How to save picture to iPhone photo library?

Question

What do I need to do to save an image my program has generated (possibly from the camera, possibly not) to the system photo library on the iPhone?

Winch

You can check this code. Great day! – Greathouse

Answer 1

You can use this function:

UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(UIImage *image, 
                               id completionTarget, 
                               SEL completionSelector, 
                               void *contextInfo);

You only need completionTarget, completionSelector and contextInfo if you want to be notified when the UIImage is done saving, otherwise you can pass in nil.

See the official documentation for UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum().

Wistful

Take +1 for the accurate answer – Briticism

Hi thanks for your great solution. Here I have one doubt how can we avoid duplicates while saving image in photo library. Thanks in advance. – Malave

If you want to save in better quality, see this: #1379774 – Libelant

Remember to add key 'Privacy - Photo Library Usage Description' to your info.plist file – Parole

You will now need to add 'Privacy - Photo Library Additions Usage Description' as of iOS 11 to save photos the users album. – Drandell

how to give a name to the saved images? – Crib

Answer 2

Deprecated in iOS 9.0.

There`s much more fast then UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum way to do it using iOS 4.0+ AssetsLibrary framework

    ALAssetsLibrary *library = [[ALAssetsLibrary alloc] init];

    [library writeImageToSavedPhotosAlbum:[image CGImage] orientation:(ALAssetOrientation)[image imageOrientation] completionBlock:^(NSURL *assetURL, NSError *error){
    if (error) {
    // TODO: error handling
    } else {
    // TODO: success handling
    }
}];
[library release];

Dichotomize

Is there a way to save arbitrary metadata along with the photo? – Foeman

I tried saving using ALAssetsLibrary, it takes just the same time to save as UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum. – Passport

And this freezes the camera :( I guess it is not background supported ? – Passport

This one is so much cleaner b/c you can use a block to handle completion. – Rosanarosane

I am using this code and i am including this framework #import <AssetsLibrary/AssetsLibrary.h> not the AVFoundation. Shouldn't the answer be edited? @Denis – Ciracirca

Nice but has been deprecated in iOS 9 SDK. – Libelant

Answer 3

The simplest way is:

UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(myUIImage, nil, nil, nil);

For Swift, you can refer to Saving to the iOS photo library using swift

Goldarn

I really like your SO user profile icon. Pretty cool Xcode image. – Vidavidal

Fantasticly simple, and very very easy! – Violone

Answer 4

One thing to remember: If you use a callback, make sure that your selector conforms to the following form:

- (void) image: (UIImage *) image didFinishSavingWithError: (NSError *) error contextInfo: (void *) contextInfo;

Otherwise, you'll crash with an error such as the following:

[NSInvocation setArgument:atIndex:]: index (2) out of bounds [-1, 1]

Ornate

Answer 5

Just pass the images from an array to it like so

-(void) saveMePlease {

//Loop through the array here
for (int i=0:i<[arrayOfPhotos count]:i++){
         NSString *file = [arrayOfPhotos objectAtIndex:i];
         NSString *path = [get the path of the image like you would in DOCS FOLDER or whatever];
         NSString *imagePath = [path stringByAppendingString:file];
         UIImage *image = [[[UIImage alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:imagePath]autorelease];

         //Now it will do this for each photo in the array
         UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(image, nil, nil, nil);
        }
}

Sorry for typo's kinda just did this on the fly but you get the point

Pilewort

Using this will miss some of the photos, I've tried it. The correct way to to it is to use call back from completion selector. – Franz

can we save images with the custom name? – Zeeba

One should never use for loop for this. It leads to the race condition and crashes. – Essentiality

Answer 6

When saving an array of photos, don't use a for loop, do the following

-(void)saveToAlbum{
   [self performSelectorInBackground:@selector(startSavingToAlbum) withObject:nil];
}
-(void)startSavingToAlbum{
   currentSavingIndex = 0;
   UIImage* img = arrayOfPhoto[currentSavingIndex];//get your image
   UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(img, self, @selector(image:didFinishSavingWithError:contextInfo:), nil);
}
- (void)image: (UIImage *) image didFinishSavingWithError: (NSError *) error contextInfo: (void *) contextInfo{ //can also handle error message as well
   currentSavingIndex ++;
   if (currentSavingIndex >= arrayOfPhoto.count) {
       return; //notify the user it's done.
   }
   else
   {
       UIImage* img = arrayOfPhoto[currentSavingIndex];
       UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(img, self, @selector(image:didFinishSavingWithError:contextInfo:), nil);
   }
}

Franz

Answer 7

In Swift:

    // Save it to the camera roll / saved photo album
    // UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(self.myUIImageView.image, nil, nil, nil) or 
    UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(self.myUIImageView.image, self, "image:didFinishSavingWithError:contextInfo:", nil)

    func image(image: UIImage!, didFinishSavingWithError error: NSError!, contextInfo: AnyObject!) {
            if (error != nil) {
                // Something wrong happened.
            } else {
                // Everything is alright.
            }
    }

Talc

yes...nice..but after save image i want to load image from gallery... how to do that – Impound

Answer 8

Below function would work. You can copy from here and paste there...

