Remove photos added to Hidden album from All photos album

[bourkemcrobbo]

If I take a photo, have photo downloader run, then add the photo to my Hidden album, the photo will remain downloaded into all albums. This is happening because auto-delete looks at recently deleted only, and the photo hasn't been deleted, only moved to Hidden.

I'm hoping your product can be enhanced to remove photos from All Photos (or any album) that have been added the the Hidden album

[boredazfcuk]

If you hide the photo immediately after taking/saving it, it will never get downloaded.

[lonestarr-007]

If you hide the photo immediately after taking/saving it, it will never get downloaded.

It could get downloaded if you run --watch-with-interval or run icloudpd as a cron job, and it runs an update between the time you take/save the picture and when you hide it. Unlikely, but possible. Some of us also don't always remember to hide a picture immediately or may have reason to hide a picture later. This functionality could add convenience.

[boredazfcuk]

That's why I said to hide it immediately. It's possible to hide files before their upload to iCloud completes, so even if you are using --watch-with-interval, they won't get downloaded.

[lonestarr-007]

It is still possible for the watch-with-interval to run in between the time you take/save the picture and when you hide it, depending on how quickly your phone syncs the picture to iCloud. Unlikely, but not impossible.

That's also why I mentioned the fact that not everyone remembers or thinks to do so right away (especially if taking/saving several pictures and hiding them afterward), or may not have a need to hide it right away but need to do so later.

Ultimately this is a feature enhancement request thread, we shouldn't be arguing over it, and recommending user behavior is not a valid alternative. If it were, I could simply say don't take or save pictures that you feel a need to hide. I expressed my support for this enhancement request and my reason for it, I'm going to leave it at that and not comment further.

[boredazfcuk]

I'm simply informing others in this thread that the desired behaviour is already possible, as I use this exact process to prevent photos from being downloaded. If people alter their behaviour slightly they can already achieve their desired outcome, rather than having to wait until a specific feature is added, which could be months or years away. It also means you don't have to spend time manually deleting files from your local storage. Prevention is better than cure, is how the saying goes.

Currently there is an issue with the 'Recently Deleted' album, in that files which live there, can also live in the 'All Photos' album, resulting in files being downloaded then immediately deleted during every download run. This goes on for 30-days until the photo is automatically removed from 'Recently Deleted' by the iDevice.

Applying the same workflow to the Hidden directory means that it's entirely possible to have tens/hundreds/thousands of photos and videos being downloaded and removed each time the utility is run, except this behaviour will continue indefinitely, as files in the Hidden folder are not removed after 30-days. It may result in GBs of data being downloaded every time.

You must remember, iCloud Photos downloader is a more like a backup tool than a synchronisation tool. It simply downloads files from iCloud.com and places them into local folders. It does not have a database at the moment so cannot track individual files. This could result in a situation where 2 different files, both named IMG_0001.HEIC, live in 'All Photos' and Hidden at the same time. This would result in iCloud Photos downloader removing the file you want from All Photos. Plus it's entirely possible for a 3rd file named IMG_0001.HEIC to reside in 'Recently Deleted' at the same time just to complicate matters further.

For iCloud Photos downloader to introduce this feature (and more importantly, have it work reliably) it's highly likely that it would need to introduce a database so it can uniquely identify individual files. This would obviously mean significant changes to its code base and may well mean the feature is a year or more away.

[lonestarr-007]

Ok, that makes sense, and I do appreciate the explanation of the challenges to adding this feature. I do get frustrated when someone says "it's a simple functionality, just do it." I'm no coder but I am a network admin so I understand it's rarely as simple as one might expect.

I understand that any feature request could be months or years away, if it's added at all. I just never appreciate "just change your behavior" as what seems to be an argument against the feature request at all, especially when just changing behavior might "almost always" but not necessarily "always" produce the desired result, or it may work for one person but not another.

If this feature CAN be implemented I would add my appreciation for it but it's not a hindrance to my life if it can't. Great work by the developers on what we have already.