Photo Library Mac Backup

admin 11.04.2020

Mar 26, 2020 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. Jun 04, 2018 Your iCloud Photo Library is a backup AND a photo-sync service. That’s why when you delete a photo in one place, it deletes that photo from all devices using the same Apple ID. But storing all those photos potentially takes up a lot of your iDevice’s Storage. Mar 03, 2019 Press ⌘ Command + V on your keyboard. This will paste the copied Photos Library file to your external drive. Anytime you want to use this backup, copy the Photos Library file from your external drive, and paste it to the original location of the file on your Mac.

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Apple's photo management software for the Mac, Photos, has grown to be a fairly competent all-purpose storage locker. But as your photo and video library grows — and especially if you've taken advantage of iCloud Photo Library — you may find that your Photos library strains to fit on your Mac's hard drive.

While there are options to keep your Mac from running out of space, like optimizing your photo storage if you use iCloud Photo Library, it comes at a cost: Without a fully-stored Photos library, you won't be able to create secondary backups of your images and video. (And as good as iCloud has become, your photos and video are precious enough that they're worth keeping backed up in multiple places.)

There is an alternative: Moving your Photos library to an external drive (or creating an entirely separate library and syncing it with iCloud). Here's how to do it, and some reasons why you should — and shouldn't! — consider it for your needs.

Why you should (and shouldn't) use an external drive with Photos for Mac

There are a number of reasons why an external drive might make sense when you're working with Photos for Mac:

You have a giant Photos library (and, if you use iCloud Photo Library, you want to ensure you have a secondary backup of everything in that library)
You frequently swap computers and want to work on your images from any Mac
Your library isn't huge, but you'd prefer to save space on your Mac for other files
You share a computer with other users and you have limited drive space
If you're working with space constraints on your primary computer, it's one of the easiest ways to back up your full iCloud Photo Library

That said, there are some downsides, too. Here are some reasons you might not want to use an external drive:

You don't have a big enough library to warrant moving it off your Mac
You don't want to have to worry about always having your external drive connected to view and edit your images
You use a laptop frequently and can't afford an SSD, and you don't want to risk breaking your disc-based hard drive by constantly moving it
You don't want to accidentally create duplicate libraries that can't be connected to iCloud Photo Library (because your offsite library is connected)
Unless you purchase a speedy drive, working externally is almost always slower than working on your default hard drive
You don't want to spend the money on an external drive
If you use an automated backup service for your computer, you'll have to set up a second set of rules for backing up your hard drive

Best external drives for storing photos

Okay, so you've decided to move your Photos library over to an external drive. What next? If you already have an external drive, you can always use it for storing your Photos library (and save on cash). But if you're considering getting a new drive for this endeavor, here's what I suggest:

Get a drive that's at least 1-2TB in space, preferably 4TB. With the iPhone able to save 4K video, our space needs aren't shrinking anytime soon: The bigger hard drive you can afford, the better.
If you're buying a stationary hard drive, buying a disc-based hard drive is great, but buy good brands — don't try and save $50 on an off-brand hard drive. It's rarely worth the HDD failure.
If you're buying a portable hard drive, consider SSD: It's very pricey in comparison to a disc-based drive, but if you know you'll be frequently moving around — especially if you plan to move around with the drive connected — you want a drive that can take a little rumble and tumble without skipping or failing.
Hard drive speeds are important, too: The faster a drive's write speed, the quicker your images will copy; the faster a drive's read speed, the easier it will be for you to view images or video and edit them, too.

Want some recommendations for specific external hard drives? We've got those, too.

How to move your current Photos library to an external drive and use it as your primary library

As with creating a new library, moving your library to your external drive is a multi-step process. Here's how to go about it.

Step 1: Copy over your Photos library

Connect an external drive to your Mac via USB, USB-C, or Thunderbolt.
Open a new Finder window.
Open your external drive in that window.
Open a new Finder window. Don't close your previous window (open to your external drive), as you'll need it shortly.
Click the Go menu and navigate to your Home folder.
Select the Pictures folder.
Select your old library.
Sample libraries data folder mac. Drag it to your external drive in the other Finder window.

Your library will begin to copy over to your external drive. Depending on the size of your library and speed of your drive, this can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, so be patient. Don't unplug your drive or turn off your computer during this process.

Step 2 (if you use iCloud): Turn off iCloud sync on your old library

Before you open your copied Photos library on the external drive, you have to disassociate the library on your Mac from iCloud. (If you don't use iCloud Photo Library, you can skip these steps.)

Open Photos on your Mac.
Go to the Photos menu.
Select Preferences.
Click on the iCloud tab.
Uncheck iCloud Photo Library.
Press Remove from Mac to remove any undownloaded low-resolution items from this library.
Quit Photos.

Step 3: Make your new library your system default

Now, it's time to make your newly-copied Photos library your system default.

Open Photos on your Mac.
Go to the Photos menu.
Select Preferences.
Click Use as System Photo Library.

Step 4 (if you use iCloud): Connect your new library to iCloud

Your external library is now set up to be your system default, but it's not currently connected to iCloud. If you use iCloud Photo Library and want to keep that connection active so that you can continually download items you've stored, read on. (Otherwise, you can skip this step.)

