iCloud Photos Downloader: Fixing Filename-Only Mode
A single pull request closes out a reported bug where the "only print filenames" option was still generating XMP sidecar files, tightening up the tool's dry-run style behavior.
Duration: PT1M51S
Episode overview
This episode is a short developer briefing from iCloud Photos Downloader.
It explains recent repository work in plain language.
- Show: iCloud Photos Downloader
- Published: 2026-08-28T13:18:19Z
- Audio duration: PT1M51S
Transcript excerpt
This excerpt keeps the crawler page concise. Listen to the episode or use the RSS feed for the full update.
Good morning. It's August 28th, 2026, and this is your iCloud Photos Downloader briefing.
Today's activity is narrow but worth knowing about if you rely on the tool's filename-preview mode. Pull request 1374, from contributor Victor Won, fixes an issue where running the downloader with the "only print filenames" flag was still triggering the creation of XMP sidecar files on disk. That defeats the purpose…
The fix, tied to issue 1355, skips sidecar generation specifically when that flag is active. The PR includes a dedicated regression test built for this exact issue, confirming that filenames print correctly without any files landing on disk. The author also ran the broader test suite, reporting over 260 passing…
The takeaway here is about trust in dry-run tooling. If a flag promises no side effects, any leak — even a small sidecar file — undermines that guarantee. This fix restores that expectation for anyone scripting around the filename-only mode, whether for auditing, automation, or just checking what a sync would touch…
There's no broader pattern across multiple pull requests today — this is a single, focused bug fix with its own regression test attached, which is exactly the…
Wha…
Nearby episodes from iCloud Photos Downloader
- Weekly Recap - Resilience for Large Library Scans
- Resumable Scan Checkpoints
- Weekly Recap - Fixing Account Compatibility at the Source
- Fixing Migrated Library Detection
- Weekly Recap - Bringing Shared Albums Into the Fold
- Shared Albums Return
- Weekly Recap - Shared Library Data Management
- Shared Library Cleanup Enhancement