How to backup Photos library when not enough space on Mac for originals

[InfoTime]

My current and previous Mac laptops have had 1TB storage. I have an opportunity to upgrade to a newer model at a really good deal that is only 512GB.

My Photos library is about 286GB. No problem with a 1TB laptop. But, if I drop down to a 512GB model it would be a little too tight.

One way to work around this would be to keep a dedicated Mac somewhere with enough storage to keep the full library so I can back it up. Or, spare Windows machine or Synology NAS (I have both) but I'm not aware of a clean solution for that.

Another possibility would be an SD card installed on the new MacBook Pro M3 Pro 14". I know there are SD cards that are made to sit flush and more or less permanent in the machine. Only looked briefly to see if those are available.

What do you all think of those options?

Is there a better option?

Yes, I should probably buy the next Mac with enough storage, but trust me when I say this is a great price, worth the added hoops to jump through.

 

[mmkerc]

Realizing that you are using a laptop but you could consider a USB-C external hard drive. I personally like the Samsung T# drives as they are small ~3 credit card size, SSD, and can handle being dropped. But there are many other good portable drives.

 

[InfoTime]

Good thought, but this is a laptop and during the day it goes lots of places, in and out of my bag several times a day. So maybe a memory card that is flush with the system so it's like it's built in, or another system at home.

 

[mmkerc]

I figured as much, but made the suggestion as I gave my team the Samsung T5 1 TB drive and they never had an issue with using the drives. They are very small, light weight, and durable. My team carried their laptops all over campus, and outside locations. No one had an issue and a few of them never unplugged the drive from their computers (which is how I know the drives can handle being dropped🙂). That said, your other two solutions I am sure would work fine as well.

 

[InfoTime]

Looks like they do make a 1TB card for about $100. Pretty excited at first, looks like a perfect solution. Until... multiple reviewers says that theirs failed after 3 months, 8 months, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-JetDrive-Expansion-MacBook-TS1TJDL330

Don't know if another company makes one or not, but I don't want the hassle of a drive failing like that.

Guess that leaves my possibilities at:
Another Mac running at home (a few old ones lying around that might work)
Windows system (already have)
Synology system (already have)

 

[jz0309]

Looks like they do make a 1TB card for about $100. Pretty excited at first, looks like a perfect solution. Until... multiple reviewers says that theirs failed after 3 months, 8 months, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-JetDrive-Expansion-MacBook-TS1TJDL330

Don't know if another company makes one or not, but I don't want the hassle of a drive failing like that.

Guess that leaves my possibilities at:
Another Mac running at home (a few old ones lying around that might work)
Windows system (already have)
Synology system (already have)

if you are considering another Mac/computer for your photo library I guess you don't need access to the photos at all times? in which case I'd suggest an external USB-C like Samsung T7.
The other downfall of the "flush" ones - they'll be slooow.

Personally, I would forego the savings for the hassle ...

 

[mmkerc]

Understand your concern, but my team has 7, and I have 2 T5s, and 1 T7 that I have had for 3-5 years and none have failed or had issues. From your comments I would likely just use the other Mac.

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-8Hdmw...wug=&msclkid=bf4f7c17e9931c43010a198a3f55077b.

 

[NoBoMac]

if you are considering another Mac/computer for your photo library I guess you don't need access to the photos at all times? in which case I'd suggest an external USB-C like Samsung T7.
The other downfall of the "flush" ones - they'll be slooow.

Personally, I would forego the savings for the hassle ...

This. And what I do, since don't need Photos available all the time.

I keep my T7 in my accessories sleeve and plug it in when needed.

Understand your concern, but my team has 7, and I have 2 T5s, and 1 T7 that I have had for 3-5 years and none have failed or had issues. From your comments I would likely just use the other Mac.

And this. I've had a T5 for 5.5 years and not lick of trouble.

And I also have a Lexar SSD that I keep my VMs on along with backups of some other data. Also been no issues with this drive (4 years).

 

[codeunrwolfpack]

My current and previous Mac laptops have had 1TB storage. I have an opportunity to upgrade to a newer model at a really good deal that is only 512GB.

My Photos library is about 286GB. No problem with a 1TB laptop. But, if I drop down to a 512GB model it would be a little too tight.

One way to work around this would be to keep a dedicated Mac somewhere with enough storage to keep the full library so I can back it up. Or, spare Windows machine or Synology NAS (I have both) but I'm not aware of a clean solution for that.

Another possibility would be an SD card installed on the new MacBook Pro M3 Pro 14". I know there are SD cards that are made to sit flush and more or less permanent in the machine. Only looked briefly to see if those are available.

What do you all think of those options?

Is there a better option?

Yes, I should probably buy the next Mac with enough storage, but trust me when I say this is a great price, worth the added hoops to jump through.

I just got a Synology NAS, and I downloaded Synology Photos on my NAS and my iPhone. I use that to backup my iCloud photo library to my Synology NAS. You can launch the Synology Photos app on your iPhone and then backup everything on your iPhone, which I assume should mirror your Mac, onto the NAS.

