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). Delete Mac backup data from an external hard drive on a PC. Delete Mac backup data from an external hard drive on a PC. One of my external hard drives contains backup data of my old macbook which I can no longer use. Right now I want to use the hard drive to backup my Windows laptop, but most of the space is used up.
Photos User Guide
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. If you ever lose the files in your Photos library, you can restore them from the Time Machine backup. For more information about setting up Time Machine, see Back up your files with Time Machine.
WARNING: If a Photos library is located on an external drive, don’t use Time Machine to store a backup on that external drive. The permissions for your Photos library may conflict with those for the Time Machine backup.
Manually copy your library to an external storage device: Drag the Photos library (by default in the Pictures folder on your Mac) to your storage device to create a copy.
If you have more than one photo library, be sure to back them all up.
Important: If any of your image files are stored outside your photo library, those files (known as referenced files) aren’t backed up when you back up your library. Be sure to back up those files separately. To make it easier to back up all your image files at once, you can consolidate referenced files into your library. See Change where Photos stores your files.
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.
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- Click Photos in the App menu in the upper left corner of your screen.
Select Preferences from the drop-down menu.
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- Click the iCloud tab.
Click Download Originals to this Mac.
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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.
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Click on Pictures in the sidebar.
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Drag your Photos Library to your external drive.
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- 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.
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- Select the photos and video you want to back up.
- Go to the File menu.
Hover over the Export option.
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Select either Export # Photos or Video or Export Unmodified Original for # Photos or Videos.
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Select an option for File Name and Subfolder Format, and then input your text as desired.
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Press Export.
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- 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
How To Backup Computer To External Drive
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