My two macs, my iPhone, my iPad are all syncing the photos with iCloud Photos Library. So my photos are in iCloud and on four different devices stored locally. Do I need still a local backup? Apple says so, but I do not understand why.
MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
Yes, you do need a local backup. Even if you are seeing your photos on four devices, the local libraries are in sync with iCloud - all four copies are identical and showing the current state of your Photos Library. If you make a mistake and permanently delete photos or need to recover an older version of a photo, you cannot recover the photos from iCloud or any of the synced devices.
See: iCloud Photos Library: Keep regular backups - Apple Community
Use Time Machine on your Mac to backup the Photos Library or make regularly a clone to save older versions.
if your library is an optimised library, a Time Machine backup or clone will be incomplete. Then have a look here: How to back up an optimised iCloud Photos Library - Apple Community
Yes, you do need a local backup. Even if you are seeing your photos on four devices, the local libraries are in sync with iCloud - all four copies are identical and showing the current state of your Photos Library. If you make a mistake and permanently delete photos or need to recover an older version of a photo, you cannot recover the photos from iCloud or any of the synced devices.
See: iCloud Photos Library: Keep regular backups - Apple Community
Use Time Machine on your Mac to backup the Photos Library or make regularly a clone to save older versions.
if your library is an optimised library, a Time Machine backup or clone will be incomplete. Then have a look here: How to back up an optimised iCloud Photos Library - Apple Community
When you have a clone of your Photos Library on an external volume, you can directly open this clone in the Phots.app to find the photos you need to recover. If you only have a Time Machine backup, you will have first to restore the library to an external volume, before you can use it with Photos to recover the photos you want to retrieve.
Why not do both? Make your regular Time Machine backups to have a history, and occasionally a clone to have a working, local copy of your Photos Library. We can never have too many backups.
Thank you for the quick reply. I do not use "Optimise Storage". And Time Machine is enabled. What would be the advantage of a clone?
Thank you again. Which cloning software do you recommend?
I am using Carbon Copy Cloner. It is working well with my external APFS volumes.
I am using iCloud Photos. Do I need a local backup as well?
