How To Install And Use Rapid Photo Downloader On Linux
One thing that people who switch to Linux (especially coming from the Mac) say they are in need of is a good photo organizer. On the Linux platform, there are several tools that do the job but none of these apps can hold a candle to the Rapid Photo Downloader.
With Rapid Photo Downloader, importing, sorting and managing photographs on your Linux PC become easier than ever. Better still, it works with video files too! To use this program on Linux, you’ll need the latest version of the Python3 programming language on your Linux PC.
Install Rapid Photo Downloader
Rapid Photo Downloader is a rare program on Linux, as it has an automated building script that takes care of the heavy lifting. No need to manually download the source code, sift through everything, and try to get it to work. Instead, to use this tool, you’ll just need to get the Python3 installation tool. Head over to the Rapid Photo Download website and click the “install script” button to get it.
The installation script is very small, so don’t expect to wait very long to download it. After it is on your Linux PC, open up a terminal window and use the CD command to move the terminal to the ~/Downloads directory.
cd ~/Downloads
Building this software is automatic. That being said, Rapid Photo Downloader can’t install without the latest version of Python 3. For the most part, nearly every Linux distribution, both well known and unknown, should have Python 3 pre-installed. However, if for some reason you don’t have Python 3, open up a terminal window, search your package manager for “python 3” and install it. Then, start the installer:
python3 install.py
The install.py script can detect your operating system and use the package manager to automatically install the dependencies that Rapid Photo Needs to build, so don’t worry. On the website, it officially has support for Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, Fedora, and OpenSUSE. If you’re using something different from these, read the README and learn what you need to make the installer run.
Note: Arch Linux users can install Rapid Photo Downloader via the AUR here.
Executing the command above will run the installer. Its first steps are installing any important dependencies, so pay attention to the terminal and press “yes” when required.
When the dependencies finish installing, the build process can begin. Let the terminal run and compile the code. You’ll know Rapid Photo Downloader is on your Linux PC if the terminal finishes with no errors.
Using Rapid Photo Downloader
Rapid Photo Downloader is a downloading tool that works by detecting devices that are connected to your Linux PC, finding photos and “downloading” them to your PC. To use the program, plugin in a device with image/video files on it. This could be a digital camera/DLSR connected over USB, a Smartphone, SD card, USB drive, or a dozen other things.
Once plugged in, look over to “Timeline” in Rapid Photo Downloader to make sure the program detects your device correctly.
Note: unmount your device from the file manager before attempting to use Rapid Photo Downloader or you will run into errors.
If everything looks good, importing is ready to begin. Scroll through the list and select/deselect images/videos that Rapid Photo Downloader discovers on your device. When you’re satisfied with what to import, click the blue “Download” button to start the importing process.
File Renaming
Rapid Photo Downloader can organize your photo library by renaming filenames. To rename files, open up the app, select the “Rename” tab. In the rename tab, look at the “preset” menu. In this menu, you’ll be able to choose from different file-name types. Look through and find the one that suits you best and select it. Be sure to do the same thing for video files.
After setting a destination, find “Computer” in the main window. In the “Computer” area, browse for the “Pictures” folder (located at /home/username/Pictures/).
Files should automatically rename in the background.
Creating Backups
Setting up backups with Rapid Photo Downloader is quite easy. Start off by clicking the “Back up” tab on the right side-bar. From there, check the box that says “Back Up while downloading”. Enabling this feature will allow the Rapid Photo Downloader tool to automatically create a copy of each file it grabs from your devices.
The app automatically will decide where to back up your files. If you’d rather do this manually, uncheck the box that says “Automatically detect backup drives”. From there, click the button next to “Photo backup location”, and “Video backup location”. Use the file browser to manually tell Rapid Photo Downloader where to place files on your Linux PC.
Want to automate this process even further? Click the menu button next to “Download”, followed by “Preferences”. In the Preferences area, find “Automation” and select it.
To make Rapid Photo Downloader fully automatic, check the box next to “start downloading upon device insertion”.
