Tauri Plugin iOS Photos

A Tauri plugin for accessing and managing iOS Photos albums and assets using the native Photos framework.

This plugin allows Tauri applications to request photo permissions, read albums, access photos, and perform basic album/photo management on iOS devices.

⚠️ iOS only. This plugin relies on Apple Photos APIs and is not available on other platforms.

Features

• Request and check photo library authorization
• List user photo albums
• Access photos from albums
• Filter albums
• Check album permission
• Create and remove albums
• Create, access, and delete photos

Requirements

• Tauri 2.x (or compatible version)
• Xcode with iOS SDK
• Proper Photo Library permissions configured in Info.plist

iOS Permissions

This plugin requires access to the user’s photo library.

Make sure the following keys are added to your iOS Info.plist:

<key>NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription</key>
<string>Allow access to your photo library</string>

<key>NSPhotoLibraryAddUsageDescription</key>
<string>Allow saving photos to your photo library</string>

Installation

pnpm add @gbyte/tauri-plugin-ios-photos
# or
npm install @gbyte/tauri-plugin-ios-photos
# or
yarn add @gbyte/tauri-plugin-ios-photos

Add the plugin to your Tauri project's Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
tauri-plugin-ios-photos = "0.3"

Or use cargo add tauri-plugin-ios-photos.

Configure the plugin permissions in your capabilities/default.json:

{
  "permissions": [
    "ios-photos:default"
  ]
}

Register the plugin in your Tauri app:

fn main() {
    tauri::Builder::default()
        .plugin(tauri_plugin_ios_photos::init())
        .run(tauri::generate_context!())
        .expect("error while running tauri application");
}

Usage (Conceptual Example)

import {
  requestPhotosAuth,
  PhotosAuthorizationStatus,
  requestAlbums,
  PHAssetCollectionType,
  PHAssetCollectionSubtype
} from '@gbyte/tauri-plugin-ios-photos'

let photoAuth = ''
let albums = []

requestPhotosAuth()
  .then((status) => {
    switch (status) {
      case PhotosAuthorizationStatus.authorized:
        photoAuth = 'authorized'
        break
      case PhotosAuthorizationStatus.denied:
        photoAuth = 'denied'
        break
      case PhotosAuthorizationStatus.limited:
        photoAuth = 'limited'
        break
      case PhotosAuthorizationStatus.restricted:
        photoAuth = 'restricted'
        break
      case PhotosAuthorizationStatus.notDetermined:
        photoAuth = 'notDetermined'
        break
    }
  })
  .then(() => {
    requestAlbums({
      with: PHAssetCollectionType.smartAlbum,
      subtype: PHAssetCollectionSubtype.albumRegular
    }).then((value) => {
      albums = value
    })
  })

About Image Path Access

The image paths returned by this plugin are local file paths, typically pointing to internal iOS sandbox locations.

In Tauri (especially on iOS / WebView environments), these local paths cannot be accessed directly by the frontend (e.g. via file:// or raw filesystem paths). This is due to WebView security and sandbox restrictions.

Before using these images in the frontend, you must expose them through a Tauri custom protocol (URI scheme) so they can be accessed as normal URLs.

Recommended approach:

1. Register a custom URI scheme in Tauri (for example, temp://)

2. When the frontend requests temp://:

• Tauri reads the corresponding local file

• Returns the binary data with the correct MIME type

3. The frontend can then use the URL normally (e.g. )

⚠️ Notes:

• This plugin does not automatically convert local paths into accessible URLs

• Implementing the custom protocol is the responsibility of the application

• For security reasons, it is recommended to restrict the accessible path scope

Authorization Status

Possible authorization states:

• notDetermined
• restricted
• denied
• authorized
• limited

The plugin exposes APIs to query and react to these states.

Todos / Roadmap

• Request access authorization
• Check authorization type
• List user device albums
• Get photos from album
• Filter album
• Check album permission
• Access photo
• Create album
• Create photo
• Remove album
• Remove photo
• Delete photo
• Documentation improvements
• Example project
• Error handling standardization

Notes

• All photo operations follow iOS privacy rules.
• Some actions may fail silently if permission is limited.
• Album and photo identifiers are system-generated.

License

MIT