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

[Makisupa Policeman]

OP if you use Carbon Copy Cloner to back up your Mac, there is a preference to download cloud-only files when performing a backup. Theoretically (as a rule of thumb at least) your backup drive should be 2-3x larger than your internal drive so there would be more than enough space to hold your complete library in a backup. The only thing is I’m not positive how this feature handles files inside of a library—i.e. if it will actually “pull down” the cloud-only photos from iCloud Photos or if this only works for individual files and folders say in something like iCloud Drive. I haven’t tested it to be sure but it’s worth trying for yourself.

 

[Makisupa Policeman]

I'm with AlmightyKang in #26. That library is probably full of photos you don't care about mixed with a smaller subset you do. Prune it down. I've seen libraries loaded with 30 "takes" of mostly the same selfie... presumably with plans to later look through each one to pick the one best selfie... but all 30 end up being kept. Nobody should need 30 "takes" of basically the same photo. Pick the 1 or 2 best ones and dump the other 28.

If every single photo is "must keep", plow through the library picking those that you want to have as mobile (always with you) on the laptop and create a new, much smaller Photos library for them. Move the original library out to external storage. Then you'll have "the best of them" always with you and using very little space and access to the bigger library should you ever need the ones not deemed "best."

Another option: pay up for some big cloud storage and upload all of the "not best of" photos to the cloud, so you have access to them in a pinch (when you don't have the external drive with you).

Another option: buy yourself a NAS like Synology and, among many other uses, set up your own cloud on it for the same benefit just referenced, MINUS the cloud space rental fee.

Another option: if none of the above work, drop the seduction of the "good deal" and buy the amount of storage you need to have ALL of them with you on an internal.

If you do prune your photos I might recommend investing in a duplicate photo finding app like PhotoSweeper (cheaper) or the all mighty Power Photos (pricier but well worth the investment imho) and let the app do the pruning work for you. You can set tolerances for similar looking photos too. There’s also of course the Duplicates album in Photos if you’re running Ventura/iOS 16 or later.

 

[gugy]

I had my Photos library and Music in my Synology NAS. What I noticed is that I can't import my iPhone photos into Photos. I read that Photos library cannot work over a network drive.
My current plan is to get an external drive and put my photos/Music libraries there and have my Synology to be an extra backup source. BTW, which Synology backup strategy do you recommend for Macs?(I'm considering Active Business Backup). I also have another external drive handling Time Machine.

 

[Makisupa Policeman]

I had my Photos library and Music in my Synology NAS. What I noticed is that I can't import my iPhone photos into Photos. I read that Photos library cannot work over a network drive.
My current plan is to get an external drive and put my photos/Music libraries there and have my Synology to be an extra backup source. BTW, which Synology backup strategy do you recommend for Macs?(I'm considering Active Business Backup). I also have another external drive handling Time Machine.

Yep, Apple library files (Photos, Music, etc) typically won’t work on NAS devices. Something to do with the nature of it being a package file (or essentially hundreds or even thousands of files within a file) doesn’t play nicely with any file system outside of HFS or the proprietary APFS. That’s why I had to reconsider NAS as a storage solution and would probably only use it as a backup location or to host something like a Plex library instead.

 

[gugy]

Yep, Apple library files (Photos, Music, etc) typically won’t work on NAS devices. Something to do with the nature of it being a package file (or essentially hundreds or even thousands of files within a file) doesn’t play nicely with any file system outside of HFS or the proprietary APFS. That’s why I had to reconsider NAS as a storage solution and would probably only use it as a backup location or to host something like a Plex library instead.

Thanks,
Yes, I was disappointed as well because I was expecting to centralize my libraries on the NAS. Also, after speaking with tech support at Synology, they did say that Time Machine has many issues, specially changing IP addresses and not being recognized by my Mac.
If I knew this, I would probably just go for a DAS solution. Now, I'm just trying to make sure I can still have my NAS for Plex and backup as you suggested or worst case sell it. Bummer.

 

[chown33]

Yep, Apple library files (Photos, Music, etc) typically won’t work on NAS devices. Something to do with the nature of it being a package file (or essentially hundreds or even thousands of files within a file) doesn’t play nicely with any file system outside of HFS or the proprietary APFS. That’s why I had to reconsider NAS as a storage solution and would probably only use it as a backup location or to host something like a Plex library instead.

A disk-image on the NAS, in APFS or other Mac-specific FS, might work.

I'd pick "sparse bundle", because of how it uses band-files.

 

[Tagbert]

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.

If you don't have enough on device storage for your main photo library, you can still access your photos when on the road using iCloud.com.

You might be best getting an external SSD, splitting your photo library into a current library and an archive library. Then you can put the archive library on the external SSD. Your system photo library would still be on your device. The one downside here is that the archive library would not be synchronized with iCloud and you would not be able to access it. There are compromises with any way to handle large numbers of photos unless you have enough local storage.

SD cards are slow and not reliable enough for frequent updates to really trust your photo library to them.

As someone mentioned, if you have a lot of videos and don't need frequent access to them, it might make sense to export those to an external drive and remove the originals from your library to clear out space.

 

[palebluedot]

I am currently experimenting with advice I read on here which is create an AFPS formatted disk image on your Synology, use Automounter to mount it, and then move and point your photo library there. macOS will think it is an OK drive to use. The drawbacks I’ve read are it may lead to network congestion and of course there is always a corruption risk. But then again it is a secondary backup to iCloud and allows you to use the native app at full res.

 

[Mcrumors David]

Just get a 1TB SD card like the Sandisk. Then start a new Photo Lib on there and click "make system library" to suck down all photos.