# 📸 Synology Photos Management

From version 2.0.0 onwards, the Tool can connect to your Synology NAS and login into Synology Photos App with your credentials. 

### Features included:
1. Upload Album(s) (from folder)
2. Download Album(s) (into folder)
3. Upload ALL (from folder)
4. Download ALL (into folder)
5. Remove ALL Assets
6. Remove ALL Albums
7. Remove Albums by Name Pattern
8. Rename Albums by Name Pattern
9. Remove Empty Albums
10. Remove Duplicates Albums
11. Merge Duplicates Albums
12. Consolidate Albums Names

You can apply different filters on all above features to filter assets from Synology Photos.  

The available filters are: 
   - **by Type:**
     - argument: `-type, --filter-by-type`
       - Valid values are [`image`, `video`, `all`]
   - **by Dates:**
     - arguments:
       - `-from, --filter-from-date`
       - `-to, --filter-to-date`
     - Valid values are in one of those formats: 
       - `dd/mm/yyyy`
       - `dd-mm-yyyy`
       - `yyyy/mm/dd`
       - `yyyy-mm-dd`
       - `mm/yyyy`
       - `mm-yyyy`
       - `yyyy/mm`
       - `yyyy-mm`
       - `yyyy`
   - **by Country:**
     - argument: `-country, --filter-by-country`
       - Valid values are any existing country in the `<SOURCE>` client.
   - **by City:**
     - argument: `-city, --filter-by-city`
       - Valid values are any existing city in the `<SOURCE>` client.
   - **by Person:**
     - argument: `-person, --filter-by-person`
       - Valid values are any existing person in the `<SOURCE>` client.

The credentials/API Key need to be loaded from the `Config.ini` file that  have this format:

#### Example 'Config.ini' for Immich Photos:

```
# Configuration for Synology Photos
[Synology Photos]
SYNOLOGY_URL                = http://192.168.1.11:5000                      # Change this IP by the IP that contains the Synology server or by your valid Synology URL
SYNOLOGY_USERNAME_1         = username_1                                    # Account 1: Your username for Synology Photos
SYNOLOGY_PASSWORD_1         = password_1                                    # Account 1: Your password for Synology Photos
SYNOLOGY_USERNAME_2         = username_2                                    # Account 2: Your username for Synology Photos
SYNOLOGY_PASSWORD_2         = password_2                                    # Account 2: Your password for Synology Photos
SYNOLOGY_USERNAME_3         = username_3                                    # Account 3: Your username for Synology Photos
SYNOLOGY_PASSWORD_3         = password_3                                    # Account 3: Your password for Synology Photos
```

> [!NOTE]
> To use all these features, it is mandatory to use the argument _**`--client=synology`**_ to specify Synology Photos as the service that you want to connect.  
> 
> If you want to connect to an account ID different that 1 (suffixed with _2 or _3) you can use the argument _**`-id, -account-id=[1-3]`**_ to specify the account 2 or 3 as needed. 

> [!TIP]
> In Docker/Compose/Kubernetes, you can override these settings without editing `Config.ini` by using environment variables with the same key names, for example `SYNOLOGY_URL`, `SYNOLOGY_USERNAME_1`, `SYNOLOGY_PASSWORD_1`.
> Docker-secret style variables such as `SYNOLOGY_PASSWORD_1_FILE=/run/secrets/synology_password_1` are also supported.
> Runtime precedence is: environment variable > `Config.ini` > template default.

> [!IMPORTANT]  
> If your Synology Photo Account requires 2FA Authentication, you must use the argument _**`-OTP, --one-time-password`**_ in order to enable the OTP Token request during authentication process. 

> [!NOTE]
> For compiled binaries, macOS now uses `PhotoMigrator.command`. Linux and Synology SSH continue using `PhotoMigrator.bin`. Replace the binary name accordingly when following the CLI examples below.


