Want to highlight a helpful answer? Upvote!

Did someone help you, or did an answer or User Tip resolve your issue? Upvote by selecting the upvote arrow. Your feedback helps others! Learn more about when to upvote >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Is there any way to automatically backup iCloud photos

I have a spare iMac. Is there anyway to automatically backup iCloud Photos ?

TIA


Posted on Nov 5, 2021 2:49 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Nov 6, 2021 2:46 PM

Thank you but not what I asked!


I have to thank Anders at Brattoo for providing this simple solution.


Open Photos on the spare Mac but create a new empty library. Then simply go to Preferences > iCloud and select Download Originals to This Mac

6 replies

Nov 6, 2021 1:09 PM in response to Roger Sinden

Hi Roger Sinden, We appreciate you reaching out to us. We understand that you are looking to automatically backup iCloud Photos


As stated in the article below, "iCloud Photos automatically keeps every photo and video you take in iCloud, so you can access your library from any device, anytime you want." If you would like to know ho two set it up, the article below can also guide you on how to do it.

Set up and use iCloud Photos


Take care!

Nov 6, 2021 1:28 PM in response to kamote0628

You should consider using Time Machine. You can automatically download your iCloud photos to the iMac Photos when you have it logged in and on-line with Photos running. Set up Time Machine. Then you'll have it in iCloud, on your iMac and on your Time Machine backup. All of this is easy to figure out from your settings on Photos on your iPhone, Photos on your Mac and Time Machine on your iMac.


You can also do this with My Photo Stream as well, it just doesn't sync all of your photo library across all of your devices and back them all up to iCloud. PhotoStream keeps 1000 most recent photos or 30 days of photos automatically on your iCloud drive. Then you join your iMac to My Photo Stream to automatically download all of the photos in PhotoStream so you don't lose them after 30 days or over 1000 photos. Then use Time Machine. I didn't want 25 years and Terrabytes of photos in iCloud and don't care about having my full photo library on all of my devices. For one, restoring the backup would be impossible over the internet so Time Machine is my solution. I actually keep two Time Machine drives going.

Nov 7, 2021 12:37 AM in response to Roger Sinden

You will have to make backups of the downloaded iCloud Photos Library on your spare mac. As long as the spare mac is still syncing with icloud Photos any change you are doing in Photos on one of your devices will modify the copy on the spare mac mac as well. You will need a copy of your iCloud Phphotos that is no longer syncing with iCloud. make aTime Machine backup or regular copies of the downloaded library on your spare mac.


Is there any way to automatically backup iCloud photos

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.