Move from Amazon Photos to Aubora

1. Plan your batches

Amazon Photos downloads what you select, as a zip file when you select several items. A whole library at once usually fails, so split it: by year works well, since the website lets you browse by date. Note each batch as you go (a simple list of years is enough) so none is forgotten.

2. Download each batch

1. Go to amazon.com/photos (or your country's Amazon site), signed in to the account that holds your photos.
2. Open Photos, scroll to the start of a year, select the first photo, then hold Shift and select the last one of that year.
3. Click Download. The browser saves a zip file.
4. Repeat for every year. If a download fails or stops, select a smaller range (a few months).

Downloads should be the files as you uploaded them, with the location and date stored inside each photo. Check a few files before going further (step 4).

3. Unzip everything into one folder

Create a folder, for example Amazon Photos in your home folder, and unzip each archive into its own subfolder named after the batch (2019, 2020…). Then delete the zip files only once you've checked the result (step 6).

If two files share a name, keep both (let your computer add a number to one). Aubora reads the date and location inside each file, not its name.

4. Check a few files

Open three or four photos from different years and look at their information (on a Mac, open it in Preview and choose Tools → Show Inspector; on Windows, right-click it, choose Properties, then the Details tab). You should see the date taken and, for phone photos, a location. If they're there, the export is good.

5. Put the folder on your storage, then point Aubora at it

• kDrive, pCloud, or Dropbox: upload the Amazon Photos folder with the provider's desktop app or website.
• Your computer: keep the folder where it is; Aubora indexes a local folder too.

In Aubora, open the library's Source & connection, connect your storage, click Choose folders, pick the folder with Browse…, and click Continue to indexing. The quick start guide covers each provider in detail.

6. Check the result, then decide about Amazon

1. When the first scan is done, compare the number of photos in Aubora with the number Amazon Photos shows. A big gap means a batch is missing.
2. Open the Map and spot-check a few dates in the Gallery.
3. When you're done, you can delete the zip files. To free up space at Amazon, delete the photos in Amazon Photos itself.

Troubleshooting

Still stuck? What to do if you're stuck