## Upload Albums (from Local Folder) into Synology Photos:
- **From:** v2.0.0 
- **Usage:**
  - To run this feature, first, is mandatory that you set `synology` as client using the argument _**`-client=synology`**_ or _**`--client=synology`**_
  - Also, you have to use the argument _**`-uAlb, --upload-albums \<ALBUMS_FOLDER>`**_
  - Where `<ALBUMS_FOLDER>` is the folder that contains all the Albums that you want to upload,
- **Pre-Requisites:**
  - Configure properly the file `Config.ini` to include your Synology account credentials and url. 
- **Explanation:**
  - The Tool will connect automatically to your Synology Photos account and will create one Album per each Subfolder found in \<ALBUMS_FOLDER> that contains at least one file supported by Synology Photos and with the same Album name as Album folder.
  - By default only exact existing album names are reused and newly created albums keep the original source name.
  - Add `--prefer-canonical-album-names` if you want new destination albums to be created directly with the preferred clean keeper name.
  - Add `--consolidate-similar-albums` to also treat equivalent names such as `Album`, `Album_1`, `Album (2)`, `New_Album`, `New Album`, and `New_Album 1` as the same reusable album family.
  - On Synology, when these behaviors are active, PhotoMigrator prefers the clean keeper name without a numeric suffix and with spaces instead of underscores. If needed, it merges the assets from the redundant variants into that keeper and then removes the redundant albums after the consolidation is confirmed.
- **Example of use:**
  ```
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --upload-albums ./My_Albums_Folder
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --upload-albums ./My_Albums_Folder --prefer-canonical-album-names --consolidate-similar-albums
  ```
  With this example, the Tool will connect to your Synology Photos account and process the folder `./My_Albums_Folder` and per each subfolder found on it that contains at least one file supported by Synology Photos, will create a new Album in Synology Photos with the same name of the Album Folder
  If the target already contains `Album_1`, `Album (2)`, and `Album_5`, uploading `Album` with `--consolidate-similar-albums` consolidates all those variants into the preferred keeper `Album`.
  If the target does not contain any `Album*` variant and you upload `Album_1`, `--prefer-canonical-album-names` creates `Album` directly.
  If you enable only `--prefer-canonical-album-names` and the target already contains an exact `Album`, uploading `Album_1` reuses `Album`.
  

## Download Albums from Synology Photos:
- **From:** v2.3.0
- **Usage:**
  - To run this feature, first, is mandatory that you set `synology` as client using the argument _**`-client=synology`**_ or _**`--client=synology`**_
  - Also, you have to use the argument _**`-dAlb, --download-albums <ALBUMS_NAME>`**_ in combination with the argument _**`-o, --output-folder <OUTPUT_FOLDER>`**_ (mandatory argument for this feature)
  - Where,
  - `<ALBUMS_NAME>` is a list of Albums names that you want to download.
  - `<OUTPUT_FOLDER>` is the folder where you want to download the Albums.
- **Pre-Requisites:**
  - Configure properly the file `Config.ini` to include your Synology account credentials and url. 
- **Explanation:**
  - The Tool will connect to Synology Photos and Download those Album(s) whose name is in `<ALBUMS_NAME>` to the folder `<OUTPUT_FOLDER>`.
  - To download ALL Albums use `ALL` as `<ALBUMS_NAME>`.
  - To download all albums mathing any pattern you can use patterns in `<ALBUMS_NAME>`, i.e: `--download-albums 'dron*'` to download all albums starting with the word 'dron' followed by other(s) words.
  - To download several albums you can separate their names by comma or space and put the name between double quotes. i.e: `--download-albums 'album1', 'album2', 'album3'`.
  - For shared/collaborative Synology albums, PhotoMigrator now resolves the shared-album access details before listing album contents. This avoids cases where only the current user's contributed items were visible or where the tool logged `Failed to list photos in the album ...` for albums shared across multiple Synology users.
- **Example of use:**
  ```
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin `--client=synology --download-albums "Album 1", "Album 2", "Album 3"`
  ```
  With this example, the Tool will connect to your Synology Photos account and extract the Albums "Album 1", "Album 2", "Album 3" with all the photos and videos included on them into a subfolder of `Synology_Photos_Albums` folder

> [!WARNING]  
> \<ALBUMS_NAME> should exist within your Synology Photos Albums database, otherwise it will not extract anything. 


