Assuming that you aren't using referenced files, will copying & pasting the "Photos Library.photoslibrary" packet to an external hard drive backup all of my pics in Photos? If I open this file on another computer, will I be able to access my pics?
MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)
Assuming that you aren't using referenced files, will copying & pasting the "Photos Library.photoslibrary" packet to an external hard drive backup all of my pics in Photos?
Yes, you can simply drag and drop the Photos Library to an external drive.
But make sure, that the filesystem of the drive is MacOS Extended (Journaled). Otherwise you may encounter problems with file errors. (as described here for Aperture: Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library)
And enable the "Ignore Ownership on this volume" flag for the external drive, if you want to open the library from a different Mac.
If I open this file on another computer, will I be able to access my pics?
Yes, if the other mac has the same version of MacOS X installed. The Photos versions need to be the same.
Are you using iCloud Photo Library? In that case it will depend on your preferences for "Optimize Mac Storage". With Optimize Mac Storage" active your original photos will be in iCloud and not on your Mac and not copy over to the external drive. Then you will have to disable Optimize Mac Storage" and wait for your photos to download before you copy the library.
I did this recently - I copied and pasted the library from my home folder.
The size is the same on my external hard drive and sits with the rainbow flower icon on it. Is that correct? (All photos/videos are stored locally.) Pardon my intrusion here, but wondered what it should look like once it is on the EHD.
The little Flower guy correct to show on the EHD?
I will copy it over again this weekend and want it right, too!
thanks,
H
The library icon should look like this:
A fan of pictures with the rainbow flower.
The circular rainbow flower icon, without the fan of three pictures would be the Photos application icon.
Even on 10.10.5? Mine are all circles.What is the correct path to copy from?
Yay! It is a fan. Old age and memory... Thank you again for your precise help!
Cheers!
You're welcome 🙂
léonie, in your answer to my first question, you said to "enable the 'Ignore Ownership on this volume' flag for the external drive, if you want to open the library from a different Mac." The problem is that my external drive is a Time Machine backup drive and it does not display this flag at the bottom of the Info box. If I make a copy of this "Photos Library.photoslibrary" packet and paste it in one of my Dropbox folders, will I be able to open this packet on another Mac from this Dropbox folder? If not, do I just need to get another external hard drive to keep a backup of this "Photos Library.photoslibrary" packet?
Also, in your answer to my second question, you said "With Optimize Mac Storage active, your original photos will be in iCloud and not on your Mac and not copy over to the external drive. Then you will have to disable Optimize Mac Storage and wait for your photos to download before you copy the library." But even if have selected Optimize Mac Storage, shouldn't all of the photo files be stored on my Mac as long as I have sufficient storage space on my Mac's hard drive?
Thanks so much léonie!!! I really appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions for me.
Photos will not open the library at all, if it is on a Time Machine drive.
If I make a copy of this "Photos Library.photoslibrary" packet and paste it in one of my Dropbox folders, will I be able to open this packet on another Mac from this Dropbox folder?
And a library will not work in a dropbox folder either. Dropbox syncing is corrupting the internal databases.
Getting yourself a second drive will be the best option. This way, you can backup the library to your Time Machine drive.
léonie, just so I am clear, how would backing up my "Photos Library.photoslibrary" packet to another external hard drive backup my Photos library to my Time Machine drive (because I thought you said that Photos will not open the library at all if it is on a Time Machine drive)? And why would I want to back it up to a Time Machine drive if Photos can't open the library from a Time Machine drive?
A copy of your Photos library on an external drive will give you copy that you can open directly on that drive, and it will be a fully working security copy. You can also open it on a different computer.
For your photos it will be safer to have two backups. If you are running Time Machine on a regular basis, it will also include the Photos Library on your internal drive. If you ever need to go back in time to access an older version of your Photos Library, you can do that from your Time Machine backup.
The difference between a Time Machine backup and a copy of te library on an external drive is, that the Time Machine backup is incremental. It will always just write the changes to the last version, which is quicker and let's you go bac in time to older backups. But you cannot use the library from the backup directly, you have to run Time Machine and restore the library, so you can access the version from Time Machine. A copy of the library is always ready to use.
iCloud Photo Library Backup to External Hard Drive
