How to back up with Time Machine external drives where Photos Libraries are located

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Level 1

8 points

How to back up with Time Machine external drives where Photos Libraries are located

Hello:

Due to storage limitations in my MacBook Pro, I decided to move the Photos Libraries to an external HDD.

I have two external HDD. One of them is exclusively for my Photos Libraries ("Photos HDD"). The second one, is the Time Machine Back-Up drive ("Back-up HDD").

I made sure that "Photos HDD" is not excluded from backups in '/Time Machine Preferences/Options...'; however, the Photos Libraries do not show up in Time Machine when I access the dates I made the backups.

Am I doing anything wrong? is it not possible to back up Photos Libraries in external HDDs? Am I backing them up, but they don't show up as files in Time Machine?

Thank you for your help.

Posted on Nov 7, 2021 2:02 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 21, 2021 2:34 PM in response to aFol

I am having no problems backing up my external drive photos library to time machine, so I am at a bit of a loss.

What is the format of your Photos HDD drive? I'm wondering if it is not one of the supported formats (APFS or MacOS extended), or the ignore ownership checkbox is not checked, perhaps time machine won't try to backup the library.

Or has your Photos HDD ever been used for time machine in the past (without subsequent re-formatting for use as a photos library drive)

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Answer 2

muguy

Level 10

91,430 points

Nov 7, 2021 2:17 PM in response to aFol

Your external drive should backup with Time Machine provided it is not excluded. You should see your Mac HD and external HD when you browse your time machine backup in finder, similar to:

Those are in my Finder window inside the Time Machine drive containing my backups (below)

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Answer 3

Nov 7, 2021 11:04 PM in response to aFol

How are you looking? You should always browse backups using the time machine app (or enter time machine from the menu bar)

Then you get the time machine "finder" window, and if a drive is backed up it should be avaialable to select in the left hand side bar.

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Answer 4

aFol Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 8, 2021 2:23 PM in response to muguy

Thank you for the quick answer @muguy and @TonyCollinet.

In theory, the external drive is being backed up; not the Photos Libraries inside the drive, though!

Inside my external HDD ("Photos Libraries") I have the following 3 items:

In the folder that corresponds to yesterday's backup, for instance, the external drive "Photos Libraries" shows up. And so does the "Galaxy A50..." folder; however, the two Photos Libraries do not show up! Same thing happens when I explore the back ups through the Time Machine Finder window.

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Answer 5

aFol Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 21, 2021 1:30 PM in response to TonyCollinet

Hello TonyCollinet.

Thanks for your answer.

The HDD shows up. NOT the Photo Libraries inside it, though. It backups the drive and the rest of the files inside, but not the Photos Libraries.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

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How to back up with Time Machine external drives where Photos Libraries are located

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