Best way to back up photos?

[Ruffian829]

Is there an easy/best way to back up photos from iPhoto to an external HD? I was, at one point, using iPhoto librarary manager app but I've decided I no longer want to use it because I've had issues with it being buggy and not being able to load older backed up libraries due to the iPhoto version being older than the one running on my MacBook. I always had trouble updating the version on my external HD at that point to allow it to load properly (among some other issues). But I liked how it kept the iPhoto data, metadata, events, etc.

What I want is to be able to easily back up my photos onto the hard drive in some sort of organized fashion without losing the data that contains the date the photo was taken. I've exported a lot of photos using the iPhoto "export" option directly to a folder in the hard drive but when they transfer over they are a jumbled mess with no way to sort by date and no way, that I can see, to find the date the photo was taken / created. All the dates simply reflect the date I exported the photos.

Any suggestions?

 

[pdaholic]

Yeah I really hope the next iteration of iPhoto is better. I'm sure apple will take the stance that if your photos are on iCloud drive then they are as good as being backed-up. #

 

[fotomarc]

Best way to back up photos?

Get an external drive twice the size of your Mac, turn on TimeMachine and everything (not just iPhoto) gets backed up effortlessly. I bought a TimeCapsule, which also works as a WiFi for the rest of the house.

 

[Fishrrman]

My suggestion:

External drive (or USB3/SATA dock with a bare drive or two), and CarbonCopyCloner.

Results:

Complete backup, fully bootable.

 

[Ruffian829]

Get an external drive twice the size of your Mac, turn on TimeMachine and everything (not just iPhoto) gets backed up effortlessly. I bought a TimeCapsule, which also works as a WiFi for the rest of the house.

But the thing is I want to store photos on the external HD and delete them off the internal HD. I was told (albeit) a long time ago that time machine back up isn't ideal for that type of storage. I think you actually replied to another thread of mine asking about iPhoto being slow due to having too many photos- this is why I'm trying to dump some on a HD and then just delete them off the MacBook.

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My suggestion:

External drive (or USB3/SATA dock with a bare drive or two), and CarbonCopyCloner.

Results:

Complete backup, fully bootable.

But... I just want to put photos on the HD and then be able to delete them off the MacBook. I don't need nor want anything completely bootable. I don't use my MacBook enough to need it, all my important docs are in Dropbox, I just want to save and protect the photos. I don't want them tethered to a Mac platform or computer incase anything happens - I just want them backed up and stored simply, original quality/resolution, but with some kind of data that allows me to see the date they were taken and everything.

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Yeah I really hope the next iteration of iPhoto is better. I'm sure apple will take the stance that if your photos are on iCloud drive then they are as good as being backed-up. #

The last thing I want to do is to "back up" to iCloud. I hate the way Apple is moving in that direction for photos.

 

[Fishrrman]

In order to be "safely stored", the photos (all of them) need to be saved at AT LEAST TWO different locations (or drives).

ONE DRIVE IS NOT ENOUGH, if you value those pics.
Lose that drive, and.....?

I suggested a CarbonCopyCloner backup because if you create that from the MacBook (which currently has all the photos, right?), you will then satisfy the criteria above.

Aside from that, a CCC backup clone is remarkably easy to create and maintain.
It's so simple, even -I- can do it!

 

[Ruffian829]

In order to be "safely stored", the photos (all of them) need to be saved at AT LEAST TWO different locations (or drives).

ONE DRIVE IS NOT ENOUGH, if you value those pics.
Lose that drive, and.....?

I suggested a CarbonCopyCloner backup because if you create that from the MacBook (which currently has all the photos, right?), you will then satisfy the criteria above.

Aside from that, a CCC backup clone is remarkably easy to create and maintain.
It's so simple, even -I- can do it!

I'm not really interested in backing up the whole MacBook. What would happen if I backup and then delete photos off the MacBook and then I backup again later? Will it overwrite the previous backup that contained those photos? Will there be any way to solely back up the photos? I'm not looking for it just to be a backup more like storage. Id like to keep photos on the external HD and not on the MacBook itself.

I also backup to private picasa web albums. Plus the hard drive. Plus they are on my MacBook.

 

[fotomarc]

Best way to back up photos?

It's always best to have at least two backups! You only learn the hard way when you loose them all!

Otherwise select all your photos in iPhoto and export to where ever you want and use something like Lightroom to edit and see what you have. (Command + A, then File Export).

I don't think storing photos on an external drive will speed up your Mac, if that is the only reason.

