Can I backup my Photos library to an external drive
04/02/21 Filed in: time machine | photos
I’m tackling my photos and want to order a good external hard drive to begin the process. What do you recommend.
I don’t believe I will move all photos over but given that I have 20,000 plus in one library I want to make sure it is big enough.
___________
The external hard drive I recommend most often is the Seagate Backup Plus. You can buy a 1 or 2TB drive. These days 2TB are more common. But there's more to consider in terms of your photos. In 2021 backing up your computer to time machine only means your pictures are going to be included IF you are storing the originals in Photos. So many people have small hard drive computers so they have to choose "optimize storage" which means your computer only shows reference thumbnails to the original picture files that live in the cloud. Further, the time machine backup drive would only be backing up the abbreviated version of your photos library if that is the setting you have in your Photos library. To check if you are optimizing photos:
So, if you are using Optimzie as seen above, then backing up is irrelevant. Your photos are backed up to the cloud only and not locally on your drive. If Originals is selected then you can certainly backup to an external drive with confidence.
I don’t believe I will move all photos over but given that I have 20,000 plus in one library I want to make sure it is big enough.
___________
The external hard drive I recommend most often is the Seagate Backup Plus. You can buy a 1 or 2TB drive. These days 2TB are more common. But there's more to consider in terms of your photos. In 2021 backing up your computer to time machine only means your pictures are going to be included IF you are storing the originals in Photos. So many people have small hard drive computers so they have to choose "optimize storage" which means your computer only shows reference thumbnails to the original picture files that live in the cloud. Further, the time machine backup drive would only be backing up the abbreviated version of your photos library if that is the setting you have in your Photos library. To check if you are optimizing photos:
- Open Photos
- Go to preferences
- Select iCloud
So, if you are using Optimzie as seen above, then backing up is irrelevant. Your photos are backed up to the cloud only and not locally on your drive. If Originals is selected then you can certainly backup to an external drive with confidence.
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