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Can you Lock the photoslibrary file so you do not accidentally trash or move it?

Hi... I am new to Mac moving over from windows.... It is amazing how much more productive it is!


In moving over many files, somehow I accidentally deleted the .photoslibrary file from the pictures folder.


Apple being as nice as it is, sent me a message when I went to photos saying that it is in the trash and I need to drag it out which I did and put it back in pictures. Now all is fine.


My question is, is it OK to "lock" this file from "get info" so it is not accidentally deleted again? Or will that restrict things from being put in there, or cause other issues.


Does anyone else lock this file to make sure it is safe without incident?


Thank you!!


Mike

iMac Pro

Posted on Sep 25, 2020 11:11 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 26, 2020 9:19 AM

You can lock a Photos library



and that will give you a warning if you try to delete it:



However, you can still override the warning and delete the library. But you're warned.


Locking doesn't affect working with the library.


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2 replies

Sep 26, 2020 1:04 AM in response to Mike Abrams

No idea if locking it is possible - more knowledgable others will be along if it is.


But your best protection from this sort of thing is a time machine backup. Or other suitable backup - but time machine is excellent, and easy to configure. You just need a large enough external drive. You can even set it up on some network drives (I use Synology).


A proper backup will protect you not only from damaging/deleting your library, but also (for example) from unintentionally deleting individual images. Not to mention all your other data on your new Mac.

Can you Lock the photoslibrary file so you do not accidentally trash or move it?

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