Installer from the Internet, make sure to check the Digital Signature to be sure, and extract it with e.g. 7zip to get the MSI packages. The referenced library project used the iTunesMobileDevice.dll 757.3.2.1 which belongs to iTunes 12.1.1 from Jan 2015. So you can either use the "Application Support" (3.1.2) and "Mobile Device Support" (8.1.1.3) installers from this iTunes version and use the DLLs in their respective folders. Or you can use a newer version of the driver (Mobile Device Support, tested 14.1.0.35), but then you have to use the project's old iTunesMobileDevice.dll as newer versions of the driver don't contain that one any more.

Old iTunes versions can be found here: The iPhone Wiki

Usage

iPhoneMediaTransfer v1.0 compiled 02.02.2023 (c) thomas694 (@GH)
Transferring photos and videos from iOS device to PC.
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you
are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; view GNU GPLv3 for more.

Usage: iPhoneMediaTransfer [options] <folder>
Options:
 -h[elp]|?    Shows this help screen
 -database    Copies the Photos.sqlite from the device to <folder>\Photos_yyyyMMddHHmmss.sqlite.
              If not specified, the newest DB in the folder will be used.
 -media       Transfer photos and videos from iOS device to PC.
 -hardlinks   Create hardlinks. Works on NTFS file systems only and needs admin rights.
 -adjust      Adjust the modified date of the media files with values from the DB.
 <folder>     Path to your target folder.

For convenience, you can download the source code with prebuilt binaries under Releases. The above mentioned DLLs still need to be provided as described.

License GNU GPLv3 license

iPhoneMediaTransfer by thomas694 is licensed under GNU GPLv3.