Photo library on external hard drive - can't find image files

Pearljamluvr wrote: … I know that each photo in my Photos app has an image file.

I'm not sure where you know that from, but it is not true. Photos generates an image using the original picture and adding the editing steps, comments, crops, and so on, when it shows you the picture. Before that, the image did not exist, and it still doesn't until you use File>Export>Export nn Pictures to turn the image into a file.

The original files that were imported to Photos still exist as files, and you can get them by using File>Export>Export Unmodified Originals. I'm not sure what Google does when you let it into your Photos Library-- but if it grabs the originals, then you've lost all the edits. If it takes the edited versions (I don't know how it could,) then you've lost the originals. It may just back up the Library, but then you need Photos to interpret the Library, which is fine for a backup. Yer_Man's link to Google doesn't give a clue as to what it does.

Assuming you're using the default set-up of a managed Library then the actual photographs are stored within the Photos Library package. While it is possible to access them via the Finder I strongly urge you not to as you run the risk of damaging the library and dataloss.

If you want to back up the library images to Google Photos read this:

https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6193313?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop

The Photos library is a package file, and although you can open it, it's not recommended because (a) you may end up corrupting the library, (b) it only has original (unedited) photos and videos; (c) they'll be in an unfamiliar folder / sub-folder structure with unrecognizable file names (Not organized by date or file name, as in Photos). If you're curious about what the Photos library contains and how to navigate its contents, this article provides a clear explanation. Probably the easiest way to export your Photos library to Google Photos is to request a transfer of your iCloud Photos data to Google Photos through Apple's Data and Privacy page. This will copy across all photos including metadata but exclude Live Photos, shared albums and smart albums; and the originals will also still remain in iCloud.

You might want to reconsider using Google Photos: Google Photos may be free — but there's still a cost

I'm old school and prefer to keep my own backups. I don't. know how big your Photos Library is but by exporting the photos out of your iPhotos library so you can add them to Google Photos you'll lose all of the organizational efforts you've put into it, i.e. folders, smart folder and projects.

IMO you'd be best served by getting an external SSD and using Carbon Copy Cloner to backup your working library to the external SSD. You can set CCC to backup hourly, daily or whenever it senses a change in the source library. All automatic.

I use the following setup (for budgetary reasons) to backup my important files and photos:

Just some food for thought.

Pearljamluvr wrote: … I've just been trying to manage it better.

For a backup of Photos you have 3 choices:

1. Use Carbon Copy Cloner as Old Toad suggests. It's a nice program with lots of options. There are other similar copiers, but none beat CCC.
2. I use Apple's Time Machine-- it's fast, dependable, automatic, and kinda fun. There are fewer options than CCC, but I'm happy with not having to mess with options. Since you have a MacBook like me, you may not keep your Mac plugged in on a desk all the time. When I come home, I plug my drive in to my Mac and let it go. So it makes an incremental backup every day. It's fast, since it only copies the changes. (CCC can do that, too.) And it's super cool to use. You can recreate your Mac on any date for months back. If you mess up, and then you make a backup that's also messed up-- you can still go back to the way your Mac looked last week before the mistake. Or last month. The volume with TM can't have anything else on it.
3. You can just drag the Photos Library over to an external drive. I do this maybe once a month (if I remember.) The downside is that I have to remember to do it.

Each of these backs up the Library, not individual pictures. That means that you get everything there is about the pictures, but you can't see or edit the pictures without Photos to read the Library. (In case of apocalypse, when Photos has disappeared in the destruction, the original files are still accessible from inside the Library.) With Photos, you can export the pictures you need for any purpose whenever you want. I don't keep extra copies of picture files, though I do keep originals from my Nikon cameras.

I hope this helps…

You'r welcome.