-(void)savePhotoToAlbum:(UIImage*)imageToSave {

    CGImageRef imageRef = imageToSave.CGImage;
    NSDictionary *metadata = [NSDictionary new]; // you can add
    ALAssetsLibrary *library = [[ALAssetsLibrary alloc] init];

    [library writeImageToSavedPhotosAlbum:imageRef metadata:metadata completionBlock:^(NSURL *assetURL,NSError *error){
        if(error) {
            NSLog(@"Image save eror");
        }
    }];
}

Zerk

Answer 9

Swift 4

func writeImage(image: UIImage) {
    UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(image, self, #selector(self.finishWriteImage), nil)
}

@objc private func finishWriteImage(_ image: UIImage, didFinishSavingWithError error: NSError?, contextInfo: UnsafeRawPointer) {
    if (error != nil) {
        // Something wrong happened.
        print("error occurred: \(String(describing: error))")
    } else {
        // Everything is alright.
        print("saved success!")
    }
}

Joon

Answer 10

my last answer will do it..

for each image you want to save, add it to a NSMutableArray

    //in the .h file put:

NSMutableArray *myPhotoArray;


///then in the .m

- (void) viewDidLoad {

 myPhotoArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];



}

//However Your getting images

- (void) someOtherMethod { 

 UIImage *someImage = [your prefered method of using this];
[myPhotoArray addObject:someImage];

}

-(void) saveMePlease {

//Loop through the array here
for (int i=0:i<[myPhotoArray count]:i++){
         NSString *file = [myPhotoArray objectAtIndex:i];
         NSString *path = [get the path of the image like you would in DOCS FOLDER or whatever];
         NSString *imagePath = [path stringByAppendingString:file];
         UIImage *image = [[[UIImage alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:imagePath]autorelease];

         //Now it will do this for each photo in the array
         UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(image, nil, nil, nil);
        }
}

Pilewort

I've tried your solution, it always missed some of the photos. Have a look at my answer. link – Franz

Answer 11

homeDirectoryPath = NSHomeDirectory();
unexpandedPath = [homeDirectoryPath stringByAppendingString:@"/Pictures/"];

folderPath = [NSString pathWithComponents:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:[NSString stringWithString:[unexpandedPath stringByExpandingTildeInPath]], nil]];

unexpandedImagePath = [folderPath stringByAppendingString:@"/image.png"];

imagePath = [NSString pathWithComponents:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:[NSString stringWithString:[unexpandedImagePath stringByExpandingTildeInPath]], nil]];

if (![[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath:folderPath isDirectory:NULL]) {
    [[NSFileManager defaultManager] createDirectoryAtPath:folderPath attributes:nil];
}

Bibeau

This answer is not right because it doesn't save the image to the system Photo Library, but to the sandbox. – Fowlkes

Answer 12

I created a UIImageView category for this, based on some of the answers above.

Header File:

@interface UIImageView (SaveImage) <UIActionSheetDelegate>
- (void)addHoldToSave;
@end

Implementation

@implementation UIImageView (SaveImage)
- (void)addHoldToSave{
    UILongPressGestureRecognizer* longPress = [[UILongPressGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(handleLongPress:)];
    longPress.minimumPressDuration = 1.0f;
    [self addGestureRecognizer:longPress];
}

-  (void)handleLongPress:(UILongPressGestureRecognizer*)sender {
    if (sender.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateEnded) {

        UIActionSheet* _attachmentMenuSheet = [[UIActionSheet alloc] initWithTitle:nil
                                                                          delegate:self
                                                                 cancelButtonTitle:@"Cancel"
                                                            destructiveButtonTitle:nil
                                                                 otherButtonTitles:@"Save Image", nil];
        [_attachmentMenuSheet showInView:[[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:self.frame]];
    }
    else if (sender.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan){
        //Do nothing
    }
}
-(void)actionSheet:(UIActionSheet *)actionSheet clickedButtonAtIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex{
    if  (buttonIndex == 0) {
        UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(self.image, nil,nil, nil);
    }
}


@end

Now simply call this function on your imageview:

[self.imageView addHoldToSave];

Optionally you can alter the minimumPressDuration parameter.

Fyrd

Answer 13

In Swift 2.2

UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(image: UIImage, _ completionTarget: AnyObject?, _ completionSelector: Selector, _ contextInfo: UnsafeMutablePointer<Void>)

If you do not want to be notified when the image is done saving then you may pass nil in the completionTarget, completionSelector and contextInfo parameters.

Example:

UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(image, self, #selector(self.imageSaved(_:didFinishSavingWithError:contextInfo:)), nil)

func imageSaved(image: UIImage!, didFinishSavingWithError error: NSError?, contextInfo: AnyObject?) {
        if (error != nil) {
            // Something wrong happened.
        } else {
            // Everything is alright.
        }
    }

The important thing to note here is that your method that observes the image saving should have these 3 parameters else you will run into NSInvocation errors.

Hope it helps.

Forbore

Answer 14

You can use this

dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), ^{
   UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(img.image, nil, nil, nil);
});

Feleciafeledy

Answer 15

For Swift 5.0

I used this code to copy images to photo albums my application had created; When I want to copy images files I call "startSavingPhotoAlbume()" function. First I get UIImage from App folder then save it to photo albums. Because it is irrelevant I dont show how to read image from App folder.

var saveToPhotoAlbumCounter = 0



func startSavingPhotoAlbume(){
    saveToPhotoAlbumCounter = 0
    saveToPhotoAlbume()
}

func saveToPhotoAlbume(){  
    let image = loadImageFile(fileName: imagefileList[saveToPhotoAlbumCounter], folderName: folderName)
    UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(image!, self, #selector(image(_:didFinishSavingWithError:contextInfo:)), nil)
}

@objc func image(_ image: UIImage, didFinishSavingWithError error: NSError?, contextInfo: UnsafeRawPointer) {
    if (error != nil) {
        print("ptoto albume savin error for \(imageFileList[saveToPhotoAlbumCounter])")
    } else {
        
        if saveToPhotoAlbumCounter < imageFileList.count - 1 {
            saveToPhotoAlbumCounter += 1
            saveToPhotoAlbume()
        } else {
            print("saveToPhotoAlbume is finished with \(saveToPhotoAlbumCounter) files")
        }
    }
}

Hinch