## Upload All (from Local Folder) into Synology Photos:
- **From:** v3.0.0
- **Usage:**
  - To run this feature, first, is mandatory that you set `synology` as client using the argument _**`-client=synology`**_ or _**`--client=synology`**_
  - Also, you have to use the argument _**`-uAll, --upload-all \<INPUT_FOLDER>`**_
  - Where `<INPUT_FOLDER>` is the folder that contains all the assets that you want to upload.
- **Pre-Requisites:**
  - Configure properly the file `Config.ini` to include your Synology account credentials and url. 
- **Explanation:**
  - The Tool will connect automatically to your Synology Photos account and will upload all the assets contained in \<INPUT_FOLDER> that are supported by Synology Photos.  
  - If you want to create Albums for some specific subfolders you have two options:
    1. Move all the Albums subfolders into a `<INPUT_FOLDER>/<ALBUMS_FOLDER>`, in this way the Tool will consider all the subfolders inside as an Album, and will create an Album in Synology Photos with the same name as the subfolder, associating all the assets inside to it.
    2. Use the complementary argument _**`-AlbFolder, --albums-folders \<ALBUMS_FOLDER>`**_, in this way the Tool will create Albums also for each subfolder found in `<ALBUMS_FOLDER>` (apart from those found inside `<INPUT_FOLDER>/Albums`)
  - Add `--prefer-canonical-album-names` if you want new destination album names inside this flow to be normalized to the preferred clean keeper.
  - Add `--consolidate-similar-albums` if you want album uploads inside this flow to treat equivalent names such as `Album`, `Album_1`, `Album (2)`, `New_Album`, `New Album`, and `New_Album 1` as the same reusable album family.
  - On Synology, these behaviors can be enabled independently or together. Consolidation merges redundant variants into the preferred clean keeper and removes the old variants after the merge is confirmed.
- **Example of use:**
  ```
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --upload-all ./MyLibrary
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --upload-all ./MyLibrary --prefer-canonical-album-names --consolidate-similar-albums
  ```
  With this example, the Tool will connect to your Synology Photos account and process the folder ./MyLibrary and will upload all supported assets found on it, creating a new Album per each subfolder found within `./MyLibrary/Albums` folder.


## Download All from Synology Photos:
- **From:** v3.0.0
- **Usage:**
  - To run this feature, first, is mandatory that you set `synology` as client using the argument _**`-client=synology`**_ or _**`--client=synology`**_
  - Also, you have to use the argument _**`-dAll, --download-all \<OUTPUT_FOLDER>`**_
  - Where `<OUTPUT_FOLDER>` is the folder where you want to download all your assets.
- **Pre-Requisites:**
  - Configure properly the file `Config.ini` to include your Synology account credentials and url. 
- **Explanation:**
  - The Tool will connect to Synology Photos and will download all the Album and Assets without Albums into the folder `<OUTPUT_FOLDER>`.
  - All Albums will be downloaded within a subfolder of `<OUTPUT_FOLDER>/Albums` with the same name of the Album and all files will be flattened into it.
  - Assets with no Albums associated will be downloaded within a subfolder called `<OUTPUT_FOLDER>/<NO_ALBUMS_FOLDER>` and will have a `year/month` structure inside.
  - Shared/collaborative albums are now handled more robustly as well: when Synology omits the shared `passphrase` from the album list response, PhotoMigrator performs an extra album-details lookup so it can still enumerate and migrate the full album membership instead of silently falling back to only the current user's visible items.
- **Example of use:**
  ```
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --download-all ./MyLibrary
  ```
  With this example, the Tool will connect to your Synology Photos account and download ALL your library into the local folder ./MyLibrary.
  

## Remove All Assets from Synology Photos:
- **From:** v3.0.0
- **Usage:**
  - To run this feature, first, is mandatory that you set `synology` as client using the argument _**`-client=synology`**_ or _**`--client=synology`**_
  - Also, you have to use the argument _**`-rAll, --remove-all-assets`**_
- **Pre-Requisites:**
  - Configure properly the file `Config.ini` to include your Synology account credentials and url.
- **Explanation:**
  - The Tool will connect automatically to your Synology Photos account and will remove ALL the assets and Albums found.
- **Example of use:**
  ```
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --remove-all-assets
  ```
  With this example, the Tool will connect to Synology Photos account and will remove all assets found (including Albums).

> [!CAUTION]  
> This process is irreversible and will clean all from your Synology Photos account. Use it if you are completely sure of what you are doing.
  