 

[Julien]

But the thing is I want to store photos on the external HD and delete them off the internal HD. I was told (albeit) a long time ago that time machine back up isn't ideal for that type of storage. I think you actually replied to another thread of mine asking about iPhoto being slow due to having too many photos- this is why I'm trying to dump some on a HD and then just delete them off the MacBook.....

Then you are MOVING them and NOT backing them up. Without at least a couple of backups (yes even 1 is not enough) you will in all likelihood lose your photos (and all other data) permanently at some point.

 

[Ruffian829]

It's always best to have at least two backups! You only learn the hard way when you loose them all!

Otherwise select all your photos in iPhoto and export to where ever you want and use something like Lightroom to edit and see what you have. (Command + A, then File Export).

I don't think storing photos on an external drive will speed up your Mac, if that is the only reason.

I posted above that I also back up to a paid cloud service (picasa) that works well for me.

I tried exporting the photos to the hard drive but they didn't move with the data that includes the date they were taken on. I really want to keep the dates they were taken on.

I feel like I need to do something because iPhoto is sooooo slow. I think I just have too many photos on it, a lot are old and I'm fine putting them on an external HD and taking them off the Mac.

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Then you are MOVING them and NOT backing them up. Without at least a couple of backups (yes even 1 is not enough) you will in all likelihood lose your photos (and all other data) permanently at some point.

Moving might be a better term, yes.

I keep them on the external hard drive and on a cloud service. I'll consider getting an additional hard drive and "backing up" again onto that, but that doesn't really solve the issue I came here to ask about...

 

[andyd409]

Is there an easy/best way to back up photos

Any suggestions?

I do not import my photos directly into iPhoto, only some make it to iPhoto. I import my photos to folder groups for my organization.

I have an external drive for storage of most of my photos and video. I set that drive in my Time Machine backup list AND I also backup that drive to another drive, so I have at least 3 copies of my photos -- 1 on the photos drive, 1 on the Time Machine drive and 1 on a photos backup drive.

So, the external drive is my primary storage for my photos and the extra drive and Time Machine are backups. Also some photos are saved in iPhoto.

IHTH

 

[fotomarc]

I feel like I need to do something because iPhoto is sooooo slow. I think I just have too many photos on it, a lot are old and I'm fine putting them on an external HD and taking them off the Mac.

I use iPhoto and it runs perfectly with thousands of photos. I think you should look at upgrading your Mac to something faster. Use TimeMachine to backup and look at moving on.

 

[jastanle84]

Sounds good to me.

I use iPhoto and it runs perfectly with thousands of photos. I think you should look at upgrading your Mac to something faster. Use TimeMachine to backup and look at moving on.

I bought a new MacBook Pro in February and I also invested in a WD MyCloud to back up my whole Mac with Time Machine with every other device, including Windows device and mobile devices. Everything works great and speed of loading iPhoto is super fast. My Mac took a crash last March and I got a new one. Restored from Time Machine on the WD MyCloud just fine, didn't loose a thing. Just some suggestions.

 

[VI™]

But the thing is I want to store photos on the external HD and delete them off the internal HD. I was told (albeit) a long time ago that time machine back up isn't ideal for that type of storage. I think you actually replied to another thread of mine asking about iPhoto being slow due to having too many photos- this is why I'm trying to dump some on a HD and then just delete them off the MacBook.

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But... I just want to put photos on the HD and then be able to delete them off the MacBook. I don't need nor want anything completely bootable. I don't use my MacBook enough to need it, all my important docs are in Dropbox, I just want to save and protect the photos. I don't want them tethered to a Mac platform or computer incase anything happens - I just want them backed up and stored simply, original quality/resolution, but with some kind of data that allows me to see the date they were taken and everything.

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The last thing I want to do is to "back up" to iCloud. I hate the way Apple is moving in that direction for photos.

If you're going to store photos on an external HDD, then to have an actual backup, you may look at using a cloud based service. Flickr or some other photo sharing service may be an option. But, as professional photographer and publications have learned in the past, even online sharing and backup services can go belly up and can end up swallowing up what you've determined was your backup.

Best practice is to have another HDD you make incremental back ups to and store off site at a friend's, relatives', lock box, etc...

It really depends on how important these photos are to you.

 

[Ruffian829]

I use iPhoto and it runs perfectly with thousands of photos. I think you should look at upgrading your Mac to something faster. Use TimeMachine to backup and look at moving on.

Uh yea because that makes sense to solve my question on moving photos from iPhoto to an external hard drive? Spending well over a thousand dollars to solve this is a ridiculous solution. The MacBook Pro is two years old. I'm not looking to replace it.

When you say "thousands of photos" are you talking 15-20k? Or just a few thousand? Because there is a difference.

