I'm conscious of the fact that my ever-growing photo library occupies space on my iCloud account. Plus my Photos app has zillions of photos in it and I'd like to reduce that to a more manageable number. In the past I backed up my photo library to a DVD or CD. Can I still do this, and if so, how?
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15
Apple recommended to store iPhoto Libraries on CDs and DVDs, but it is not possible for Photos Libraries.
At least , we cannot browse a Photos Library on a DVD or CD or any read-only volume. It needs to be on a volume that can be written.
Photos is writing to a Photos Library, as soon as we open it to access it. That is why it is so difficult to share libraries between users.
If it is small enough, simply drag the library to the CD/DVD:
Create a burn folder to hold files to burn to a CD or DVD on Mac - Apple Support (KZ)
I advise getting an external SSD (or hard drive), instead of backing up to optical media, it won’t fit that much media, and it isn’t the best way to store files longer term.
Hi
Bear in mind writable optical media is not a very reliable form of long term storage. You should at least have antother backup of any data on a hard drive or something else that is more robust.
Also bear in mind - if you remove the data from your Mac, then you only have one copy - that is not a backup.
+1
I was just answering the question.
I currently have 4 copies of my Photos library:
One on the computer
One in my Time machine backup
One on my Clone
One on a separate SSD with only the last two library backups.
The only flaw in this brilliant plan is that they are all basically in one location and are susceptible to fire or theft. I haven't gone so far as Yer_Man and keep one in the trunk of my car. If I did not work in a super-high security area, I would leave one at work.
Hi, well it all looked OK to begin with. I created a Burn folder and clicked 'Burn" like it said. Then a small progress window opened up saying it was burning. That then closed and a finder window opened, but no icon of the DVD on my desktop. The DVD drive is whirring like crazy, and this icon shows in the finder, but it doesn't look like a DVD, still looks like the burn folder, only with a locked icon in the corner. What's going on in the drive, any ideas? If I right click on that icon it doesn't give to option to 'eject,' only to 'move to bin.' Sound like my DVD drive is stuck in some way.
If it can take up to an hour (and my library is around 4gb) shouldn't there at least be some indication in the finder of the ongoing process, like a progress bar or something? On screen there was nothing, just the whirr of the drive, which sounded like it was stuck. Should I try again and simply leave it going for an hour or more and then see if a completion window comes up?
Ha! Trunk of the car is a good idea. I've been taking a copy to my Father in Law's house.
And I have that and a further copy across town in a relative's house.
For the record: the local back ups are daily. The online back up is daily. The car back up is more "after a big job has been done" and the across town one is two/three times a year depending.
I don't know that I have seen that before. It may take an hour or so to write a large file to the DVD, Is your library less than 5 GB?
Ha! Trunk of the car is a good idea. I've been taking a copy to my Father in Law's house.
Backing up photos to CD/DVD-R
