Backing up 15,000 photos from Mac Photos: I have El Capitan 10.11.6 on a Mac. My photos have how grown to over 13,000. I back up regularly on Time Machine the whole computer but would...

taj334 Loc: Long Island

I have El Capitan 10.11.6 on a Mac. My photos have how grown to over 13,000. I back up regularly on Time Machine the whole computer but would like to back up just my Photos App and store it off site. What is the best way to do this? My storage says photos take up 153 GB, but that seems like a lot for 13,000 pictures. Any suggestions or advice would be welcomed. Thanks.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I'd suggest checking out backblaze. They are exceptionally reasonable, no upload or storage limits, runs in the backgound.
--Bob

taj334 wrote:

I have El Capitan 10.11.6 on a Mac. My photos have how grown to over 13,000. I back up regularly on Time Machine the whole computer but would like to back up just my Photos App and store it off site. What is the best way to do this? My storage says photos take up 153 GB, but that seems like a lot for 13,000 pictures. Any suggestions or advice would be welcomed. Thanks.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

taj334 wrote:

I have El Capitan 10.11.6 on a Mac. My photos have how grown to over 13,000. I back up regularly on Time Machine the whole computer but would like to back up just my Photos App and store it off site. What is the best way to do this? My storage says photos take up 153 GB, but that seems like a lot for 13,000 pictures. Any suggestions or advice would be welcomed. Thanks.

153GB is not unreasonable for 13,000 photos depending on the format. I would suggest a cloud solution using a well known and reliable provider such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft or Apple (compare prices and terms) provided you have decent internet access speed. Remember that the original "seeding" will take awhile depending on your upload speed (could be weeks), but subsequent updates will be much faster. You will certainly get other suggestions and some vociferous opposition to "the cloud", but the facts are that if you pick a mainstream cloud provider such as those I mentioned above, you'll get professional quality hardware, professional administration and DR copies at multiple geographic locations - reliability and availability that you'd be hard pressed to duplicate locally.

taj334 Loc: Long Island

TriX wrote:

153GB is not unreasonable for 13,000 photos depend... (show quote)

Thanks for the input TriX. Maybe I'm making "much ado about nothing". Right now I pay Apple $2.99/month for the iCloud. I do it so I can bring up my photos on my iPad and iPhone. Are you saying that this is another form of backup in case everything I have is destroyed? That would be a good thing.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

taj334 wrote:

I have El Capitan 10.11.6 on a Mac. My photos have how grown to over 13,000. I back up regularly on Time Machine the whole computer but would like to back up just my Photos App and store it off site. What is the best way to do this? My storage says photos take up 153 GB, but that seems like a lot for 13,000 pictures. Any suggestions or advice would be welcomed. Thanks.

Apple has an iCloud back-up for Photos. I don't know the cost off hand but you could check with Apple to find out.

taj334 Loc: Long Island

rmalarz wrote:

I'd suggest checking out backblaze. They are exceptionally reasonable, no upload or storage limits, runs in the backgound.
--Bob

Thank you for your comments. I looked at the website and the prices seem reasonable. Would this be in addition then to the iCloud? I guess I really don't know "clouds" at all.

taj334 Loc: Long Island

Mac wrote:

Apple has an iCloud back-up for Photos. I don't know the cost off hand but you could check with Apple to find out.

Thanks Mac. I'm going to check this out. I may not have to do anything. (Except lose some paranoia).

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

taj334 wrote:

Thanks Mac. I'm going to check this out. I may not have to do anything. (Except lose some paranoia).

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

taj334 wrote:

Thanks for the input TriX. Maybe I'm making "much ado about nothing". Right now I pay Apple $2.99/month for the iCloud. I do it so I can bring up my photos on my iPad and iPhone. Are you saying that this is another form of backup in case everything I have is destroyed? That would be a good thing.

Yes. You can purchase ICloud storage of the appropriate amount and back up the folder of your choice to ICloud (in addition to the IPad/IPhone backup you're using now).

taj334 Loc: Long Island

TriX wrote:

Yes. You can purchase ICloud storage of the appropriate amount and back up the folder of your choice to ICloud (in addition to the IPad/IPhone backup you're using now).

Thanks TriX. Sometimes I think I create problems out of nowhere. But, when you think of all the work that goes into taking and processing our pictures, it's good to know they are safe, just in case. I have not "backed up any folder", but I think the Cloud does it for me on a regular basis. Thanks again for your input.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

taj334 wrote:

Thanks TriX. Sometimes I think I create problems out of nowhere. But, when you think of all the work that goes into taking and processing our pictures, it's good to know they are safe, just in case. I have not "backed up any folder", but I think the Cloud does it for me on a regular basis. Thanks again for your input.

You're welcome. The most important thing, whether you use the cloud or some other method, is to keep multiple copies with one at a different physical location from your primary storage.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

rmalarz wrote:

I'd suggest checking out backblaze. They are exceptionally reasonable, no upload or storage limits, runs in the backgound.
--Bob

BackBlaze is also good as a reference and learning site. They publish occasional failure reports on their thousands of disk drives.

RPSteiner

taj334 wrote:

Thank you for your comments. I looked at the website and the prices seem reasonable. Would this be in addition then to the iCloud? I guess I really don't know "clouds" at all.

You've seen both sides now—local vs. cloud backup.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

taj334 wrote:

I really don't know "clouds" at all.

🎶

Bob Boner

I backup to hard drives. Not sure I trust the cloud. Hard drives are relatively cheap. I have 3 copies of everything--one on site, one in my wife's office, and one at my son's house. I learned the hard way that 2 backups are not enough. If you use the cloud, I would recommend at least one backup on a hard drive.