 

[smirking]

Photos does a lot of writing inside the library file so if you store the Photos library file on an SD card, it's going to be painful. I've stored photo catalogs on external SSDs and found very little performance loss.

If you want an SSD that's maximally portable, get a Sandisk Extreme. Those are small and wafer light. I've got one of those Samsung rugged T series as well. The T7 is more of a hassle to tote around.

Another option is to see if you can thin down your Photos library. No I don't mean purging photos (but that's not a bad idea). If you've had the same library file going all the way back to when it was called iPhoto, you may still have obsolete versions of past libraries inside your current library. I discovered this to be my case when I was astonished that my minimal Photos catalog was weighing in at 80GB. I used to work in iPhoto/Photos a lot more and lots of my since deleted data was still stored in backups of past libraries inside the main catalog.

 

[InfoTime]

Thanks for all of the participation so far.

Looks like an internal SD card storage is out. Also, I don't see any way an external SSD like the ones recommended could work. I get they work great, I've got a few myself and love them. But I don't want to find myself out in the field and needing to grab a photo from my library but can't, or worse cause issues because the library isn't there.

 

[smirking]

You could also break your Photos up into multiple libraries and store your primary library directly on the device and have your archive library on the SSD drive that may or may not always be available.

Are you storing your videos in your Photos? You could offload those and store those outside of your Library to thin the size down a lot.

 

[InfoTime]

One possibility here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/synology/comments/10hw71g
I just got a decent Synology so have the resources to run this. Mentioned in about the third post in the link above.

 

[jz0309]

One possibility here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/synology/comments/10hw71g
I just got a decent Synology so have the resources to run this. Mentioned in about the third post in the link above.

I am missing something I think, in your previous post you say “ But I don't want to find myself out in the field and needing to grab a photo from my library” and now you’re talking about a NAS, how does that help? I’m confused…

 

[flynz4]

Thanks for all of the participation so far.

Looks like an internal SD card storage is out. Also, I don't see any way an external SSD like the ones recommended could work. I get they work great, I've got a few myself and love them. But I don't want to find myself out in the field and needing to grab a photo from my library but can't, or worse cause issues because the library isn't there.

I think the very best solution is to have a machine that is large enough to hold all of your data. Ideally a Mac so that everything syncs nicely. Once everything is syncing to that machine, you can back it up locally and to the cloud. Your data is now protected.

You could still have your entire photo library on other machines like a laptop, iPad, phone, or whatever. All of your originals would not be there, but the device specific copies would likely be fine. If you have an internet connection, you could even edit originals on demand.

It really doesn’t matter if that machine with all your originals has an SSD or HDD.

Bottom line: having a machine which is synced to everything, and is set to download everythin, gives you what you need to build a robust backup system.

 

[NoBoMac]

I think the very best solution is to have a machine that is large enough to hold all of your data.

So much this, because…

this is a great price, worth the added hoops to jump through.

It seems like wanting to use wrong tool for the job to save money and not really want to jump through hoops (Read: make a sacrifice). Cake and eat it too situation, ten pounds of data into a five pound e-sack.

Or look at the problem from a different angle: is there some cruft on the machine that could stay home? Does one need ALL the movies, music, old/legacy files that have not been looked at, used in ages? Move that off to some other machine and carry around only what is REALLY needed, making more room for the photos.

 

[boss.king]

If you don't want to manage an external drive (remembering to plug in, etc) then a NAS might be good. You can build your own or get a Synology or similar.

Otherwise, there's always cloud storage, which give you the added benefit of then also being able to have everything on your other device as well. It's an ongoing cost, but could be worth it depending on how much you actually need.

 

[henrikhelmers]

What do you all think of those options?

Is there a better option?

I think there are no good workarounds. My preferred solution would be if Apple offered a local backup of iCloud data. Even manual backups would offer enough disaster relief for my use case.

So the only choice is buying enough storage to keep the library local now and in future.

 

[InfoTime]

I am missing something I think, in your previous post you say “ But I don't want to find myself out in the field and needing to grab a photo from my library” and now you’re talking about a NAS, how does that help? I’m confused…

Right now I have one Mac and it's got enough storage to hold a full copy of my Photos library. I back that up to an external Time Machine drive.

If I buy this other machine I'd not have enough room to carry the full library. I could easily carry the optimized library.

If I did that I'd need another solution. Most likely I'll just set up an old Mac Mini with a big enough drive. I've got a few lying around that I could fix up for this.

The savings on buying this deal could pay list price for a new Mac Mini for this purpose.

If I were buying new at retail then yeah, it's only a $200 difference. I wouldn't even think about it.

 

[mmkerc]

I am lost and confused. You say you have existing un-utilized computers, and you can optimized the library to carry with your new machine, and keep the full library on one of the un-utilized computers and realize the full saving of the great deal. If you trying to use the saving to give you a more elegant system/workflow you have been given several viable options which are very reliable.

My last comment is about perspective, the mean failure rate on all products is ~3%. The people who this happens to are more likely to post the experience on the internet whereas the other ~97% will not comment on the product working like it should. So just decide what you want to do, and hope as we all do you won't be one of the 3%.