## Remove All Albums from Synology Photos:
- **From:** v3.0.0 
- **Usage:**
  - To run this feature, first, is mandatory that you set `synology` as client using the argument _**`-client=synology`**_ or _**`--client=synology`**_
  - Also, you have to use the argument _**`-rAllAlb, --remove-all-albums`**_
- **Pre-Requisites:**
  - Configure properly the file `Config.ini` to include your Synology account credentials and url. 
- **Explanation:**
  - The Tool will connect automatically to your Synology Photos account and will remove all the Albums found.
  - If you specify any date filter with arguments _**`-from, --filter-from-date`**_ or _**`-to, --filter-to-date`**_ then, only those albums whose creation date matches with the filters will be removed.
  - Optionally ALL the Assets associated to each Album can be removed If you also include the complementary argument _**`-rAlbAsset, --remove-albums-assets`**_
- **Example of use:**
  ```
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --remove-all-albums --remove-albums-assets
  ```
  With this example, the Tool will connect to your Synology Photos account and will remove all Albums found (including all the assets contained on them, because we are using the complementary argument).

> [!CAUTION]  
> This process is irreversible and will clean all the Albums (and optionally also all the assets included) from your Synology Photos account. Use it if you are completely sure of what you are doing.


## Remove Albums by Name Pattern from Synology Photos:
- **From:** v3.3.0
- **Usage:**
  - To run this feature, first, is mandatory that you set `synology` as client using the argument _**`-client=synology`**_ or _**`--client=synology`**_
  - Also, you have to use the argument _**`--remove-albums \<ALBUMS_NAME_PATTERN>`**_
- **Pre-Requisites:**
  - Configure properly the file `Config.ini` to include your Synology account credentials and url. 
- **Explanation:**
  - The Tool will connect automatically to your Synology Photos account and will remove all Albums whose name matches with the provided pattern.
  - The remove pattern can be plain text, a wildcard expression (for example `*Temp*` or `Temp*`), or a regular expression.
  - If you specify any date filter with arguments _**`-from, --filter-from-date`**_ or _**`-to, --filter-to-date`**_ then, only those albums whose creation date matches with the filters will be removed.
  - Optionally ALL the Assets associated to each removed Album can be removed If you also include the complementary argument _**`-rAlbAsset, --remove-albums-assets`**_
  - If you also include _**`--preview-album-actions`**_ then the matching albums will be listed and the tool will ask for confirmation before deleting them.
- **Example of use:**
  ```
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --remove-albums "Temp" --preview-album-actions
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --remove-albums "*Temp*" --preview-album-actions
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --remove-albums "\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}" --remove-albums-assets
  ```
  With these examples, the Tool can remove albums by literal text, simple wildcard patterns, or regular expressions. When `--preview-album-actions` is used, it first shows the affected albums and asks for confirmation before proceeding.

> [!CAUTION]  
> This process is irreversible and will remove all the Albums (and optionally also all the assets included) whose name matches with the provided pattern from your Synology Photos account. Use it if you are completely sure of what you are doing.
      

## Rename Albums by Name Pattern from Synology Photos:
- **From:** v3.3.0
- **Usage:**
  - To run this feature, first, is mandatory that you set `synology` as client using the argument _**`-client=synology`**_ or _**`--client=synology`**_
  - Also, you have to use the argument _**`--rename-albums \<ALBUMS_NAME_PATTERN>, \<ALBUMS_NAME_REPLACEMENT_PATTERN>`**_
- **Pre-Requisites:**
  - Configure properly the file `Config.ini` to include your Synology account credentials and url. 
- **Explanation:**
  - The Tool will connect automatically to your Synology Photos account and will rename all Albums whose name matches with the provided pattern.
  - The rename pattern can be plain text (for example `--`), a wildcard expression (for example `*--*` or `--*`), or a regular expression.
  - If you also include _**`--preview-album-actions`**_ then the matching albums will be listed and the tool will ask for confirmation before renaming them.
  - If you specify any date filter with arguments _**`-from, --filter-from-date`**_ or _**`-to, --filter-to-date`**_ then, only those albums whose creation date matches with the filters will be renamed.
- **Example of use:**
  ```
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --rename-albums "--" "-" --preview-album-actions
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --rename-albums "--", "-"
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --rename-albums "*--*", "-"
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --rename-albums "\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}", "DATE"
  ```
  With these examples, the Tool can replace literal text such as double dashes, use simple wildcards to target leading or inner matches, or apply a regular-expression replacement such as turning "2023-08-15 - Vacation photos" into "DATE - Vacation photos".


