I just learned that, since High Sierra, I cannot backup my system photos library with TimeMachine. What nonsense is this? When is it going to be repaired?
iMac, macOS High Sierra (10.13.2)
You cannot backup a Photos 3.0 Library with Time Machine, if the library is on an external drive. This is causing permission problems. It is still working for libraries on your system drive.
So it says in the Photos User guide: https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/back-up-the-photos-library-pht6d60d10f/ma c
WARNING: If a Photos library is located on an external drive, don’t back up the drive using Time Machine. The permissions for your Photos library may conflict with those for the Time Machine backup.
Sice the reason given are permission problems, it will probably suffice to set the "Ignore Ownership on this volume" flag for your external drive. But I would not risk that, so back up the library with cloning software, if your library is on an external drive, or simply copy it to another drive,
You cannot backup a Photos 3.0 Library with Time Machine, if the library is on an external drive. This is causing permission problems. It is still working for libraries on your system drive.
So it says in the Photos User guide: https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/back-up-the-photos-library-pht6d60d10f/ma c
WARNING: If a Photos library is located on an external drive, don’t back up the drive using Time Machine. The permissions for your Photos library may conflict with those for the Time Machine backup.
Sice the reason given are permission problems, it will probably suffice to set the "Ignore Ownership on this volume" flag for your external drive. But I would not risk that, so back up the library with cloning software, if your library is on an external drive, or simply copy it to another drive,
I could not believe this entry in the Photos user guide, when I first saw it. But it is stated there twice. and in the translations of the user guide in several languages.
I have seen posts, that claim it is only a typo, and the passage should actually read "Do not store your library on a Time Machine drive", which would make much more sense, but I would not risk to rely on the typo assumption.
I have seen already several posts by users, who could not restore a working version of their library from Time Machine after the High Sierra upgrade, if the photos library was on an external drive.
I made a few tests with a small test library on a USB thumbs drive and included it into my Time Machine backup. The thumbs drive has the "ignore ownership on this volume flag" set. And I could restore the library from the backup. It was working. Without "ignore Ownership" the restored library was unreadable and could not be repaired.
But as long as Apple is not giving any other explanation, I would not risk using Time Machine as the only backup for a Photos Library on an external drive. Better safe than sorry.
Is your photos Library on an external drive?
léonie:
Actually the warning says this:
WARNING: If a Photos library is located on an external drive, don’t use Time Machine to store a backup on that external drive.
You can't use the same external HD to backup with Time Machine if there's a Photos Library on that drive. You can backup to another external HD as I do so with no problem.
No you do not get it - this site is a user to user support forum and no one here can change anything - we can explain things and that has been done - only apple can change anything and they are not here - tell them your needs - Product Feedback - Apple
LN
Apple changed the text in the user guide. It is now slightly different:
Back up the Photos library on Mac - Apple Support
WARNING: If a Photos library is located on an external drive, don’t use Time Machine to store a backup on that external drive. The permissions for your Photos library may conflict with those for the Time Machine backup.
It does no longer say, that we cannot backup he drive with Time Machine, but that we must not use the drive to store Time Machine backups. That is much better!
This is the standard answer of ICT people: do not solve the problem, but explain why it is there. I need a solution for this annoying problem, that never existed before, but arose with the introduction of High Sierra. I get your explanation, but it isn’t helpful.
Dear Léonie,
Thanks for your clear explanation and for the work you put in.
I sincerely hope Apple will correct this glitch in the near future. In the meantime I will use 'ignore ownership', although I do not really like that. Yes, my Photos library is on an external disk, that was the title of my original question.
Thanks for your help, which I appreciate more than Apple's. I don't believe the disk permissions are an unsurmountable problem for an experienced programmer. Feels more like laziness. Have a nice Christmas!
Thank you. Good to hear that that works for you. But Léonie (see above) tried it to no avail. Ik stumbled upon this issue because I noticed that Photos keeps forgetting that the system library is on an external disk and treats me to 'What's new in Photos every time I start the application. That still is the case, despite rebuilding the library and resetting the program with CleanMyMac and checking the system library box multiple times. So, since High Sierra, there is an issue with the library on an external disk. More people are experiencing the back-up issue too, I found.
Merry Christmas to you too, Rene!
TimeMachine doesn't backup Photos library on external drive anymore.