 

[TracerAnalog]

My current and previous Mac laptops have had 1TB storage. I have an opportunity to upgrade to a newer model at a really good deal that is only 512GB.

My Photos library is about 286GB. No problem with a 1TB laptop. But, if I drop down to a 512GB model it would be a little too tight.

One way to work around this would be to keep a dedicated Mac somewhere with enough storage to keep the full library so I can back it up. Or, spare Windows machine or Synology NAS (I have both) but I'm not aware of a clean solution for that.

Another possibility would be an SD card installed on the new MacBook Pro M3 Pro 14". I know there are SD cards that are made to sit flush and more or less permanent in the machine. Only looked briefly to see if those are available.

What do you all think of those options?

Is there a better option?

Yes, I should probably buy the next Mac with enough storage, but trust me when I say this is a great price, worth the added hoops to jump through.

First off, I would not store any library on my main PC, but always on an attached drive (NAS/USB). This makes transferring so much easier going forward. I have my Photos and Music also backed up in the cloud so I can access them when up and about, on any mobile device. The thumbnails work very well in iCloud, so you can quickly browse and search.

Options:
1. Time Machine (for backup) via a USB-C/Thunderbolt drive or NAS
2. Some cloud based solution for Photos/Music. I use iCloud, and I’m happy with it. Also allows for easy sharing. I’m sure Google offers similar options.
2. USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 SSD drive as the main Library drive (via settings, by far the best -and cost effective- option in my opinion)
3. MicroSD card as the library drive (too slow for large libraries, would not advise)
4. Simply buy a Mac with the maximum storage option (very expensive, but fast and convenient. You still need a backup plan 😊)

 

[TracerAnalog]

I am lost and confused. You say you have existing un-utilized computers, and you can optimized the library to carry with your new machine, and keep the full library on one of the un-utilized computers and realize the full saving of the great deal. If you trying to use the saving to give you a more elegant system/workflow you have been given several viable options which are very reliable.

My last comment is about perspective, the mean failure rate on all products is ~3%. The people who this happens to are more likely to post the experience on the internet whereas the other ~97% will not comment on the product working like it should. So just decide what you want to do, and hope as we all do you won't be one of the 3%.

30+ years of professional and personal experience has taught me one thing: all equipment fails. Never rely on a single solution, or one common point of failure. Nice example: I had a Netgear NAS up and running for 8 years when the motherboard died. No problem, buy a new NAS and transfer the disks… however, the OS and File system were proprietary and the drives were no longer supported in Netgear’s new NAS. Since the drives were encrypted, the data was lost. Luckily I had a tape backup… but the tape drive was obsolete and without drivers for Windows 7. I ended up with virtual Windows and Linux sessions and had to retrieve the data literally bit by bit…
Long story short: you need to keep your backups alive and transferable to the latest tech.

Grandpa has spoken😝

 

[BLtheP]

I might just be getting confused, but if you're out in the field and need to grab a photo, how does the larger storage machine at home holding the library help? Would the plan be to use the optimized photos in the field? (which have noticeably lesser quality)... It seems like you need to just have the storage for the entire library on the laptop you bring into the field.

Any chance you can buy this laptop for a good deal, turn around and sell it to make some money and use that to buy the one with the storage you really need? Or is this a family/friend deal where you'd feel guilty making a profit? I hate running out of storage and I have a lot of content so personally my suggestion if it were me would be to not waste time on the good deal and just buy what I really need, but I get that things are expensive and to some maybe it's worth the savings to deal with the hassle.

 

[mmkerc]

30+ years of professional and personal experience has taught me one thing: all equipment fails. Never rely on a single solution, or one common point of failure. Nice example: I had a Netgear NAS up and running for 8 years when the motherboard died. No problem, buy a new NAS and transfer the disks… however, the OS and File system were proprietary and the drives were no longer supported in Netgear’s new NAS. Since the drives were encrypted, the data was lost. Luckily I had a tape backup… but the tape drive was obsolete and without drivers for Windows 7. I ended up with virtual Windows and Linux sessions and had to retrieve the data literally bit by bit…
Long story short: you need to keep your backups alive and transferable to the latest tech.

Grandpa has spoken😝

I agree, I had a similar experience with backups stored on CD. All systems fail, and the original poster has said he backs up to Time Machine so I think this issue is not preservation of the photos, but access to them on any given day/time. My point was that worrying about a new device (SSD drive) failing is like worrying about getting in an accidents so you don't leave the house. Everyone will get into some type of an accident at some point, just like everyone will have a new device that fails prematurely at some point.

 

[weezin]

I have been thinking about this as well for myself. Here is my plan:

- On my main machine and my laptop, have my photos library sync to it and have "Optimize mac storage" option checked. This way I have access to my photos when I want them, but they won't take up all of my storage.

- Have an older Mac Mini with a 1TB drive always running that have the entire photos library file without "optimize mac storage" enabled. Backup that photos library file somewhere that I have not determined yet.

You could do the same, and have the spare Mac backup the photos library to the NAS. Seems like a fairly elegant solution.