## Remove Empty Albums from Synology Photos:
- **From:** v2.0.0
- **Usage:**
  - To run this feature, first, is mandatory that you set `synology` as client using the argument _**`-client=synology`**_ or _**`--client=synology`**_
  - Also, you have to use the argument _**`--remove-empty-albums`**_
- **Pre-Requisites:**
  - Configure properly the file `Config.ini` to include your Synology account credentials and url. 
- **Explanation:**
  - The Tool will connect automatically to your Synology Photos account and will remove all Empty Albums found.  
  - If you specify any date filter with arguments _**`-from, --filter-from-date`**_ or _**`-to, --filter-to-date`**_ then, only those albums whose creation date matches with the filters will be removed.
- **Example of use:**
  ```
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --remove-empty-albums
  ```
  With this example, the Tool will connect to your Synology Photos account and will remove all Empty Albums found.


## Remove Duplicates Albums from Synology Photos:
- **From:** v2.0.0
- **Usage:**
  - To run this feature, first, is mandatory that you set `synology` as client using the argument _**`-client=synology`**_ or _**`--client=synology`**_
  - Also, you have to use the argument _**`--remove-duplicates-albums`**_
- **Pre-Requisites:**
  - Configure properly the file `Config.ini` to include your Synology account credentials and url. 
- **Explanation:**
  - The Tool will connect automatically to your Synology Photos account and will remove all Duplicates Albums found except the first one (but will not remove the assets associated to them, because they will still be associated with the first Album).  
  - If you specify any date filter with arguments _**`-from, --filter-from-date`**_ or _**`-to, --filter-to-date`**_ then, only those albums whose creation date matches with the filters will be removed.
- **Example of use:**
  ```
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --remove-duplicates-albums
  ```
  With this example, the Tool will connect to your Synology Photos account and will remove all Duplicates Albums found except the first one.


## Merge Duplicates Albums from Synology Photos:
- **From:** v3.3.0
- **Usage:**
  - To run this feature, first, is mandatory that you set `synology` as client using the argument _**`-client=synology`**_ or _**`--client=synology`**_
  - Also, you have to use the argument _**`--merge-duplicates-albums`**_
- **Pre-Requisites:**
  - Configure properly the file `Config.ini` to include your Synology account credentials and url. 
- **Explanation:**
  - The Tool will connect automatically to your Synology Photos account and will remove all Duplicates Albums found except the most relevant one (with highest number of assets) and will transfer all the assets associated to the other albums into the main one.  
  - If you specify any date filter with arguments _**`-from, --filter-from-date`**_ or _**`-to, --filter-to-date`**_ then, only those albums whose creation date matches with the filters will be merged.
- **Example of use:**
  ```
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --merge-duplicates-albums
  ```
  With this example, the Tool will connect to your Synology Photos account and will remove all Duplicates Albums found except the first one transferring all the assets from the removed albums into the main one.


## Consolidate Albums Names from Synology Photos:
- **From:** v4.5.0
- **Usage:**
  - To run this feature, first, is mandatory that you set `synology` as client using the argument _**`-client=synology`**_ or _**`--client=synology`**_
  - Also, you have to use the argument _**`--consolidate-albums-names`**_
- **Pre-Requisites:**
  - Configure properly the file `Config.ini` to include your Synology account credentials and url.
- **Explanation:**
  - The Tool will connect automatically to your Synology Photos account and will scan the albums that already exist in the cloud looking for equivalent album-name families.
  - It uses the same family-detection logic as _**`--consolidate-similar-albums`**_, so names such as `Album`, `Album_1`, `Album (2)`, `New_Album`, `New Album`, and `New_Album 1` are treated as the same family.
  - Assets from redundant variants are reassigned directly in Synology Photos to the preferred keeper album without uploading any new asset.
  - Once the reassignment is confirmed, the redundant album variants are removed.
  - If you also include _**`--preview-album-actions`**_ then the detected album families will be listed and the tool will ask for confirmation before consolidating them.
- **Example of use:**
  ```
  ./PhotoMigrator.bin --client=synology --consolidate-albums-names --preview-album-actions
  ```

---
## ⚙️ Config.ini
You can see how to configure the Config.ini file in this help section:
[Configuration File](00-configuration-file.md) 

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## 🏠 [Back to Main Page](../README.md)

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## 🎖️ Credits:
I hope this can be useful for any of you. Enjoy it!

<span style="color:grey">(c) 2024-2026 by Jaime Tur (@jaimetur).</span>