Backup Mac Photo Library External Drive

06.04.2020
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Apple's iCloud Photo Library service works seamlessly to sync and back up your images and video across all of your Apple devices to iCloud — but if you're serious about keeping your irreplaceable photos and video safe, you'll want a redundant (second) backup. Because as they always say, you can never have too many backups! And it's better to be safe than sorry, honestly.

Thanks to a combination of manual upload through the Prime Photos site, the Amazon Drive + Photos app for Windows and Mac computers, and mobile apps for iOS and Android, it’s absolutely trivial to get your photos into Prime Photo and keep them up to date. Let’s take a look at each method, starting with the no-software-needed manual way. In addition to moving your multi-gigabyte iTunes library to an external drive, a significant amount of Mac storage space can be freed up by moving your photo libraries onto a separate drive. If you take a lot of pictures with a DSLR camera or your iOS devices and import them in Photos, you’ll fairly quickly run out of free space on most Macs. Even if you use iCloud Photos, it’s important that you always back up your library locally using one of the following methods: Use Time Machine: After you set up Time Machine, it automatically backs up the files on your Mac. Manually copy your library to an external storage device: Drag the Photos. Moving photos library to an external hard drive with old time machine backups 0 0 Can I move my photo library on to an external hard drive that has Time Machine back ups, if the harddrive is not currently set to backup my computer through time machine (as in, it's not the selected disk).

Backing up your photos can take the form of a local backup on your own drive or an external source, a secondary online backup, or both. Here's how to do it all.

Dec 11, 2018  You can always switch back to the regular library when you need to. Double click the backup library to open it, then open the preferences for Photos from Photos Preferences in the menubar. Select “Use as System Photos Library,” which will change the default to the new library. Back Up Your Drive Automatically With Time Machine. Backing up files manually is not the best solution, as.

How to back up iCloud Photo Library to your Mac's hard drive

The best way to back up the images and video in iCloud Photo Library is to make sure you're downloading all your content onto your Mac.

Note: If you plan to back up your entire digital library to your Mac's hard drive, you'll likely want to do it on a desktop Mac with a 1TB drive or higher. Otherwise, consider backing up to an external drive.

  1. Launch the Photos app on your Mac.

    Source: iMore

  2. Click Photos in the App menu in the upper left corner of your screen.

  3. Select Preferences from the drop-down menu.

    Source: iMore

  4. Click the iCloud tab.

  5. Click Download Originals to this Mac.

    Source: iMore

Your Mac will now download full-resolution copies of all your images to your Mac's hard drive, stored inside your Photos app library.

How to back up your iCloud Photo Library content to an external drive

There are two ways to back up your iCloud Photo Library to an external drive: by backing up your Photos library automatically, or manually. (You can also export sections of your library if you don't want to back up the whole thing.)

Back up your Photos library automatically

Apple Photos Library External Drive

If you've turned on the Download Originals option for your Photos library, you can back up your Photos library as part of your regular backup routine. Whether you use Time Machine or clone your hard drive using SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy, your Photos library (and all images and video automatically downloaded from iCloud) will be backed up as well. (And if you don't currently use a backup service, well.. now's a good time to start!)

How To Backup Mac Photos

Back up your Photos library manually

If you've turned on the Download Originals option for your Photos library but don't want to back it up automatically, you can always copy your Photos library to an external drive at regular intervals.

  1. Connect an external drive to your Mac via USB, USB-C, or Thunderbolt.

  2. Open a new Finder window on your Mac.

    Source: iMore

  3. Click on Pictures in the sidebar.

    Source: iMore

  4. Drag your Photos Library to your external drive.

    Source: iMore

  5. Wait for it to copy.

Create an external library for backing up iCloud Photo Library

I recommend setting a bi-weekly reminder for these steps, so you keep your Photos library regularly backed up.

How to back up portions of your iCloud Photo Library

Don't want to back up your entire library? You can export individual images and videos to your external drive.

  1. Connect an external drive to your Mac via USB, USB-C, or Thunderbolt.

  2. Open the Photos app.

    Source: iMore

  3. Select the photos and video you want to back up.
  4. Go to the File menu.

  5. Hover over the Export option.

    Source: iMore

  6. Select either Export # Photos or Video or Export Unmodified Original for # Photos or Videos.

    Source: iMore

  7. Select an option for File Name and Subfolder Format, and then input your text as desired.

    Source: iMore

  8. Press Export.

    Source: iMore

  9. Choose your external drive.
  10. Press Export Originals.

How to make an online backup of your iCloud Photo Library

Even though your entire iCloud Photo Library is (as the name implies) stored online in iCloud, it's worth considering a second online backup as one of your redundancies.

Click the General button at the top of the Preferences window. Quit Photos. If you're experiencing other issues—like missing or blank photo thumbnails, unexpected behavior, or if Photos won’t open—try to see if it's an issue with your library by following these steps.Create a new Photos library and see if your issues persist:. Photos doesn't show up in library machines. Click Use as System Photo Library. Choose Photos Preferences.

If you store your entire iCloud Photo Library on your Mac

Good news: If you already use a service to back up your hard drive and you've synced your full iCloud Photo Library to your Mac, it's easy to back it all up. (If not, consider it a good time to start!)

If you don't store your iCloud Photo Library on your Mac

If you don't store your iCloud images locally, this is a bit trickier: you can use the external drive method to export portions of your library to an external drive, then sync that drive to your preferred online backup service, but it's a bit more labor-intensive. In general, this is why I tend to recommend backing up your full library to your Mac or storing a library on an external drive.

Backup Mac Photos Library To External Hard Drive

Any iCloud Photo Library backup questions?

Backup Mac Photo Library External Drive Driver

Have any questions about how to back up your iCloud Photo Library, or about backups or iCloud Photo Library in general? Drop them in the comments below!

March 2020: These are still the proper steps to back up your iCloud Photo Library

Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this guide.

iCloud Photo Library: The Ultimate Guide

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