Additional Setup for Windows Machines

Python

To install python on Windows.

• Open a command prompt with “Windows-Key CMD <Enter>”

• Type ‘python’

• This will take you to the Microsoft Store and prompt you to install python

• When complete return to the command prompt

• Type ‘pip install gphotos-sync’

You can now run using the following but replacing <USER> with your username and <VERSION> with the python version installed (look in the Packages folder to find the full VERSION):

C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Packages\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.<VERSION>\LocalCache\local-packages\Python310\Scripts\gphotos-sync.exe

As an alternative to typing the full path you can add the Scripts folder to your path. See https://www.architectryan.com/2018/03/17/add-to-the-path-on-windows-10/.

Using the installer downloadable from https://www.python.org/downloads/ will have the same effect and includes a checkbox to add python to your Windows Path.

Virtual Environment

It is recommended you create a virtual environment to run you python code in to avoid messing up your root python install. In the below example we create a virtual environment on the desktop. In the below example we assume that python has been added to your window path variable as above.

• Create a new folder on your desktop called ‘GPhotosSync’

• Hold shift and right click on your desktop and click ‘Open PowerShell window here’

• type python -m venv GPhotosSync this will create a virtual environment

• next activate the environment using the command .\GPhotosSync\Scripts\activate.ps1

• you can then install gphotos-sync using the command pip install gphotos-sync

• You run it the same way as listed above. But now you need to activate the virtual environment every time you run it.

Symlinks

Album information is created as a set of folders with symbolic links into the photos folder. Windows supports symbolic links but it is turned off by default. You can either turn it on for your account or you can use the operation --skip-albums.

To enable symbolic links permission for the account that gphoto-sync will run under, see Enabling SymLinks on Windows.

Alternative approach

To avoid fiddling with symlinks and python paths you could try WSL2.

This project was developed in Linux, so if you would like to get the native experience I recommend installing WSL2 and Ubuntu. This gives you a linux environment inside of your Windows OS and handles command line installation of python and python applications in a far cleaner way.

The integration if particularly good on Windows 11. See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install.

Initial Setup on Windows for Docker desktop

If you want to run the app in a container then there are some additional steps required on Windows.

First you need to have installed Docker Desktop from https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/

• make sure leave ticked ‘use WSL2 instead of Hyper V’

• if you already have docker installed with Hyper V consider re-installing with WSL2