Open Photos on your Mac.
Go to the Photos menu.
Select Preferences.
Click on the iCloud tab.
Check iCloud Photo Library.
Click Download Originals to this Mac.
Wait for your Mac to download your images from iCloud. (Depending on the size of your iCloud library and your internet connection, this may take up to 24 hours; don't disconnect your external drive or turn off your Mac during this time.)

Once your library has fully synced and downloaded images, you can disconnect your drive; whenever you want to use your Photos library, you now need to connect your drive to your Mac.

Step 5: Get rid of your old library

A personal plea: Please, please, please make sure your library is fully copied and working on your external drive before you follow the steps below — once you've thrown away your original library, it's gone!

Open a new Finder window.
Click the Go menu and navigate to your Home folder.
Select the Pictures folder.
Select your old library.
Drag it to the Trash (or press Command-Delete on your keyboard).
Empty the Trash.
Open a new Finder window. Don't close your previous window (open to the Pictures folder), as you'll need it later.
Select your external drive.
Right-click (or control-click) on your copied Photos library on your external drive.
Select Make Alias.
Drag the alias to the Pictures folder.
Rename the alias to remove the 'alias' part of its name.

Now you have a direct link to your copied Photos library from the Pictures folder: This prevents your computer from accidentally creating multiple Photos libraries in case you forget to launch Photos with your external drive connected.

Note: If you're worried about accidentally creating libraries, you can always launch Photos by option-clicking on its icon in the Dock or Applications folder; this will give you the option of picking which library you'd like to launch.

How to create a new Photos library on your external drive and use it as your primary library

Creating a new library on your external drive is a multi-step process. Here's how to go about it.

Step 1 (if you use iCloud): Turn off iCloud sync on your old library

Before you create a new Photos library, you have to disassociate your current library as your system default. (If you don't use iCloud Photo Library, you can skip these steps.)

Open Photos on your Mac.
Go to the Photos menu.
Select Preferences.
Click on the iCloud tab.
Uncheck iCloud Photo Library.
Press Remove from Mac to remove all low-resolution items from this library.
Press Remove from Mac once more to confirm.
Quit Photos.

Step 2: Create your new Photos library

Once you've done this, it's time to create a new library.

Connect an external drive to your Mac via USB, USB-C, or Thunderbolt.
Option-click (and continue holding down option) when launching the Photos app on your Mac.
When it asks you to choose a library, click on Create New….
Name your library.
Press the Down arrow to expand the File picker and choose your external drive as the new location.
Press OK to save it to your external drive.

Step 3: Make your new library your system default

You'll now have an empty library on your external drive. Next up: Making it your system library.

Open Photos on your Mac.
Go to the Photos menu.
Select Preferences.
Click Use as System Photo Library.

Step 4 (if you use iCloud): Connect your new library to iCloud

Your external library has now been set up from scratch. If you use iCloud Photo Library and want to download all the items you've stored there to have an external backup, read on. (Otherwise, you can skip this step.)

Open Photos on your Mac.
Go to the Photos menu.
Select Preferences.
Click on the iCloud tab.
Check iCloud Photo Library.
Click Download Originals to this Mac.
Wait for your Mac to download your images from iCloud. (Depending on the size of your library and your internet connection, this may take up to 24 hours; don't disconnect your external drive or turn off your Mac during this time.)

Once your library has fully synced and downloaded images, you can disconnect your drive; whenever you want to use your Photos library, you now need to connect your drive to your Mac.

Step 5: Get rid of your old library

A personal plea: Please, please, please make sure your new library is live and working on your external drive before you follow the steps below — once you've thrown away your original library, it's gone!

Open a new Finder window.
Click the Go menu and navigate to your Home folder.
Select the Pictures folder.
Select your old library.
Drag it to the Trash (or press Command-Delete on your keyboard).
Empty the Trash.
Open a new Finder window. Don't close your previous window (open to the Pictures folder), as you'll need it later.
Select your external drive.
Right-click (or control-click) on your new Photos library.
Select Make Alias.
Drag the alias to the Pictures folder.
Rename the alias to remove the 'alias' part of its name.

Now you have a direct link to your Photos library from the Pictures folder: This prevents your computer from accidentally creating multiple Photos libraries in case you forget to launch Photos with your external drive connected.

Questions?

Let us know in the comments.

Updated March 2019: Updated for macOS Mojave.

Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this post.

iCloud Photo Library: The Ultimate Guide

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Apple reminds us all that 'creativity goes on' in new YouTube video

Apple's latest YouTube video knows just how to tug at the heartstrings.

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.

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.

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.

Launch the Photos app on your Mac.
Source: iMore
Click Photos in the App menu in the upper left corner of your screen.
Select Preferences from the drop-down menu.
Source: iMore
Click the iCloud tab.
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

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!)

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.

Connect an external drive to your Mac via USB, USB-C, or Thunderbolt.
Open a new Finder window on your Mac.
Source: iMore
Click on Pictures in the sidebar.
Source: iMore
Drag your Photos Library to your external drive.
Source: iMore
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.

Connect an external drive to your Mac via USB, USB-C, or Thunderbolt.
Open the Photos app.
Source: iMore
Select the photos and video you want to back up.
Go to the File menu.
Hover over the Export option.
Source: iMore
Select either Export # Photos or Video or Export Unmodified Original for # Photos or Videos.
Source: iMore
Select an option for File Name and Subfolder Format, and then input your text as desired.
Source: iMore
Press Export.
Source: iMore
Choose your external drive.
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.

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.

Any iCloud Photo Library backup questions?

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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