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If you're going to store photos on an external HDD, then to have an actual backup, you may look at using a cloud based service. Flickr or some other photo sharing service may be an option. But, as professional photographer and publications have learned in the past, even online sharing and backup services can go belly up and can end up swallowing up what you've determined was your backup.

Best practice is to have another HDD you make incremental back ups to and store off site at a friend's, relatives', lock box, etc...

It really depends on how important these photos are to you.

I mentioned in another comment that I do use a cloud based service. I was actually hoping to move from that service (picasa) to a new one (zenfolio) but there was no way to easily transfer the photos from one to the other (they recommend using urban junction which apparently isn't working at all anymore).

Like I said above, I'll consider also backing up the hard drive but really, the chances of both the hard drive and the cloud service failing at the same time is very remote.

All I really want to know is how to move photos out of iPhoto onto the hard drive WITH the metadata that includes the date they were taken so I can easily sort them on the HD and see when they were taken.

 

[jastanle84]

Uh yea because that makes sense to solve my question on moving photos from iPhoto to an external hard drive? Spending well over a thousand dollars to solve this is a ridiculous solution. The MacBook Pro is two years old. I'm not looking to replace it.

When you say "thousands of photos" are you talking 15-20k? Or just a few thousand? Because there is a difference.

Your right, I only have a few thousand photos, so if you have more photos than that then you should, rightfully, experience lag issues. Not sure why you don't just buy a hard drive that is Time Machine compliant and do regular scheduled backups like that. That would solve your metadata issue, too. I just suggested the WD MyCloud solution because it is Time Machine compliant, inexpensive, and just as good or better than Time Capsule.

 

[MacInTO]

Is there an easy/best way to back up photos from iPhoto to an external HD? I was, at one point, using iPhoto librarary manager app but I've decided I no longer want to use it because I've had issues with it being buggy and not being able to load older backed up libraries due to the iPhoto version being older than the one running on my MacBook. I always had trouble updating the version on my external HD at that point to allow it to load properly (among some other issues). But I liked how it kept the iPhoto data, metadata, events, etc.

What I want is to be able to easily back up my photos onto the hard drive in some sort of organized fashion without losing the data that contains the date the photo was taken. I've exported a lot of photos using the iPhoto "export" option directly to a folder in the hard drive but when they transfer over they are a jumbled mess with no way to sort by date and no way, that I can see, to find the date the photo was taken / created. All the dates simply reflect the date I exported the photos.

Any suggestions?

I'm not sure how iPhoto works, but I use Aperture. My Aperture library is on my SSD, but my referenced image files are on external drives. I sort them with directories, by Year, Month and project that start with the date with the format (20141118 Project Name). This keeps things organized for me.

I can view the images on Aperture without plugging in the hard drive. However, if I want to do any work on a specific image, I need to plug the hard drive.

I also have a separate external drive for each year and backups of that also.

I've been doing this for almost ten years and it works for me.

 

[satcomer]

Like others have said Carbon Copy Cloner with an external.

However if you want a backup if just pictures then look at SyncTwoFolders for Mac to an external.

 

[Ruffian829]

Your right, I only have a few thousand photos, so if you have more photos than that then you should, rightfully, experience lag issues. Not sure why you don't just buy a hard drive that is Time Machine compliant and do regular scheduled backups like that. That would solve your metadata issue, too. I just suggested the WD MyCloud solution because it is Time Machine compliant, inexpensive, and just as good or better than Time Capsule.

How would time machine solve my problem? It's my understanding that backing up via time machine won't let me then go and delete photos from iPhoto to free up space/lag.

For example I'd like to keep the past 12 months of photos on my MacBook and the rest on an external hard drive. Can time machine do that for me? I was told here that it wouldn't (because it's not made to move/store files on an external just "back up" the whole system).

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I'm not sure how iPhoto works, but I use Aperture. My Aperture library is on my SSD, but my referenced image files are on external drives. I sort them with directories, by Year, Month and project that start with the date with the format (20141118 Project Name). This keeps things organized for me.

I can view the images on Aperture without plugging in the hard drive. However, if I want to do any work on a specific image, I need to plug the hard drive.

I also have a separate external drive for each year and backups of that also.

I've been doing this for almost ten years and it works for me.

This sounds like what I want to do... Could you give me more details on how to set this up? I take it SSD is the internal hard drive? Do I use apweature to move the photos to the external?

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Like others have said Carbon Copy Cloner with an external.

However if you want a backup if just pictures then look at SyncTwoFolders for Mac to an external.

Thank you, I'll look into these. I really just want to move some of the photos off the MacBook onto an external, and not lose the file data like when the photo was taken.