Tried a lot of commands, but are always getting "Did not find any photos to export"

[KeyPlayerMaek]

Hello.
I really like the idea of "osxphotos" as Photos functionality is very limited, so I installed "uv", installed "osxphotos" and tried like a hundred combinations of commands, but I'm always getting the "Did not find any photos to export" message. Please help me with pinpointing of what I'm doing wrong.

osxphotos export /Users/marek/Downloads/Export --directory "{created.year}/{created.month}" --download-missing --album “Knihy”

Also, I noticed that everytime I have at least two words within double quotes, I'm getting "Error: Got unexpected extra argument". The same goes for both the "album" and the "folder" command.

osxphotos export /Users/marek/Downloads/Export --directory "{created.year}/{created.month}" --download-missing --shared --folder “Shared Albums” --album “Knihy”

The later is actually what I would like to use the tool for - exporting photos from Shared Albums.

Here's how I see the Albums structure in Photos (parts which are not applicable for the above examples are "whited" out):

marek@Mac-mini ~ % osxphotos version You have the latest version of osxphotos: 0.69.2

Sorry if this is a double post. I did a quick search for similar discussions...

Thanks in advance!

[oPromessa]

Just it be on the safe side:

• As per your pic your regular album (not shared) is named Kniha
• your command osxphotos export /Users/marek/Downloads/Export --directory "{created.year}/{created.month}" --download-missing --album “Knihy” is referring to Knihy (your shared album).
• no need for quotes when your arguments/text have no spaces 😃

try using info command to see all details (and album names) on your database:

• osxphotos info
• osxphotos info --verbose

use --dry-run to run a simple command without actually exporting anything just to make sure if finds assets. Use --verbose to see more details. Try a simple command without any filter and grow from there:

• osxphotos export /path/to/export --dry-run --verbose --export-by-date
• for example export pics with the 2025 text on the name: osxphotos export /path/to/export --dry-run --verbose --export-by-date --name 2025

regarding exporting pics from shared album

• I don't use that much. Let's wait for RehtTbull to comeback on this one. There are several options which may be relevant --shared besides the required --download-missing
• run osxphotos help export to get more detailed info. Search for shared.

[KeyPlayerMaek]

Thanks for the hints! My main issue were the smart quotes. The other you pointed out was just a typo.

[RhetTbull]

You're using "smart quotes" not plain straight quotes. These are interpreted by OSXPhotos literally so it's looking for an album named “Knihy” not Knihy. Use regular quotes, " or as @oPromessa said, for single words, you don't even need the quotes. The same is true for your --folder option: Should be --folder "Shared Albums" not --folder “Shared Albums”

[RhetTbull]

This is a common problem so I have an open issue (#1437) to warn the user when osxphotos encounters smart quotes or curly quotes.

[KeyPlayerMaek]

Regular quotes did the trick! Thank you! If you wish I can deleted the whole discussion...

[RhetTbull]

Glad it worked! Up to you but I'd leave the discussion because it may help others searching for a similar issue. As I said, this is a common problem so I plan to implement a feature to have osxphotos warn when it detects the quotes. Regular quotes are not passed to osxphotos as these are stripped by the terminal but "smart quotes" or "curly quotes" are viewed by the terminal as literal characters and are passed to osxphotos. There are a variety of these so implementing the fix means determining all possible types of smart quotes in all locales and searching for those at the start or end of a string...which will take a bit of work.

[oPromessa]

Regular quotes did the trick! Thank you! If you wish I can deleted the whole discussion...

Simply select the message with the correct answer. It will help others.